Regions: UAE AV market holds firm

AV Magazine

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The fallout from war has economically impacted UAE with a nosedive in tourism and disruption to ‘business as usual’. Yet no-one expects decades of investment, technological development, and foreign traffic to the region to contract for good.

The Iran conflict caught most people by surprise not least AV Magazine and our respondents who were some way down the route of replying to us before war broke out.

The fallout from the conflict has impacted UAE materially with drones and missiles on and economically with a nosedive in tourism. Yet no-one expects decades of huge inward investment, economic realignment and foreign traffic to the UAE to contract for good.

It can feel a little surreal, if not inappropriate, to be talking about the ‘wow factor’ of ProAV installations or luxury lifestyles for which the region is known when missiles are being fired just a few miles away.

That said, it is anticipated that this momentum is only temporarily hindered which is why contributors based in the region are taking a longer term view of prospects. The ProAV climate is judged resilient as the Emirates continue to evolve beyond oil-dependency.

United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) aspires to be join the top 20 academic institutions in Asia – and the top 200 globally – by 2030. To modernise its communication infrastructure and enrich the overall learning experience UAEU chose a suite of VITEC solutions for live streaming and digital signage across its 80-hectare campus.

Uncertain in the short-term
Calling the outlook for Emirati ProAV “generally positive” Mahesh Singh, regional sales manager, UAE, Christie says, “We are observing consistent demand for integrated AV systems across corporate, education, hospitality, events and retail. However, it’s important to acknowledge that ongoing political uncertainty in the region could affect business operations in general.”

“Despite the current uncertainty in the region, the ProAV climate in the UAE is extremely dynamic,” says Al Tikriti, chief product and technology officer, Disguise.
As of early 2026, the market continued to see momentum driven by increased AV-over-IP deployments, more European and U.S.-centric manufacturers and solution providers enhancing their MEA (Middle East Africa) presence, and growing expertise within the Pro AV system integrator community.

“Post-pandemic recovery, tourism rebound, and continued diversification away from oil have created steady demand for high-end integrated systems across government, corporate, hospitality, education and entertainment sectors,” reports Johnny Hickman, sales account manager, Matrox. “Looking ahead, the UAE’s long-term development strategies, smart city initiatives, control room infrastructure, corporate expansion, and major events are expected to support continued demand for AV.”

Singh identifies the UAE’s commitment to smart cities leading to increased investment in interactive displays, video walls, AV-over-IP solutions and networked control systems for public buildings and business campuses.

Furthermore, the UAE’s status as a global hub for conferences, corporate events, exhibitions and international tourism is “fuelling demand for immersive AV experiences, large LED walls and projection mapping,” he says.

Ambitious AV design
State funding may be on tap but this coupled with a willingness to go above and beyond in using AV to drive development in every sector.

“The bar for what counts as a successful installation is genuinely high here, and that pushes the whole market forward,” says Netgear’s head of sales, Annamalai Ar. “What is changing is the nature of the ambition. We are seeing a clear shift away from purely showpiece installations toward smarter, more integrated and sustainable solutions,” he adds.

He says the market is becoming more mature in planning, technical standards and lifecycle thinking.

“Clients are asking harder questions about system management and long-term supportability, not just headline performance. For Netgear, that shift is significant: it moves the conversation from spec sheets to network architecture, which is where we do our most meaningful work.”

Walid Tabet, Vitec’s regional director, says UAE’s AV culture is fast moving, highly visual, and aspirational; “it is shifting towards integrated, immersive, AI driven experiences across all verticals. What makes it exciting is how aggressively the country uses AV as a canvas for smart city living, and a global creator economy rather than just ‘equipment in a room’.”

Hickman calls local AV “ambitious, fun, luxury-focused and experience-driven, yet always with an eye on value. [Eye-catching] installations continually push market trends forward.”
What’s exciting, he says, is the speed of execution. “Projects here don’t just adopt technology — they create environments that genuinely engage millions of international visitors every year and enhance the daily experience of people living in the country.”

Netgear continues to see strong investment across the board in a market that remains “active and genuinely competitive,” according to Ar. “The conversation has matured: clients are more focused on ROI and long-term value than on spec for spec’s sake.”

Singh judges the region’s approach to AV as “technologically progressive, increasingly localised yet deeply connected with global trends”. He elaborates: “It’s characterised by a strong infrastructure that is fostering the trend toward the use of digital and AI tools as artistic practice, with greater emphasis on regional stories and Arab cultural expression.”

