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.

Salesforce. Google Workspace. Adobe Creative Cloud. Slack. Chances are, your business is already using cloud-driven software as a service (SaaS) for customer management, communications, collaboration, business operations, and more. Off-the-shelf software solutions are cost-effective, easy to implement and use, and support hybrid workplaces where some employees work at home and others are in the office.

Managed SaaS takes your software applications to the next level. Under a managed services contract, you’ll pay a monthly subscription fee for your provider to handle everything for you. That includes integrating software and hardware, configuring individual accounts, uptime monitoring, and support as needed. All you have to do is log in and get to work.

Keep reading to learn how an MSP provides a customized, tailored solution for the software applications in your Scottsdale, AZ, or global organization.

For many years, organizations of all sizes have understood the necessity of protecting internet-connected computers from viruses and hacks. What hasn’t been as well understood or addressed is IoT security – securing non-computer connected devices from threats. Why is that? 

Historically, devices not based on general-purpose computing operating systems like Windows were thought to present, in security parlance, less of an attack surface. These systems might have been proprietary or based on open-source systems like Linux, where the development community could see and shore up potential attack points. The attack surface widened considerably in the Internet of Things (IoT), where all devices become "smart" with Internet connectivity to one or more cloud services. Add the ability of many devices to be accessed and controlled by publicly available APIs, and everything is now a computer – and vulnerable. 

What does that mean for AV devices like cameras, microphones, room control systems, and more? These are all now IoT devices, and the intelligence derived from their cloud connectivity makes them as vulnerable to threats as any Windows or Mac laptop. How do you improve IoT security for AV devices in your Phoenix, AZ organization? Keep reading for four general strategies below. But spoiler alert – these are similar to what you do with other connected platforms.

When we consider the educational role of healthcare simulation, the traditional use cases are for nursing, physician, and PA students in training hospitals and universities in Houston, TX, and other major cities across the U.S. However, simulation technology is incredibly sophisticated and vastly adaptable to help medical professionals of all types gain hands-on practice and experience in a safe, simulated environment. 

Over the next few months, we’ll be embarking on a blog series to explore the expansion of simulation technology and new use cases for future healthcare professionals. 

Today, we’re starting with EMS simulation labs built in ambulances and other environments where EMS professionals deliver critical care to patients. Outfitting an ambulance for EMS education requires thinking through several unique considerations. We’re here to help guide you through them — keep reading to learn more. 

We’ve talked a lot on these pages about considering a different way to look at your AV infrastructure investments. Like payroll services, HR management platforms, and a host of other software and its attendant hardware, owning these solutions and managing them inside your organization makes less sense every passing day. The reasons are straightforward – you are looking for a business result, and owning the tools and methods for these systems doesn’t provide any business advantage to your organization. 

Video walls are increasingly popular tools for communication, promotion, and engagement. If you are considering an LED video wall for a corporate lobby, retail location, or operations center, you are looking at a significant investment in hardware, software, installation, maintenance, and training. Is there a simpler way to get the result for your Tempe, AZ organization without investing in all this support up front? There is, with VWaaS. OK, we may have made this term up. But there are excellent reasons why you should consider acquiring your video wall as a subscription service through Level 3 Audiovisual. Stay with us as we explain below!

Your AV systems are significant contributors to your company’s productivity and bottom line. When it comes time to elevate the conference and training rooms in your Scottsdale, AZ, home office, or build out new meeting spaces in a second office, you want to ensure you’re investing in the right solutions that will create meaningful experiences and promote business growth and productivity. 

Two vastly different standards are emerging and diverging in the enterprise market: the AV system integrator model and the managed services provider (MSP) model. What’s the difference, and which models delivers more value to your business? Find out below. 

I love checklists. They are some of my favorite things. In fact, I start each day with a prioritized daily task list (which is basically a checklist of things I need to get done that day). When I take the scouts camping, I use a checklist to make sure I have everything I need. When I go to Costco? You guessed it. Checklists. When I get up to leave at a restaurant, mental checklist: wallet, phone, keys...good to go. When I want to make sure I delivered a quality AV system? Checklists out the wazoo! They make life so easy. Not only that, they make it possible to consistently deliver on experience.

We’ve discussed the merits of managed services at length on these blog pages. The term SaaS (Software as a Service) is well understood in the IT lexicon and the technology world. Managed services are also starting to become well understood and, generally speaking, are all about delivering an outcome-based level of performance and service for a set monthly fee. So, what, then, is Hardware as a Service (HaaS), and how does it play into the world of managed services? 

For the most part, HaaS is the same concept as any other managed service. We’re going to use a consumer example here, and while it may not correlate directly to the commercial audio-visual world, it is illustrative. 

Volvo currently offers some unique leasing plans for some of its models. In fact, they don't call it a lease; they call it a subscription. Unlike common car leases, this one offers full maintenance (including tires), insurance, road hazard coverage, and almost everything you need to operate the vehicle but fuel. It doesn't even require a long-term commitment. It’s as close as you get in the auto world to the car as a service, where you get almost all the benefits of ownership without most of the downside.

HaaS for your Phoenix, AZ company can work in much the same way as Volvo’s subscription-based model, and then some. Let’s explore the HaaS model for AV and its benefits in more detail below.