I've been **very** happy using AirServer (www.airserverapp.com) instead of AppleTVs for mirroring. The software installs to a PC or Mac, and allows the computer to act as an AppleTV. It even supports multiple-simultaneous connections and recording(!) - (recording is currently Mac only, coming soon for PC). What connected classroom doesn't already have a PC or Mac where you could just install this program? And it's only $4 per classroom. That's not a typo.
The downside is that this does make demands on your network... namely, that your classroom PCs be on the same subnet as your wireless devices, or that you complete the same kind of mDNS gateway setup for the classroom computer that you would have needed to do for an AppleTV. I know this sounds a bit like an advertisement, but I'm just a *very* happy customer. We started a pilot with 12 real AppleTVs in the summer/early fall of 2012, and within a few weeks of discovering this we had ripped all of the AppleTVs out and deployed this campus-wide, for less than the smaller pilot program cost. The software can be set to run all the time, or start on demand, though either way the user must be logged into a PC before it will accept a stream. I've found it works best when started on demand... this cuts down on the number of classrooms that show available for mirroring from the iPad, making it easier to find what you're looking for, and it also solves the issue of a random student or passerby interrupting a lecture already using the computer by kicking off a stream. Also, there was a bug for the PC version back in 2012 (since fixed) with running as a service, so that's just part of the deployment we have now. Joel Coehoorn Director of Information Technology York College, Nebraska 402.363.5603 [email protected] *The mission of York College is to transform lives through Christ-centered education and to equip students for lifelong service to God, family, and society* On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 10:33 PM, Jason Cook <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi James, > > You are right it doesn't do mirroring as such for IOS. The mersive guys > are pretty helpful, if you are interested it would be worth having a chat > with them anyway, they might be pushing for such a feature in the future. > > As you say ultimately it's about choosing something that fits your > requirements, IOS mirroring wasn't on our list as required but certainly > nice to have... I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the requests pour > in. I believe we are also looking at a couple of AB tutor licenses, don't > know if this has anything of use https://abtutor.com/ios_features > > Regards > > Jason > > -- > Jason Cook > The University of Adelaide, AUSTRALIA 5005 > Ph : +61 8 8313 4800 > e-mail: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > > > -----Original Message----- > From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto: > [email protected]] On Behalf Of James Andrewartha > Sent: Thursday, 16 January 2014 2:54 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Apple TV display mirroring spectrum use in HD > wifi > > Hi Lee, > > On 16/01/14 12:07, Lee H Badman wrote: > > Not sure what you're looking at, but AppleTV has nothing to do with > Mersive. I'm not trying to sell their stuff, just quite fond of it after > the frustrations of what the network needs to have done to it (bigger > networks are worse) for AppleTV. > > I was looking at the Solstice datasheet [1] which seems to indicate it > doesn't do AirPlay on its own. > > > I see TCO of AppleTV as $99 (for AppleTV) + lots of hours dorking with > the network + lots of support issues when it becomes a service so relied on > that it simply can't tolerate almost-guaranteed disruption/unpredictability > + time spent trying to accommodate non-Apple devices = AppleTV actually > costs hundreds (or thousands) of dollars and leaves you with a network > you'd probably prefer not to have, and a fragmented "what device can do > what" environment for diplay mirroring. > > Absolutely, you have to determine whether it's worth it, for Apple TVs or > Solstice. I'm just trying to determine feature compatibility - from what I > can tell, the Solstice app [1] can only play media files or view webpages, > it's not true iOS display mirroring and so doesn't solve the "what device > can do what" environment. Perhaps that's all your classes need, but not > being able to mirror other iOS apps makes it a non-starter for our > requirements. > > > I like the Mersive paradigm as an alternative- it asks nothing of the > network. Although I'd still like to see Apple fix their own limitations. > > Sure, I wish you could drop Apple TVs into a directory like printers > (though AirPrint indicates that's going away too) and just choose from a > list. Actually, you can with the latest MDM stuff [3], but then you're > having to push configuration to the device. Bonjour even supports wide-area > DNS-SD, just the Apple TV doesn't for what appears to be pandering to big > content. > > [1] > http://www.mersive.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/Solstice-data-sheet.pdf > [2] https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/solstice-client/id604298374?mt=8 > [3] > > http://help.apple.com/profilemanager/mac/3.0/#apd621BA9DF-4301-4D76-8A90-84E05E343FFA > > -- > James Andrewartha > Network & Projects Engineer > Christ Church Grammar School > Claremont, Western Australia > Ph. (08) 9442 1757 > Mob. 0424 160 877 > > ********** > Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent > Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. > > ********** > Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent > Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. > ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
