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Beyond screens and speakers: How AV integration is crafting unforgettable customer experiences in MENA region

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AV technologies

By Adrian Goulder, Technical Manager at VUE Audio Visual Trading LLC (VUEAV)

The landscape of customer engagement is undergoing a profound transformation, particularly across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Today’s consumers are not just seeking products or services; they are chasing experiences. We are living in the age of the ‘experience economy,’ where emotional resonance and immersive interaction are more important than the transaction itself. And at the heart of this shift lies a powerful, often underestimated catalyst: Audio-Visual (AV) integration.

For several years, AV has been viewed through a narrow, functional lens – a screen to display presentations or a sound system for announcements. But this perception is rapidly evolving. In the hands of forward-thinking businesses, AV has become a transformative tool, the medium through which compelling, multisensory experiences are crafted, and customer loyalty is deepened.

There are several instances in our daily life that showcase the exceptional use of AV to provide us with exceptional experiences. For instance, imagine walking into a retail space where digital displays shift in real-time based on your preferences, offering tailored product suggestions with vivid 3D visuals. Or maybe consider a museum where interactive projections breathe life into ancient artefacts, inviting visitors to explore history through gesture and touch. These aren’t visions of the distant future. They’re happening now, across the MENA region, thanks to the rise of integrated AV technologies.

A standout example of immersive AV integration is the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi, where projection mapping transforms the space into a fully immersive 360° environment. Far from a passive visit, this installation surrounds worshippers and visitors alike in a blend of synchronised audio and visuals, delivering a multisensory experience. The entire Immersive Show was scripted, designed, and brought to life by a dedicated team of BAPS volunteers, who handled every aspect of the creative vision in-house – from concept development to execution.

VUEAV worked alongside Christie, a global visual technologies company and the BAPS technical team, to achieve this seamless fusion of form and function.

The installation features a sophisticated network of Christie projectors with a collective output of over 300 lumens per square metre, projecting over 60 million pixels onto architectural surfaces. This powerful AV system is orchestrated through Aurora’s IP-based solutions for video distribution and live system monitoring, while Pixera media servers ensure high-resolution content and pixel-perfect synchronisation across all outputs.

But it’s not just about what you see – it’s about what you hear and feel. Sennheiser microphones and Klipsch Professional Series 8-inch speakers, complemented by robust 15-inch subwoofers, deliver an acoustically rich environment. Each component is precisely calibrated and programmed to provide a unified and intuitive experience. Central to this installation is ‘The Fairy Tale,’ an immersive show that runs daily, merging storytelling with high-resolution visuals and surround sound.

In a parallel context, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is also leveraging AV to showcase the epic past of AlUla, an ancient Arabian oasis city. The Incense Road Experience, an immersive adventure developed through a partnership between VUEAV and The Aimes, is a project that blends live performance, interactivity and cutting-edge audiovisual technologies to reanimate the rich cultural heritage of this ancient trade route. A sophisticated array of Christie 4K laser projectors maps high-resolution, vibrant visuals onto architectural textures and theatrical spaces. Driven by Pixera media servers,the installation dynamically responds to visitor movement and interaction through a network of custom-designed motion sensors and RFID-triggered zones. As visitors travel the space, the audio-visual and lighting elements adapt in real-time.

A rich audio landscape is delivered through a premium Klipsch multi-zone sound system, enhanced with bespoke directional speakers and embedded subwoofers that allow scenes to breathe with immersive realism. Visitors can experience holographically projected historical, legendary figures and recreated ancient local environments complete with scent emitters and tactile surfaces. Furthermore, visitors can also craft their own incense blend through interactive prompts, in addition to unlocking personalised narrative paths using sensor-based interactions and gamified storytelling. At the heart of the experience is a powerful integration of hardware and creative content, blending high-resolution projection, real-time media control, interactive systems, and environmental storytelling.

So, what exactly is driving this transformation? These are not just futuristic fantasies. They are tangible realities being implemented across the MENA region, thanks to sophisticated AV integration, and their outcomes are remarkable. Among the many benefits are elevated engagement. Interactive kiosks, immersive video walls, and crystal-clear audio systems hold attention and turn passive customers into active participants. Offering personalised interactions is another benefit, as through integration with analytics, AV systems can adapt to individual preferences in real time. From digital restaurant menus that respond to dietary needs to personalised greetings displayed on screens in the experience becomes not just engaging, but personal.

Additionally, it creates immersive environments. Whether it is a showroom designed for multisensory experiences, or a collaborative workspace equipped with interactive displays and seamless video conferencing, AV is redefining physical space as dynamic hubs for engagement. AV technologies enable businesses to communicate their brand identity not just through words, but through unforgettable sensory experiences – such as stunning visuals, impactful sound design, and interactive installations – that resonate far beyond the initial interaction. Beyond the customer-facing benefits, AV integration streamlines backend operations, from wayfinding and internal communications to automating routine tasks and presentations.

