What Integrators said about AMX MUSE and JBL Control 400 at Integrate 2026

Trade-show demos show you what a product can do. What you really want to know is how it holds up on a real project, whether that’s a decorative ceiling the architect has already signed off or a secure site where the networks team has the final say

At Integrate 2026, CX Magazine skipped the product specialists and asked Australian integrators for their take instead. Two MadisonAV brands came up: Visual Focus in Toowoomba on JBL’s new Control 400 ceiling speakers, and Pro AV Solutions on building secure, Python-based control systems around AMX MUSE.

Here’s what they told CX, and what it could mean for your next install.

JBL CONTROL 400 CEILING SPEAKERS

As the successor to the JBL Control 20 Series, the new Control 400 Series extends that legacy with superior sonic performance, improved conical coverage, enhanced installation features, and a more modern aesthetic.

Adapted from its tour sound technologies, JBL Professional introduces its latest iteration of Radiation Boundary Integrator (RBI) technology: the Coplanar RBI, or CRBI. This technology provides an especially smooth sound character that remains consistent, clear, and pleasant across a wide coverage area. This enhanced coverage results in more consistent levels and can lead to fewer speakers and amplifier channels being required and, ultimately, significant project savings.

All models in the series include an all-new, full-face magnetic grille that blends seamlessly with modern décor. The supplied white grille can be easily painted to match any application’s décor. Optional black and square grilles are also available.

“They got rid of the bezels in the new 400 Series! One of the biggest complaints that we get is that it doesn’t matter if the speaker sounds the best; if it looks like a fire or PA speaker, they’re not interested. A lot of people didn’t like the old aesthetics. They’ve improved that, improved the grille design, and also made the speaker sound better at the same time.

Clients are spending money on decorative ceilings, and then you come in with a bezelled speaker that looks like a larger version of the crappy fire speaker next to it. How do you differentiate yourself from the $60 QuickFit model? Being able to now buy a square grille is great too, because a lot of customers are doing decorative ceilings that use 600 × 600 tiles, so they don’t want round holes in square tiles. It sounds minor, but we’re arguing with architects, interior designers and the customer!”

Chris Elson
AV Systems Design Engineer, Visual Focus, Toowoomba

AMX MUSE

AMX MUSE Automation Controllers are powerful, secure, and reliable devices that provide a dedicated computing resource running HARMAN Professional’s AMX MUSE automation platform. They can simultaneously process a virtually unlimited number of scripts written in JavaScript, Python, or Groovy and natively support Low-Code development with Node-RED.

AMX MUSE Automation Controllers feature a modern embedded processor that’s 10 times faster than the processor in AMX NX Controllers, bountiful memory, and rugged, industrial-grade eMMC storage. Built on HARMAN’s secure Linux platform, MUSE controllers are designed to surpass the requirements of the most secure installations. Additionally, these controllers natively support HARMAN’s HControl (open-API), HiQnet (legacy HARMAN audio devices) and ICSP (legacy AMX control devices) protocols, making them the ideal automation processor for any space, environment, or application, whether old or new.

“I come from a technical engineering, programming, and commissioning background. I brought somebody on board to Pro AV to help us develop a platform so that we could standardise our software across multiple platforms and hardware. The idea was it would become industry-standard software development, not AV-specific software development. We could use industry-standard tools.

I presented our vision for this and how we could achieve it to our board. After about a year and a half of development, when we had the beta release done and a few clients were using our software, all written in Python and all open standards, I went to a pre-release with HARMAN and they were talking about a new platform that’s industry standard. It’s no longer a walled garden. It’s not AV programming.

Anyone who can write Python can work in the AMX MUSE environment. As soon as we started using it, it was a perfect marriage of our software to control AV and their hardware to do the talking.

We were coming from a software angle, but we didn’t actually have the hardware, especially not defence-approved hardware, that we could actually use. We got some beta-release MUSE hardware from HARMAN. With our programmer, we put it together, and in about 15 minutes, had an AV system running on brand-new hardware no one had ever used before. Now, we’re serving web pages for a user interface and remote support and everything else we need within about two hours of getting our hands on physical hardware. It’s been one of the most exciting projects I’ve worked on in AV.

In terms of AMX MUSE hardware, if we only need to do some fairly simple stuff like IP control for displays and a vision switcher, we’ll put in a MU-1000 and a touch panel. It’s simple, PoE, plug it in, rock solid. If we need serial ports for things like codec control or building management systems, we’ll end up putting in a bigger unit like the MU-1300 or MU-2300. The networks team love AMX MUSE because it all runs on good industry-standard network protocols.”

Steve Miles
Pro AV Solutions, Head of Defence and Secure Agency Deployment

What Integrators said about AMX MUSE and JBL Control 400 at Integrate 2026

Trade-show demos show you what a product can do. What you really want to know is how it holds up on a real project, whether that’s a decorative ceiling the architect has already signed off or a secure site where the networks team has the final say

JBL CONTROL 400 CEILING SPEAKERS

AMX MUSE

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What Integrators said about AMX MUSE and JBL Control 400 at Integrate 2026

Trade-show demos show you what a product can do. What you really want to know is how it holds up on a real project, whether that’s a decorative ceiling the architect has already signed off or a secure site where the networks team has the final say

JBL CONTROL 400 CEILING SPEAKERS

AMX MUSE

Related Articles

Products to compare:

MadisonAV is a value added B2B distributor of Specialised Audio Visual Solutions

Visit our other sites