Digital signage has been around for some time with many successful applications, from restaurants to shopping centers to building lobbies and transportation hubs. The advantages of digital display technologies are numerous and well-understood, but companies are taking a closer look at this solution for a new area  that is not so well-understood – hybrid workplaces.

Come with us, for a bit, for a walk back in time to the 1980s. That decade saw the dawn of the personal computing era. Until the advent of the personal computer (PC), computing power lay in data centers in mainframes and minicomputers. There were no such things as “apps,” but there were complex applications to run financial and operational aspects of companies.

Most importantly, however, before PCs (we mean all of them here of any operating system), the IT department controlled all that computing power. In those days, IT was called by many other names (sometimes not flattering ones), but generally, professional workers had little control over what IT did, and they might wait years to be able to take advantage of that computing power to make their job easier.

Why is being disciplined so difficult? The results of discipline are amazing. It feels great after you apply discipline, you feel like you accomplished something. It literally makes you a better person. So why are our brains wired to make it hard? I am sure evolutionarily speaking, there is some reason behind it. Lounging certainly allows you to conserve calories and stay alive longer when food is scarce. Adrenaline will get us going when it is absolutely required but being at a heightened state of activity is not sustainable for too long. And binge-watching Real Housewives of New Jersey is just so dang appealing! The draw to being undisciplined is always present.

Managed support services are well understood and utilized in the IT world, and they are increasingly popular for various reasons. Perhaps one reason not discussed as much is the sheer breadth of technology in use today in organizations of all sizes. In IT, support has to cover services like cloud infrastructure, SaaS (software as a service), networks, wireless and mobile computing, security and cybersecurity, and much more. This breadth requires a significant amount of expertise and training, as well as specialized tools for monitoring and user support.

AV systems in organizations have gone through a similar evolution; they now encompass a wide range of technology and have joined the IT and IoT world as IP-based connected systems requiring the same security and monitoring levels as other IT systems. That means that user support must also include specialized training and tools, further burdening chronically understaffed IT departments. Managed support services for AV can ease the burden on organizations and provide the specialized services needed. Let's explore several models below and their potential benefits for your organization.

Simulation is a fast-growing area of interest in the healthcare education field. Universities and training hospitals across the U.S. are building custom simulation labs to give future nurses, doctors, and PAs real, interactive experiences in a safe and controlled environment. 

And healthcare isn’t the only industry where simulation technology is sparking interest. This blog is part two of a series of blogs that will explore new use cases for simulation technology.

Today, we’re turning an eye toward police training simulation labs. Police academies realize the potential for simulation to provide invaluable training experiences to new and current police officers in Miami, FL, and across the U.S. Keep reading to learn more about what you need to set up sim labs for police training. 

Once upon a time, IT was IT, AV was AV, and never the twain shall meet. Well, those days are long gone. AV devices are smart, connected, special purpose computers, and the digital convergence of video, audio, and communication over IP has ensured that they all meet on the same networks. 

While in the past, the isolation of AV systems meant that they had some immunity from hacking and online attacks, today, they may be as vulnerable as any other connected system. IoT security is a much-discussed subject these days, and AV devices are part of the IoT (Internet of Things). The problem? While other connected computers and systems have benefitted from either native or third-party solutions that add layers of security to those systems, AV technology has lagged in that regard.

Every year Level 3 Audiovisual participates in several philanthropic endeavors. One of our favorites is our partnership with the United Food Bank of Eastern Arizona. It’s a favorite because it is tied in with the raffle we host during our annual Christmas party. Employees purchase raffle tickets to win prizes that have been donated by our vendor partners. Our policy is to match all raffle purchases and then donate that money to the United Food Bank. As the popularity of our Christmas raffle has grown, along with an increasing number of employees at Level 3, we have been able to consistently grow the amount we donate on a yearly basis.

Could you imagine blindly following a recipe in the kitchen without checking or tasting your food along the way? I remember my friend had a recipe for a Penne Alla Vodka dinner-for-four once called for five HEADS of garlic to go in the sauce! Not five cloves... five heads. We were in college, and he was a beginner cook, he didn’t think twice about it and chopped up an obscene amount of garlic (and I’m Italian) added it to the sauce, cooked it up, and served it without tasting it. We literally thought something was burning. It was the garlic. The entire pasta dish had to get thrown out...all that food...all that garlic...wasted. The dinner was ruined. We still had some salad, but there was no main course.