For businesses in the MENA region, the opportunity is clear: those who invest in AV not as a utility, but as a strategic experience enabler, will lead the charge in redefining customer engagement.

In a market where expectations are rising and attention spans are shrinking, it is not enough to be seen or heard – brands must be felt. By embracing the full potential of AV technologies, organisations across the MENA region can move beyond the basics, crafting immersive, personalised, and memorable experiences that set them apart.

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NETSCOUT EXTENDS ADAPTIVE DDOS DEFENSE PROTECTION TO ADDRESS THE RISING BUSINESS COST OF WEAPONIZED BROADBAND AND IOT DEVICES

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NETSCOUT® (NASDAQ: NTCT), a leading provider of observability, AIOps, cybersecurity, and DDoS attack protection solutions, today announced an extension of its Adaptive DDoS Protection (ADP) solution enabling service providers to automatically detect and mitigate outbound DDoS attack traffic. By extending protection from the attack target towards its source, NETSCOUT helps operators prevent compromised subscriber devices from disrupting their own networks, consuming costly capacity and attacking customers and organizations across the internet.

Consumer broadband routers, cameras and other IoT devices are increasingly being weaponized by Turbo-Mirai class botnets capable of generating multi-terabit attacks. These outbound attacks have already caused costly service outages, reputational damage and customer loss, and damage to peering relationships risking a large increase in transit costs at service providers around the world. By detecting and mitigating malicious traffic generated by compromised device populations before it leaves their networks, service providers can reduce abuse complaints and infrastructure costs while protecting their own networks and services and helping lower subscriber churn and regulatory risk.

“The combination of higher-speed broadband connectivity and vulnerable IoT devices has been weaponized by a new class of massive DDoS botnets,” said Patrick Donegan, founder and principal analyst, HardenStance. “Source-side mitigation, or attack suppression as it’s sometimes known, is a critical part of the equation. NETSCOUT’s approach, backed by its ATLAS Intelligence Feed (AIF) and ASERT analysts, gives service providers the tools they need to detect and stop attacks before they have an impact, protecting their customers and the broader internet from the large-scale DDoS attacks we have seen.”

Using AI-powered threat intelligence and automated detection and mitigation, NETSCOUT’s ADP solution, an addition to its Arbor Sightline and Arbor Threat Mitigation System:

  • Automatically detects and mitigates ever evolving attacks through dynamic detection, intelligent redirection and adaptive mitigation.
  • Extends these capabilities to outbound traffic, combining enhanced, customized detection with comprehensive threat intelligence tailored for each ISP.
  • Uses NETSCOUT’s proprietary AI/ML-powered DDoS detection to analyze massive volumes of outbound internet traffic to uncover attacks designed to hide within legitimate flows.
  • Draws on unique global real-time intelligence of DDoS activity covering approximately half of all internet traffic to rapidly detect and mitigate DDoS attacks and pinpoint the responsible, compromised devices.

“We are extending DDoS defense from the target to the source,” stated Darren Anstee, CTO, Security, NETSCOUT. “By using our internet-scale visibility to derive localized threat intelligence for our customers, NETSCOUT can identify and precisely suppress attacks at their origin, before they cause problems locally or at their target. This capability gives our customers a new level of comprehensive defense across their peering, transit, cloud and customer edges.”

This expansion of capabilities demonstrates how NETSCOUT is applying its global threat visibility and proven ADP solution to meet emerging service provider challenges. By extending an established inbound DDoS workflow to outbound and cross-bound threats, NETSCOUT enables operators to improve network-resilience, cost-controls and revenue protection through its proven Arbor Sightline and Arbor TMS solutions.

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Illumio Named Leader and Customer Favorite in Forrester Wave for Microsegmentation

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Illumio Inc., the breach containment company, today announced it has been named a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Microsegmentation Solutions, Q3 2026  report. Illumio received the highest scores among all evaluated vendors in both the Current Offering and Strategy categories and was named a “Customer Favorite” for its outstanding customer feedback among evaluated vendors. According to the report, “Repeat customers indicate their satisfaction with the consistently high quality of technical support, regardless of the personnel assigned to their account.”  

The report evaluated 10 microsegmentation providers against a comprehensive set of criteria covering product capabilities, strategy, innovation, and customer experience. Illumio received the highest scores possible in 10 evaluation criteria, including areas related to visualization, host-based enforcement, product security, vision, and innovation. According to the report, “Illumio excels at essential microsegmentation functions.”

