Ashton Bentley on June 29, 2026 launched the ABMX Display Mount range, a mounting system purpose-built to let organizations replace aging Cisco MX Series video room systems with Cisco Room Bar or Room Bar Pro devices while preserving existing display investments. The new mount eliminates the need for costly display wall retrofits, tackling a major pain point for enterprises stuck with outdated but otherwise functional dual-screen setups. It arrives at a time when hybrid work has made conference room modernization a top priority for IT teams worldwide.
Cisco originally positioned the MX Series—comprising the MX200, MX300, MX700, and MX800—as premium all-in-one video conferencing endpoints. These systems bundled cameras, codecs, speakers, and dual displays into sleek wall-mounted units that became a fixture in Fortune 500 boardrooms. But the hardware dates back to the mid-2010s, and Cisco ended software support for the MX200 and MX300 in 2023, with the MX700 and MX800 following in 2024. Security patches stopped, RoomOS 11 is the last supported release, and new features like AI-powered noise removal, smart framing, and Microsoft Teams Rooms parity remain out of reach.
Migrating an MX room to a modern Room Bar setup has been anything but straightforward. The MX mount brackets are welded to the display chassis, and the dual-screen alignment relies on a custom VESA pattern that isn’t replicated on standard third-party mounts. Removing the MX brain typically leaves a gaping hole in the wall and a pair of separated displays that need to be realigned, re-trimmed, and re-cabled—a process that can cost $3,000 to $7,000 per room in construction and installation labor alone. The ABMX mount is designed to turn that multi-day renovation into a two-hour swap.
What the ABMX Mount Actually Does
The ABMX range consists of a replacement mounting plate that bolts directly onto the existing MX display brackets, creating a standardized VESA interface for the Cisco Room Bar and Room Bar Pro. It includes cable management pathways, a recessed power supply shelf, and an alignment jig that ensures the dual displays stay perfectly level. The mount supports 50-inch to 70-inch displays—the exact sizes used in MX800 and MX700 deployments—and handles a combined weight of up to 180 pounds, more than enough for twin commercial-grade panels.
For the Room Bar itself, the ABMX system provides a micro-adjustment bracket that lets installers fine-tune the bar’s angle after the displays are mounted. This matters because the Room Bar’s integrated camera array relies on a precise 15-degree upward tilt to capture seated participants correctly, and wall irregularities can throw off the factory calibration. The bracket compensates for up to 5 degrees of wall lean, something CTOs at large universities and financial firms flagged as a key requirement during Ashton Bentley’s beta program.
Power and data routing receive equal attention. The plate includes knockouts for both Cisco’s proprietary PoE injector and standard IEC C13 cables, plus a hidden channel that carries the Room Bar’s HDMI and USB-C connections back to the belly of the display. This means the final installation looks factory-fresh, with no dangling wires or visible zip ties—a detail that facilities managers obsess over when refreshing executive meeting spaces.
Compatibility with Microsoft Teams Rooms and RoomOS
Cisco’s pivot to RoomOS natively running Microsoft Teams Rooms—announced in 2024 and delivered via the RoomOS 11 update—turned the Room Bar into a dual-platform workhorse. An organization can buy a single Room Bar, enroll it in either Webex or Teams Rooms mode, and switch later without new hardware. The ABMX mount doesn’t alter that flexibility; it simply provides the physical bridge. Ashton Bentley explicitly tested the mount with Room Bar devices running Teams Rooms Pro to ensure that the audio/video experience—particularly speaker tracking and front-row layout rendering on dual screens—remained identical to a fresh room build.
During the mount’s beta, a dozen early adopters reported that Room Bar’s Intelligent Audio feature, which uses beamforming to isolate voices, performed better in retrofitted MX rooms than in some new construction spaces. The theory: the MX’s original acoustic baffling, which stays in place with the ABMX mount, actually helps control mid-frequency reverb that would otherwise confuse the Room Bar’s mic array. Independent testing hasn’t confirmed this, but the anecdotal improvement is enough to make some real estate teams pause before stripping rooms down to the studs.
The Sustainability and Budget Angle
Organizations face two large costs when refreshing video rooms: the hardware purchase and the construction work. The Cisco Room Bar costs roughly $1,500 for the standard model and $2,500 for the Pro variant with dual-screen support. Construction often doubles or triples that bill. By cutting out the demolition, patching, painting, and display re-commissioning, Ashton Bentley claims the ABMX mount reduces a typical dual-display MX800 migration from a $10,000 project to around $4,000 total, including the mount’s $399 retail price. That math doesn’t include potential carbon savings from avoiding display recycling, which is becoming a hard requirement under corporate ESG mandates.
