Breaking the language barrier: What ISE 2026 reveals about the future of global corporate communications

Strategy

Feb 14

The audiovisual industry’s biggest annual gathering just concluded in Barcelona, and it delivered a watershed moment for corporate communicators: real-time translation and multilingual accessibility have moved from “nice-to-have” to mission-critical infrastructure.

Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2026 made one thing abundantly clear—the language barrier in corporate communications is no longer a technical constraint. It’s a strategic choice. Organizations that continue operating with language as a limiting factor will find themselves at a growing disadvantage in reaching global stakeholders, fostering inclusive cultures, and competing for talent and markets.

For corporate communications leaders managing executive visibility, stakeholder engagement, and organizational messaging, here’s why ISE 2026 matters: the infrastructure that enables truly multilingual, accessible communication has reached broadcast-grade reliability with enterprise-ready deployment models. The question isn’t whether your organization can communicate across languages in real-time but whether you’re ready to make it standard practice.

Real-time translation: From broadcast luxury to corporate essential

The single most significant theme at ISE 2026 for corporate communications was the maturation of real-time translation technology. What broadcasters have relied on for years has now reached the professional AV market with enterprise-ready deployment models, broadcast-grade reliability, and mission-critical performance.

AI-Media, a leader in this space, used ISE 2026 to demonstrate how real-time voice translation, live captioning, and audio description are becoming standard expectations rather than premium add-ons. Their LEXI Voice solution delivers voice translation into any language with natural-sounding output and minimal latency. LEXI Text provides real-time AI subtitling. LEXI AD handles automated audio description for accessibility.

According to Mark Lovatt, VP Strategic Accounts at AI-Media, professional AV is adopting broadcast standards for reliability, low latency, and cross-language accessibility. The technology integrates with standard AV infrastructure and supports everything from corporate town halls to live events and public installations.

For corporate communicators, this represents a fundamental shift. Your global town hall no longer requires multiple sessions across time zones. Your CEO can address the entire organization—in Frankfurt, São Paulo, Tokyo, and Mumbai—simultaneously, with each employee hearing the message in their preferred language. Executive presence is no longer constrained by geography or language.

Key takeaway for communicators: The infrastructure barrier to global, multilingual communication has essentially disappeared. The constraint now is organizational readiness and strategic commitment, not technical capability.

The multilingual workforce is already here

The business case for real-time translation in corporate communications is already driving procurement decisions. ISE 2026 highlighted use cases across government, education, broadcast, corporate environments, and live events, with corporate communications specifically called out as a primary deployment target.

Consider the reality many global organizations face today:

Distributed workforces spanning dozens of countries and language groups
Hybrid and remote models that require inclusive communication regardless of physical location
DEI commitments that demand accessible, equitable experiences for all employees
Talent competition where inclusive communication practices influence employer brand
Regulatory requirements around accessibility that vary by jurisdiction

Organizations are no longer asking whether they need multilingual communication capabilities. They’re asking which vendor, which deployment model, and how quickly they can scale.

ENCO, another exhibitor at ISE 2026, demonstrated how automated captioning solutions can be repurposed for multilingual delivery, with particular emphasis on corporate settings. Their cloud-based systems enable live event producers and corporate communications teams to embed captions and translations into streams from virtually any source.

The technical architecture matters here. Modern solutions integrate with existing SDI and IP infrastructures, meaning organizations don’t need to replace their entire AV stack to add multilingual capabilities. The systems are designed for scalability, from a single boardroom to hundreds of locations globally.

Key takeaway for communicators: Multilingual communication infrastructure is no longer a massive capital project. It’s becoming a software-enabled capability that integrates with your existing systems, scales with your needs, and operates with the reliability corporate communications demands.

Accessibility as competitive advantage and compliance imperative

One of the most compelling discussions at ISE 2026 centered on accessibility, not as a compliance checkbox, but as a strategic differentiator in corporate communications. Modern assistive listening systems, live captioning, and multilingual interpretation are converging to create communication environments that are genuinely inclusive by default.

The UC Today event guide for ISE 2026 highlighted assistive listening and inclusion technologies as one of the ten major categories reshaping enterprise workplaces. Systems now provide high-quality audio directly to hearing aids and cochlear implants, support live captioning without specialized hardware, and enable multilingual interpretation seamlessly.

Organizations implementing these systems report benefits beyond compliance:

Improved satisfaction from employees and visitors with hearing impairments
Reduced legal risk around accessibility requirements
Unexpected audio improvements for all participants, not just those requiring assistance
Enhanced employer brand as an inclusive, forward-thinking organization

For corporate communicators, this creates both opportunity and obligation. If your organization’s external messaging emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusion, your internal communication infrastructure needs to reflect that commitment. A global town hall that’s only accessible to native English speakers with perfect hearing sends a message that contradicts any DEI positioning.

The regulatory environment is also shifting. Markets are tightening accessibility requirements, and what’s voluntary today may be mandatory tomorrow. Organizations that build inclusive communication infrastructure now will avoid both the scramble to comply later and the reputational risk of being seen as reactive rather than proactive.

Key takeaway for communicators: Accessibility in corporate communications is moving from “accommodation” to “standard practice.” Organizations that embrace this shift early will benefit from both competitive differentiation and reduced compliance risk.

Audio quality: The foundation of multilingual communication

Here’s a trend from ISE 2026 that directly impacts multilingual communication effectiveness: after two decades of displays dominating AV budgets, audio is claiming a larger share of investment. Organizations are prioritizing speech intelligibility, beamforming microphones, and acoustic design.