“Illumio was founded on a simple belief: breaches are inevitable, but cyber disasters are not. We have been singularly focused on one objective — reducing lateral movement and attack surface, and increasing resilience in every organization,” said Andrew Rubin, CEO and Founder of Illumio. “Being named both a Leader and a Customer Favorite reflects to us the strength of our technology, vision, and even more importantly our ability to deliver real outcomes and risk reduction, which is the foundation of the trust our customers place in us every day. In the model threat world we are all now entering, defense must be coupled with resilience. Recovery is the new defense — and the new cyber.”

According to the Forrester Research report, “Organizations with large, heterogeneous environments focused on improving cyber resilience should consider Illumio.”  The report also recognized Illumio for:

  • “Illumio has articulated a vision for microsegmentation as a core element of security operations.”
  • “Illumio is bridging the gap between its traditional users and other parts of the security organization by delivering agents mapped to personas from other teams.”
  • Its UI provides easy access to information that supports both access control and incident response use cases.”

The recognition follows continued innovation across the Illumio Platform, including Network Posture, which helps organizations understand security posture based on real-world traffic and prioritize risk reduction efforts. These capabilities support the growing need for visibility, cyber resilience, and regulatory readiness across complex hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Designed for operational simplicity, the Illumio Platform combines Illumio Insights and Illumio Segmentation to help organizations identify, assess, and contain cyber risk across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Security teams can uncover high-risk exposures, visualize potential attack paths, and implement segmentation policies from a single platform to contain threats and improve cyber resilience.

The platform is trusted by some of the world’s largest organizations, including BNP Paribas, eBay, and Microsoft, the latter of which has deployed Illumio Insights and Illumio Segmentation across its entire corporate IT environment. Igor Tsyganskiy, Global CISO of Microsoft, said: “When we needed to bring these capabilities into Microsoft, Illumio was the only segmentation solution that would work at the scale of Microsoft and deliver in our environment.”

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Rentify Introduces the First AI Workforce for Property Managers, Expanding Earn AI with Renewal Command Center

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Earn AI grows into a team of specialised AI agents that help property managers scale operations, automate renewals and embed financial services while keeping people in control of every decision.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: Rentify, a cutting-edge fintech & proptech startup, announced the launch of Renewal Command Center, the third specialised AI agent within Earn AI, its AI-native operating system for rental operations.

Today, Earn AI supports property portfolios representing more than AED 22 billion (USD 6 billion) in real estate assets and over AED 1.3 billion in annual rental value, demonstrating how some of the region’s largest property portfolios are already adopting AI-native rental operations.

Unlike traditional software that only records information, Earn AI detects what needs attention, prepares the required work and coordinates execution. Property managers can upload spreadsheets, lease agreements and fragmented portfolio information and see it transformed into a live, structured portfolio view in under 60 seconds.

Each specialised Earn AI agent has a clearly defined responsibility while operating within approval workflows that ensure property managers remain in complete control of every important decision.

AgentCore Responsibility
Intelligence AgentTransforms spreadsheets, lease agreements and fragmented property data into a structured intelligence layer across an entire portfolio.
Collections AgentAutomated rent collection, payment coordination & portfolio-wide management
Renewal Command Center (NEW)End-to-end renewal workflow that includes lease generation, prepares tenancy agreements accommodating tenant intel, insurance, Open Banking & payments across all Emirates

Nearly 80% residential tenants renew their tenancy agreements each year, making renewals one of the largest recurring operational responsibilities for property managers. Across the real estate industry in the UAE, experienced property managers are expected to oversee larger portfolios while managing renewals, collections, tenant onboarding, documentation, compliance and financial coordination across multiple disconnected systems. As portfolios grow, operational work grows faster than teams.

Through Rentify’s product Rent Shield in partnership with YallaCompare, landlords and tenants can seamlessly access rental insurance during the renewal process. Integration with Spare, a leading open finance provider, enables Open Finance-powered affordability assessments and Pay-by-Bank payment orchestration that supports Rentify’s existing digital payment infrastructure. The platform will also make rent renewal seamless with embedded financial services.

Rajneel Kumar, Co-founder, Rentify, said, “We built Earn AI around a simple idea that technology should handle the operational heavy lifting so property managers can focus on outcomes for landlords and tenants. For decades, the only way to scale was to hire more people, but AI changes that. Renewal Command Center takes that idea into one of the most repetitive workflows in property management, connecting renewals, tenant intelligence, Open Banking, embedded insurance and payments in a single flow, with every critical decision still made by a person.”

Rashed Hareb, Co-founder & CEO, Rentify, said, “Property managers don’t need more dashboards. They need greater operational capacity. Over the next decade, every major operational function  within the property management business will gain a specialised AI counterpart. Our role is to build an operating system that enables those teams to work together seamlessly.”

Rentify believes the future of property management is not about replacing people with artificial intelligence. It is about giving every property manager a specialised AI workforce that quietly handles repetitive operational work, allowing people to focus on relationships, judgement and portfolio growth.

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