Operating from October to April, Global Village Dubai functions as a hybrid of theme park, cultural fair, and shopping destination, serving tourists, and local visitors in a high-density, high-traffic environment.

Creative, strategic, and impactful
Technology in UAE is commonly treated as a foundational layer of new developments, observes Tikriti; “This helps the region to push boundaries and achieve things we’ve never seen before when it comes to next-generation experience.”

He thinks the demand for immersive and technically sophisticated environments will only accelerate. “Technology is actively being considered as part of the core infrastructure of buildings and districts from the very beginning of the planning process. What’s exciting is the freedom here to rethink fundamentals – what a museum, public space, or cultural destination can actually be.”

Assessing UAE as “an opportunity rich, innovation driven market” Karan Kathuria, director of sales & business development at Renkus-Heinz says: “The role of AV will only become more creative, strategic, and impactful.”

“AV in the UAE has evolved from a hardware-led installation market into a highly experience-driven, design-centric ecosystem tied closely to architecture, events, tourism, and national ambition,” she says. “Dreams are big and time is the only answer for them to be executed, whether these are large or medium scale.”

Dubai began its ascent in the 1990s encouraging foreigners to base themselves in a tax free climate while infrastructure was built around them. The last decade has seen the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia attempt to turn its own oil tanker of an economy. Specifically the KSA is rapidly expanding its audio-visual market as part of its national transformation strategy under Saudi Vision 2030.

Masdar City is a $22bn sustainable eco-city project in being developed to rival California’s Silicon Valley but also to incorporate all aspects of city life. This includes an emphasis on narrow shaded streets, walkways and paths. Its orientation uses the cool night winds to reduce solar gain.

Nation to nation competition

“The UAE hasn’t been overshadowed so much as refocused,” argues Kathuria. “It’s winning more project awards and doubling down on pragmatic, high impact developments that create steady, real world demand for AV, immersive tech and integrated digital experiences — a strategy that appeals strongly to project owners, investors and tech partners alike.”

Saudi Arabia’s mega projects attract global attention, but the UAE maintains its position “through stability, execution capability and international connectivity,” argues Ar. “Rather than competing on scale alone, the focus here is on quality, innovation and timely delivery — and that is a fundamentally different value proposition.

“The UAE’s advantage has always been execution maturity,” Ar says. “Predictable procurement cycles, a deep and experienced integrator community, and projects that move from specification to commissioning without the delays that characterise more nascent markets. The current regional volatility tests that reputation, and it would be dishonest to say it creates no headwinds. But clients here have enough market experience to distinguish between regional turbulence and structural risk, and our pipeline reflects that.”

A focus on business operations

Dubai and Abu Dhabi continue to grow with a focus on business operations, entertainment experiences and global event readiness. “Dubai in particular is often perceived as ‘shiny’ because of its international scale and agility, and it truly leads in terms of ease of doing business and global tech partnerships,” says Singh.

Hickman suggests that, of the Emirates, Dubai leads in volume and visibility. “Dubai leads because of tourism and events infrastructure,” he says. “Abu Dhabi focuses on cultural prestige and government projects with a very different vibe.”

Netgear completed a full network infrastructure modernisation at Global Village Dubai, for one of the region’s largest cultural and entertainment destinations: a 10G fully redundant backbone, M4350 and M4250 switching across core, distribution and access layers, and managed wireless covering the entire park. “The scale and operational intensity of that environment made it a demanding brief, and one that reflects the complexity of projects increasingly coming through across the UAE,” says Ar.

However, as Ar points out, it would be a mistake to treat the UAE as synonymous with Dubai alone. “Beyond the two main centres, other emirates are steadily developing commercial and mixed-use projects, each at their own pace and with their own priorities. The result is a genuinely balanced national landscape rather than a single-city story.

There are seven Emirates
Hickman elaborates, “Sharjah is more focused on education and smart-community developments, and the northern emirates on eco-tourism and hospitality. Economically, Dubai and Abu Dhabi account for the majority of projects, yet the smaller emirates benefit from spillover investment and targeted incentives. AV trends follow the same pattern: flashy, high-profile in Dubai; institutional and immersive in Abu Dhabi.”

There are a number of hugely exciting projects on the horizon that have technology and visual experience sitting at the heart. Billed as “an oasis of extraordinary Disney entertainment at this crossroads of the world” Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be “authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati” when it opens sometime between 2030-33. Immersive destinations and experiences creator Miral, based in Abu Dhabi is helping design the resort on Yas Island.

Echoing the scale of the 20,000-capacity Sphere in Las Vegas, Sphere Abu Dhabi promises to “re-define entertainment in the region” if and when construction begins. The country even plans a Harry Potter theme park from Warner Bros.

Twenty years after its announcement, the world’s largest Guggenheim is still waiting its official launch party. Frank Gehry, now 96 years old, and the original architect of Bilbao’s iconic art museum, has described this project as his “late masterpiece.”

Projects of scale
Abu Dhabi’s government want to overtake Paris and London as the art capital of the world and has commissioned Zaha Hadid to design a new Performing Arts Centre, located alongside a version of the Louvre and the Guggenheim in the Saadiyat Cultural District. Also there is the Zayed National Museum, architected by Foster + Partners with five lightweight steel wings, which opened its doors in December.

“Such plans will make meaningful additions to the UAE’s arts and culture scene, while much-publicised developments such as Disneyland and Sphere will secure the UAE’s spot on the world map when it comes to pioneering next-generation immersive entertainment,” says Tikriti.

“Immersive experiences at museums and cultural destinations as one of the most exciting sectors right now. There’s a strong desire to tell national and regional stories through contemporary immersive techniques, combining cutting-edge technology with deep cultural narratives to connect with younger, digital-native audiences.”

Sports business
The live events and sports technology vertical deserves particular attention in the UAE context. The region has committed not just to hosting world-class events but to using them as platforms for genuine technological innovation. The Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (ADRL) is a case in point. The debut event at Yas Marina drew over 600,000 online viewers and required a network infrastructure from Netgear capable of supporting real-time AI decision-making across multiple autonomous vehicles simultaneously. “Here, the AV network is not a support system for the event but integral to it,” says Ar.

Despite the cancelling of Grand Prix in neighbouring Bahrain and Saudi Tabet notes “substantial investment directed toward the sports industry across the region, including football, e-gaming, and multi-sport arenas.”

A recent disguise highlight was powering the Phygital Games of the Future in Abu Dhabi, created and delivered by bright! Studios. “The event fused esports with physical sports in a live event that was broadcast to millions of fans across the globe, filled with jaw-dropping visual moments,” Tikriti says. “Disguise has further plans for expansion in the region which we will be sharing more on very soon.”

Other projects supported by Disguise in the region over the years include projection mapping at the Burj Khalifa, Al Wasl Dome and the One&Only One Za’abeel hotel, to immersive digital experiences at Dubai Airport.

Infrastructure and residential build out
The 900km-long Etihad Rail passenger network development expects to launch its first services this year across Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and beyond. This is the region’s first cross border rail network connecting 11 cities and towns across the seven emirates. There are also major airport expansions (such as at Al Maktoum International in Dubai).

Marsa Al Arab is a seafront resort being built on two artificial islands near the Burj Al Arab, focusing on tourism and luxury living, with plans for hotel and entertainment facilities. Masdar City is a $22 billion sustainable eco-city project in Abu Dhabi near the international airport. Debuting next spring, Wynn Al Marjan Island is being developed into a “opulent and entertaining beachside destination” in the port city Ras Al Khaimah (capital of RAK).

While the Burj Khalifa remains Dubai’s most recognised symbol, the Creek Tower Dubai due to open this year is intended to be a landmark on par with the Eiffel Tower. Designed to surpass the Burj Khalifa in both height and symbolism, the tower is part of the Dubai Creek Harbour Tower development of luxury living and shopping, one part of which was hit by an Iranian drone.

“These are all expected to support continued AV investment in transport, entertainment and smart-city environments,” Hickman says. On a smaller scale he notes the need for increased security control rooms with higher levels of IP decode/encode “as is the need for corporate clients to transmit video at low bandwidths at high quality to reduce networking costs whilst increasing national and international collaboration.”

Overall, the UAE’s successful diversification of economic development, cultivated organically over five decades across various sectors, has helped reduce its dependence on oil.

“This strategic shift positions the UAE favourably,” Singh says. “Consequently, the UAE is not under immediate economic threat from any neighbouring GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, particularly given its consistent announcement and execution of diverse projects. Its well-established and multifaceted economy offers a robust foundation for growth going forward.”