More than 80,000 Cisco MX rooms exist globally, according to Ashton Bentley’s market analysis. If even a quarter of those undergo a display-wall-friendly migration over the next five years, the avoided construction waste could fill a small landfill. Ashton Bentley is already working with Cisco’s circular economy team to offer take-back programs for the removed MX codec units, though details aren’t final.
Installer and Partner Reactions
Feedback from the professional AV community has been cautiously optimistic. Several integrators on the r/CommercialAV subreddit noted that the ABMX mount “solves the only real headache” of MX-to-Room-Bar transitions, but some wish the mount included a rotation mechanism for single-display MX configurations—a gap Ashton Bentley acknowledges and might address in a later revision. A key advantage is that the mount ships with a pre-populated hardware kit and laser-cut foam packaging that doubles as an installation template, a touch that technicians who juggle multiple sites per day appreciate.
Cisco itself hasn’t endorsed the ABMX mount, but the company’s channel team has been quietly recommending it under NDA for large accounts that postponed room refreshes due to budget freezes. One Cisco solutions architect, speaking off the record, noted that the mount “keeps the recurring software revenue flowing” because customers who would otherwise limp along with unsupported MX gear can now move to a Room Bar and subscribe to Teams Rooms Pro without waiting for the next capital expenditure cycle.
What It Means for Windows and Teams Enthusiasts
Windows IT administrators who manage Teams Rooms devices through the Microsoft Teams admin center or Azure AD should note that the ABMX mount simplifies the physical side of a Rooms deployment without introducing any new software variables. The mount is purely mechanical. That means a room that gets the ABMX treatment appears as a standard Windows-based Teams Room (or Android-based, if the Room Bar runs in controller mode) with full Intune management, conditional access policies, and reporting telemetry. Ashton Bentley’s documentation includes a one-page checklist for enrolling the Room Bar into a Windows domain and applying the correct device configuration profiles.
For organizations standardizing on Microsoft Places and the Teams Premium Meeting Room Analytics, the mount doesn’t affect occupancy sensor integrations. The Room Bar’s built-in people count and room analytics continue to work, and the dual-display alignment ensures that the Front Row layout—which places gallery video across both screens—renders correctly without awkward bezel gaps or cropping artifacts.
Competitive Landscape
Ashton Bentley isn’t the only player eyeing the MX replacement opportunity. Chief, a smaller UK-based bracket manufacturer, offers a weld-on adapter plate for about half the price, but requires certified welding on site, which pushes labor costs back up. Crestron’s recent Flex Pod mounting system supports dual displays but doesn’t reuse existing MX bracket points, so it demands a full wall rebuild. The ABMX mount’s advantage is that it requires zero permanent modifications to the wall or the displays, making it the only solution that landlords and facility managers routinely approve without a change request.
Patents are a concern. Ashton Bentley’s design intentionally avoids using any Cisco-specific mounting patents, relying instead on the standardized VESA patterns that the MX displays expose once the brain unit is removed. Legal teams at a half-dozen Fortune 500 companies have already cleared the mount for deployment, according to Ashton Bentley’s head of product, a signal that the intellectual property landscape is clear.
Limitations and Caveats
No retrofit solution is perfect. The ABMX mount works only with original MX displays that haven’t been damaged during previous decommissioning attempts. If a facilities team already ripped out the mounting plates or cut the integrated cables, the mount can’t salvage that room. It also doesn’t address aging display panels—rooms with burn-in or backlight degradation will still need new panels eventually. Ashton Bentley recommends a display inspection before ordering the mount.
Another limitation is that the Room Bar’s native table microphone coverage is designed for smaller rooms. In large MX800 spaces that previously relied on the MX’s table mic pods, organizations will need to purchase Cisco’s Table Microphone Pro or third-party Dante mics, adding about $1,200 to the project. The ABMX mount can route those mic cables through its channel, but it doesn’t include the microphones themselves.
The Road Ahead
Ashton Bentley is already prototyping an ABMX Pro variant that includes an integrated motorized lift for the Room Bar, allowing the bar to retract into the ceiling when not in use—a feature demanded by high-end law firms that want their boardrooms to look “screen-free” for in-person meetings. The company also hinted at a partnership with Logitech to produce a similar mount for the Rally Bar, though details are under wraps.
Meanwhile, the broader industry is moving toward software-defined rooms where endpoints are increasingly agnostic to mounting hardware. Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 Cloud PCs are making the compute layer abstract, and mounts like the ABMX are the physical complement that keeps the conferencing hardware flexible. For the Windows administrator tasked with refreshing 200 rooms by year-end, the ABMX mount is a pragmatic tool that swaps a construction project for a configuration change—and that’s exactly the kind of simplification the hybrid workforce demands.