This shift is critical for real-time translation and accessibility. Poor source audio quality undermines translation accuracy and caption reliability. If your executive’s words aren’t captured cleanly at the source, no amount of AI processing can deliver accurate translations to global stakeholders. Garbage in, garbage out applies as much to multilingual AV as it does to data analytics.

The renewed emphasis on audio quality at ISE 2026 reflects a broader recognition: in a world of hybrid work, distributed teams, and multilingual communication, audio fidelity isn’t optional infrastructure; it’s the foundation that everything else depends on.

Forward-thinking communications teams are conducting audio audits of every environment where executives communicate and ensuring professional-grade capture. This includes:

Boardrooms and conference spaces with proper acoustic treatment and microphone arrays
Executive home offices equipped with broadcast-quality audio capture
Event stages and town hall venues with systems designed for both in-room and remote participants
Recording studios for prepared content that will be translated and distributed globally

When your CEO delivers a quarterly update that's simultaneously translated into eight languages and captioned for accessibility, the quality of that translation depends entirely on the quality of the source audio capture. This is about ensuring that the infrastructure supporting your multilingual communication strategy actually works.

Key takeaway for communicators: In the hierarchy of multilingual communication technology investments, source audio quality deserves priority. Your translation and accessibility tools can only deliver value if they're working with clean, intelligible audio input.

Integration challenges: Making multilingual communication seamless

One of the practical concerns ISE 2026 addressed was interoperability—ensuring that translation, captioning, and accessibility systems integrate smoothly with existing communication infrastructure. This isn’t just a technical consideration; it’s what determines whether multilingual capabilities actually get used or remain underutilized investments.

The exhibitors showcasing multilingual solutions emphasized seamless integration with SDI and IP infrastructures. This matters because organizations aren’t going to replace their entire AV stack to add translation capabilities. The solutions need to work with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex, and whatever collaboration platforms your organization has already standardized on.

Consider the typical corporate communications workflow:

Executive records a message or delivers it live
Content needs to be captured, translated, captioned, and distributed
Different stakeholder groups access it through different platforms (internal portal, mobile app, streaming service, in-person screens)
Analytics need to track who accessed what, in which language, with what engagement

If the multilingual infrastructure doesn’t integrate cleanly with your existing systems, you’ll end up with manual handoffs, delayed distribution, inconsistent experiences across channels, and limited visibility into what’s actually working.

The organizations at ISE 2026 demonstrating successful deployments were showing integrated workflows, not just products. The real value comes when multilingual communication becomes automatic, not something requiring special production for each instance.

Key takeaway for communicators: When evaluating multilingual communication solutions, integration capability matters as much as translation quality. The best technology is the technology that actually gets used, and that requires seamless integration with your existing communication infrastructure.

The business case: Why multilingual communication matters now

ISE 2026 made clear that multilingual communication technology has reached maturity, but technology readiness doesn’t automatically translate to organizational adoption. For corporate communicators making the case internally, here's why this matters now:

Talent competition is global. Organizations competing for the best talent are recruiting across borders and time zones. Your ability to onboard, engage, and retain employees in their preferred language impacts both your employer brand and your retention metrics. When a talented engineer in Barcelona or a product manager in Singapore receives corporate communications only in English, you’re signaling who the organization prioritizes.
Markets are multilingual by default. Even organizations that operate primarily in one country often serve multilingual customer bases and communities. Investor relations, public affairs, and stakeholder engagement all benefit from the ability to communicate natively in multiple languages without the delay and expense of traditional translation workflows.
Hybrid work makes language barriers more visible. In-person meetings allowed for informal translation, side conversations, and body language to bridge language gaps. In virtual and hybrid environments, those informal mechanisms disappear. Either your infrastructure handles multilingual communication effectively, or entire segments of your workforce are partially excluded.
Compliance and risk management. Some jurisdictions require accessible communication for employees and public-facing content. As regulations tighten globally, organizations with multilingual infrastructure in place avoid both compliance scrambles and the reputational risk of being reactive rather than proactive.
Efficiency and speed. Traditional translation workflows introduce delays measured in days or weeks. Real-time translation enables organizations to move at the speed of business without linguistic bottlenecks. The CEO can address the organization today, not next week after translations are complete.
Key takeaway for communicators: The business case for multilingual corporate communication isn’t about accommodating a minority but about competing effectively in a global talent market, reaching stakeholders where they are, and operating at the speed modern business requires.

What this means for your communications strategy

If you’re leading corporate or executive communications, ISE 2026 delivered a clear signal: the infrastructure that enables truly multilingual, accessible communication has reached enterprise readiness. The organizations that move quickly will establish competitive advantages in talent, stakeholder engagement, and operational efficiency that will compound over time.

For corporate communicators, it’s not whether multilingual, accessible communication will become standard practice—ISE 2026 made clear that it already is in leading organizations—but whether you’ll be among the organizations leading this shift or playing catch-up later.

Language should no longer constrain how and when you communicate with global stakeholders. The technology that removes this constraint is here, proven, and ready for enterprise deployment. What remains is organizational commitment and strategic execution.

Additional resources

AI-Media to Showcase Real-Time Translation and Accessibility Workflows at ISE 2026 - GlobeNewswire
ISE Insiders 2026: Real-Time AI Captioning with ENCO - AVNetwork
ISE 2026 Event Guide: The Future of AV and Smart Environments - UC Today
The workplace innovations that defined ISE 2026 - WORKTECH Academy
The 2026 trends in the Pro AV industry - Startups Magazine
ISE 2026: A Confident Industry Looks Ahead - invidis

Giovanna Patruno