What's New in 2026

2026 has a handful of significant changes and a bunch of minor ones. Check below for a list of what changed since last year!

New web-based Audience Display. We will be recommending this for week 1 and then evaluating its performance during those events to determine our recommendations for the rest of the season. Recommended settings and some FAQs can be found on the Setting up the FiM AV System page, and there’s some information in the FMS manual too.
Streaming to YouTube. We will be joining the regional events in their move to YouTube for our live streams this year. From an AV volunteer perspective, very little will change with this. Expect more information about this move and for the streams to be scheduled on YouTube soon.
- This move means that we should be extra careful that we are not broadcasting copyrighted music. DJ music should only go out into the venue.
Updated to vMix 29, check out more about it on their site. Most notably, there are now 8 overlays available instead of 4.
v3.0 firmware for Sony cameras. This new firmware version brings improvements to the auto-tracking functionality. You can find more information about it on their YouTube channel.
Red ethernet jack added to the patch panel to go out to Sony cameras. No more reaching back into the AV cart to try and get the cable into the POE++ injector!
10Mbps now supported on HQs end, feel free to bump up your bitrate if your connection has the speed for it!
New foldable stand for the AV monitor that can stay on when it goes back into the monitor case.
Labels and more labels: Clearer labels on the switch for where the network box should get plugged in, front/back indicators for the roadcase ends, and “return to AV” labels on all the cables that go back into the AV tote.

And as always, a handful of documentation and software updates, all hopefully coming together to make volunteering with FiM AV a fun and approachable experience!

Previous Years

Check these pages for what changed in the previous years: