In the timeline of a new build or major renovation, AV has a bad habit of showing up fashionably late—and not in a good way.

Walls are already up. Conduit is poured in concrete. Ceiling grids are finalized. And someone says, "Hey, when does AV come in?"

By then, you’re either stuck with limited options or facing costly change orders. And it all could have been avoided with one simple shift: include AV in the planning conversation early.

If your organization has ever tried to roll out meeting rooms across multiple buildings, departments, or campuses, you know how fast things can go from "simple tech update" to "how do we have five different room types for the same use case?"

For enterprise leaders and higher education decision-makers alike, the question isn’t whether to invest in AV—it’s how to do it strategically.

One of the most critical decisions is whether to standardize room types across your organization or customize for every space. The answer, as with most things in AV, is: it depends. But there’s a smart way to balance both.

Have you ever started a home improvement project by uttering these famous last words: I bet I can do that myself? Only, you later discover after multiple trips to the hardware store, a string of unforeseen complications, and a lot of swearing that it would have been faster, easier and cheaper to hire a professional in the first place? Now, have you ever been tempted to start an AV integration project the same way? Before you find yourself cursing at your video conferencing system, consider this. Just like you need the right skills and tools to install a new toilet, you need the right skills and tools for a truly successful AV integration and AV integrators have them. Involving them early in the process can help you avoid mistakes and missteps that will be time-consuming and costly to fix later. For example, according to industry standard expert AQAV, the cost of fixing poor quality AV can approach 20 percent of the total cost of the system, while monitoring and maintaining a good quality AV system only costs 2.5 percent of the total purchase price.

Virtual meetings are straightforward enough when everyone participates over video. People join individually from their laptops or computers, and we see each other in small squares on a grid. 

But now that companies are making the move to return to the office (“RTO”), video meetings are presenting new challenges. Some of us may be together in the conference room but are joined by remote participants over platforms like Zoom and Teams. 

At the table, people have the advantage of proximity to pick up body language and spur-of-the-moment conversations. Over video, remote participants may struggle to hear or see what’s going on, and their ideas may not be heard, either. 

How can we ensure the “new normal” of hybrid communication doesn’t create new problems? With an intentional AV design, we build conference room systems that address these issues and make meetings a seamless experience for all. 

Keep reading to see how Level 3 Audiovisual enhances hybrid conferencing for businesses worldwide.

Your business never stands still; it is always evolving and changing. Even if your business is stable and not high-growth, change is inevitable. Industries, partners, suppliers, and customers all evolve, grow, and change, and technology influences much of it. You may still do some business via fax machines, but is that tool as indispensable as it once was 30 years ago? The tools of your trade must grow and adapt with you.

One of your business’s key tools is AV technology. Your meeting spaces, conference rooms, executive boardrooms, and training rooms all employ various communication and collaboration technologies to work internally and with outside constituencies. Is your business keeping up with the investments needed for today’s collaboration? The right AV design and strategy can keep your Tempe, AZ, and worldwide facilities up to speed with the needs and speeds of today's business.

Keep reading below to learn more about how documented AV design standards enable your enterprise AV infrastructure to scale and adapt to current and future business challenges.

It’s easy to think that something is better just because it’s more expensive. And if you are comparing, say, a Kia to a Lamborghini, that might be true. But in a lot of cases, it isn’t. In fact, the cheap seats at the ballpark usually have the best view. When it comes to audiovisual solutions, expensive doesn’t always mean better either. As you are designing new AV systems, understanding what you should spend your money on—and where you can cut corners—can ensure you get the functionality you need without exceeding your budget.

They say it takes a village to raise a child, but a lesser known proverb says that on every successful audiovisual systems integration team is an AV design engineer. AV integration projects are rarely the work of a single person—they are a group effort. And making sure the right people are in that group is critical to your AV project. With an AV design engineer on your team, you can rest easy knowing that the planning, implementation, and installation of your AV system is in good hands.

There are as many different professional AV solutions as there are uses for them. With such a wide array of audio visual solutions available today, and as that number increases with the ongoing evolution of technology, audiovisual design and consulting services provide expert interpretation of needs and selection of AV solutions that fit the application and budget of a client.