Welcome to the October AV MSP newsletter! We’re back on track.
The next AV Service Roundtable will be on October 30th, 2025 at 12PM Eastern Time. We’ll be talking about the contents of this newsletter and whatever else you have on your mind! Sign up here: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/341a0099-4de5-45a0-9696-a99ebd01e359@c488692e-4c20-4c29-9db1-1f2c1084271c. We will be joined by Shai Moshe, who is interviewed for the newsletter this month.
Interview with Shai Moshe
We’ve known Shai for a few years now, but he’s been around the AV industry for decades. We decided to have a chat with him about AV and security, since that’s his current obsession/business. Shai, how did you get into AV in the first place, how did you get to where you are?
I started at the age of 19 at Polycom. I was the Quality Assurance engineer for their software platforms and made sure the bugs were identified and all worked properly with the hardware. From there, I was told I needed to be in the field and in front of customers. Haven’t looked back!
When did security start becoming your focus and why?
Once I realized how most of the AV gear went unchecked and unaudited I told myself I am going to develop a solution. Here we are!
What are the biggest security challenges customers have with IoT and AV devices today?
Biggest issue is devices going unchecked. Most tools rely on the device to tell it what it is. None actually check. What happens when a new device connects and how do they verify its authenticity?
What’s the AV industry doing right?
I am seeing some integrators start to take security seriously. Their customers are asking for it and they are obliging.
What are customers asking for, specifically? What do they want out of AV companies and products now?
From a security standpoint, they just want to know that they aren’t putting their employees and executives in a compromising position. Meaning, can we really roll out hundreds of rooms and trust that everything in the conference environment is secure?
What are some common AV practices that are putting the industry at risk?
Selling thousands of dollars in equipment and only providing “maintenance” or “monitoring”. What exactly is being monitored besides up/down status? Up/down status has been doable for over a decade now. Give customers a security service tied to the rooms you sell them!
What do you think most people in AV misunderstand about security and risk? What could we do to change that?
People in AV are used to being segmented. In days past that was acceptable. Today any and all devices are all connected and they need to have a layer of security just like laptops, PCs and servers.
What steps did you take to start creating a security company focused on AV and IoT?
Most important thing I did was listen. Our focus is visibility. What is really in your rooms and on your network? We are adding HDMI visibility and vulnerabilities amongst a ton of other features on the roadmap.
Tell us about Cybr IQ – what makes it different in the industry, what’s the underlying tech, what powers it?
We operate on the physical layer. Using the power of electricity. If a device exists it must have power to operate. Using that electricity, we are able to identify what any device is using what we call DNA. Once we identify it we are able to block/allow/quarantine. If a company standardizes on 3-4 manufacturers on any given network, we enable them to block any manufacturer not amongst the 3-4 they standardized on. We also have a native integration to ITSMs like service now so we can automate a ticket once we flag an issue. We identify hardware on layer 1, any “chip” or hidden hardware is immediately identified by our platform. No more hiding!
Thanks for the time Shai! We’re excited to see how this solution develops and especially how it can help change the landscape of security in the AV industry. You can reach Shai via LinkedIn or his company:
We are happy to both know Shai and be a partner of his. We’re in the process of testing his solution and are happy to share results or get you a demo. Feel free to reach out to us on LinkedIn or sales@av-msp.com if you want to chat about this or any other tools.
A Note on SLAs
We, in this year, two thousand and twenty-five, are still seeing customers and AV integrators alike seeming to misunderstand SLAs (or Service Level Agreements if you’re being pedantic) or just not having them at all. SLAs are a contract that allows us to measure performance and have ground rules for how quickly we address incidents, in case you need a refresher.
At a minimum, you should have guaranteed:
- Time to respond
- Time to site (if you are dispatching someone out)
- Time to resolution
These might all be different based on the Priority of the incident. High priority obviously has faster times. This is what helps us prioritize (ah ha!) when we have a lot going on. If we have an 8-hour response time for a low priority incident, we’ll let that one sit while we’re dealing with more urgent matters.
There may be frustration, but that’s why they’re a contract. If a customer needs faster response times, they can be changed and appropriately billed for the extra staffing and time it will take. We think this is fair and it reduces a lot of discussion about whether service is being done correctly.
Since the interview doesn’t have any homework, here it is: get your SLAs with customers (if you’re a vendor) or your AV vendor (if you’re a customer) in order. If a vendor cannot guarantee AND measure SLAs, perhaps find one that can. If you’re a vendor and have these struggles, we’re here to help!
News and Links
Biamp, a DSP company, has acquired ClearOne’s IP and brands. The end of a somewhat controversial era. https://www.avnetwork.com/news/big-acquisition-news-biamp-acquires-assets-of-clearone-intellectual-property-and-brands
For a strange AV history lesson, do check out this reddit post discussing the ClearOne/Shure lawsuit from a few years ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/CommercialAV/comments/zhxw2s/i_was_subpoenaed_in_the_clearoneshure_case/
Here’s your monthly warning about using AI, this one about Salesforce’s Agentforce. https://noma.security/blog/forcedleak-agent-risks-exposed-in-salesforce-agentforce/
We say a lot about AI, but there’s ANOTHER AI, much older, called machine learning. This little game that’s been running for quite some time now has been teaching a machine to learn what doodles look like. It’s very fast at this point, even if you’re a beginner artist. https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/
The Marketing
Thanks for reading, here’s some ads. We type them out so we can evade adblockers. We are AV MSP. We provide audio visual managed services directly to corporations, universities, and other organizations with large AV environments. We also provide services in collaboration with AV integrators and IT MSPs. All of this is done with modern ITSM software and standards, all underpinned by strong security standards. If you’re looking to elevate your services, please reach out to us at sales@av-msp.com to chat. You can also follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/av-msp/, on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/av-msp.com, and of course on our website at https://av-msp.com.