Shure has appointed Hub Media as its authorized distributor for African markets, in a move aimed at strengthening access to professional audio solutions across the continent.

The appointment comes at a time when African markets are continuing to invest in stronger learning and communication environments. [1] UNESCO projects that the number of young Africans completing secondary or tertiary education will rise from 103 million in 2020 to 240 million by 2040, pointing to growing demand for more connected and effective learning spaces across the continent. Through Hub Media’s regional presence and distribution capabilities, Shure’s portfolio will be made more readily available across African markets, helping customers benefit from improved access to products, technical support, and training.

Olga Elena, Sales Leader at Hub Media, said, “This partnership brings together Shure’s global audio expertise and Hub Media’s regional market presence. Our focus will be on making Shure’s portfolio more accessible across Africa, while supporting partners and end users with the service, training, and technical guidance needed in the field.”

The partnership is expected to support customers across sectors including corporate, education, government, broadcast, houses of worship, live events, and musical instrument retail channels, where the need for reliable audio performance and informed local support continues to grow.

It also comes amid continued momentum across key regional markets. [2] PwC’s Africa Entertainment and Media Outlook 2025–2029 projects compound annual growth rates of 7.2% for Nigeria and 5.2% for Kenya through 2029, reflecting sustained growth across media and content environments in West and East Africa. Beyond distribution, the collaboration will include solution design support, system configuration, technical consultation, partner training, and after-sales support, helping ensure customers can deploy Shure solutions with greater confidence and relevance to local market needs.

Yassine Mannai, Associate Sales Director at Shure MEA, added: “As demand continues to evolve across Africa, it is increasingly important for customers to have both access to the right technology and the support needed to deploy it effectively. Our partnership with Hub Media reflects that focus, allowing us to strengthen availability, technical engagement, and customer support across key markets.”

The move signals Shure’s wider MEA focus on strengthening its channel network and building for long-term growth across key markets.

Milestone Systems and IQSIGHT, formerly Bosch Video Systems, announced the global release of SmartSuite, a consolidated plugin suite that embeds Intelligent Video Analytics from IQSIGHT directly into Milestone’s XProtect® video management software (VMS).

In the Middle East, where countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are rapidly embedding artificial intelligence (AI) across public safety, smart cities, transport networks, and critical infrastructure, SmartSuite arrives at a pivotal moment for regional security technology transformation.

Streamlining system setup and leveraging rich metadata, the SmartSuite integration empowers security professionals to configure hardware, surface analytics, and manage operations within XProtect as a single pane of glass. Bringing this data from SmartSuite directly into XProtect adds intelligence to deliver deeper forensic insights, accelerated incident response, and operational efficiency, providing the foresight needed for organizations to proactively address security and safety risks.

Key benefits include:

Enhances operator awareness and investigation

• Surfaces rich metadata within XProtect, including color‑coded bounding boxes, object classification, trajectory lines, and gunshot direction indicators.
• Supports forensic search and real‑time metadata visualization for Intelligent Video Analytics Pro (IVA Pro) analytics, such as Appearance and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

• Compatible with IVA Pro Visual Gun Detection, designed to detect a person brandishing a gun and promptly alert personnel to support faster threat identification in environments such as schools.
• Governments and enterprises across the Gulf are prioritizing AI‑enabled safety systems as part of smart city and national digital strategies, especially in cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which host leading security and technology expos and initiatives.

“In the Middle East, where security and operational intelligence continue to be strategic priorities across critical infrastructure, smart cities, and enterprise environments, the advancements Milestone Systems is announcing today represent a significant leap forward,” said Louise Bou Rached, Director- Middle East, Turkey, and Africa.

Streamlines installation and system setup

• Reduces installation time for system integrators by up to 70% by consolidating three separate plug‑ins into one unified suite*.
• Includes panoramic de‑warping and hardware control features such as wipers and infrared illumination.
• Adds Project Assistant import capabilities, enabling automatic configuration of Bosch camera names, groups, network settings, and image adjustments to speed up commissioning.

Simplifies device configuration

• Allows integrators to configure Bosch cameras directly within the XProtect Management Client, eliminating the need to log in to each device or switch between Milestone and external configuration environments.
• Introduces fast event subscription, making it easier to set up analytics-driven alarms and notifications.

SmartSuite is available globally, free of charge, and can be downloaded via IQSIGHT.com.

Sebastian Döllner, Vice President for Technology Partnerships, C Open Platform, Milestone Systems, said:

“SmartSuite raises the bar for integrated security management and provides a powerful new way to unify systems, insights, and action. By bringing together the advanced technologies and expertise of IQSIGHT and Milestone, we enable our customers to strengthen their security operations and respond to incidents faster and more precisely. This collaboration showcases the power of open platform innovation and delivers meaningful value to security professionals worldwide.”

Sam Ward, Chief Commercial Officer, Global Sales, IQSIGHT, said:

“The introduction of SmartSuite enables organizations to seamlessly surface real-time insights within their environments to speed decision-making in critical situations. Together with Milestone, we continue to deepen the integration of our solutions to expand visual intelligence capabilities and further enhance the benefits for our shared customers.”

Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global leader in critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, today announced it has acquired Strategic Thermal Labs LLC (STL), a specialist in advanced liquid-cooling technologies. The acquisition extends Vertiv’s thermal-chain strategy by strengthening engineering capability at the interface between server-side liquid cooling and supporting infrastructure—an increasingly critical factor in high-density, liquid-cooled environments supporting AI and high-performance computing workloads.

 As compute requirements continue to intensify, the interaction between server-side liquid cooling and supporting infrastructure increasingly influences broader system performance, including flow, balance, controls behavior, serviceability, and lifecycle reliability. Strategic Thermal Labs adds proven cold-plate design, server-side liquid cooling, and high-density thermal validation expertise that is expected to strengthen Vertiv’s ability to simulate and emulate real high-density compute conditions, optimize the interaction between the thermal chain and power train, and support customers across design, integration, commissioning, and lifecycle operations.

“As AI and high‑performance computing push power densities to unprecedented levels, understanding and solving heat challenges at the chip level becomes critical to system design, performance and reliability,” said Scott Armul, chief product and technology officer at Vertiv. “STL brings deep expertise and proven capability in addressing some of the industry’s most demanding chip-level density and thermal problems, strengthening Vertiv’s ability to emulate and validate system-level solutions and enabling customers to improve performance and lifecycle outcomes in liquid-cooled environments.”

Vertiv emphasized that the acquisition does not change its commitment to an open ecosystem approach. The company will continue to support interoperable, server‑ and silicon‑agnostic infrastructure solutions, with the goal of improving system‑level performance and customer outcomes across diverse compute environments.

The addition of Strategic Thermal Labs supports Vertiv’s broader strategy of helping customers address increasing infrastructure complexity through integrated power, thermal, controls, and lifecycle services capabilities.

For more information about Vertiv’s end‑to‑end portfolio of power and thermal management systems, infrastructures solutions, and lifecycle services, visit Vertiv.com.