[ipad] iPad Mirroring - AppleTV or AirPlay app?

[Vellocet]

Hi, were looking into mirroring our ipads to the class PC's so that they can show them on the projector

 

What do you guys recommend for this? Lookijng at AppleTV and the many apps that do this eg Reflector

 

Anyone have experience of the apps and which is the best one?

[Norphy]

I've tried AirServer and Reflector, AirServer was better by an order of magnitude. Faster, more stable, better featured. Cheaper if you buy in bulk too.

 

We did try an AppleTV as well but we couldn't get it to connect to our enterprise wireless network. In any case, a cheap PCI wireless card and a Airsever licence is considerably cheaper than an AppleTV anyway, not to mention that you won't have to plug another box into the projector and have to deal with teachers not understanding how to switch a source.

[j224]

Using AirServer ourselves because it's considerably cheaper than AppleTV. Works pretty well.

[Vellocet]

Cheers guys, so I would need a PCI wireless card for airserver? Wouldnt it airplay from a PC on the wired network to the ipad on the wireless?

[Norphy]

You don't need a wireless card per se, we've just put one into the PC for simplicity's sake.

 

We have a subnetted network here. Each block has its own subnet, the server rooms have one each, the wireless network has another. Airplay servers advertise themselves using Bonjour which can't traverse subnets without help. We had a choice of installing a Bonjour gateway of one kind or another or putting in a wireless card into each PC with AirServer installed so that the iWhatever and the AirServer PC were in the same subnet. We chose the latter to simplify matters, it works quite nicely

 

If your main network and the wireless network are in the same subnet, you don't need to do this.

[Vellocet]

Gotcha, got the same subnet for wireless and the wired pc's in the classes here

 

Will have a play with AirServer now, thanks guys

[Darylrese]

Can someone explain how to use / setup 'airserver'?

 

We were going to go down the route of apple tv but this sounds better!

 

Just looking for the icon on ipad / iphone i cant find the 'airtime' logo

Edited March 14, 2013 by Darylrese

[Norphy]

There isn't very much to it. You install AirServer on a PC or Mac. It runs as a background process and advertises itself as an AirPlay server via Bonjour. Any iOS device on the same subnet as the PC (and possibly iTunes too, I haven't tested) will see it as an Airplay server and give you the option to output to it.

 

However, the iOS device and the AirServer do need to be on the same subnet as each other otherwise it won't work. This is because it uses Bonjour to advertise itself and Bonjour can not traverse subnets.

 

If you're running AirServer on Windows, you need the Bonjour Print Services installed as well

[Darylrese]

The issue for me at the moment is i cant find an airplay icon on ipad or iphone by double tapping the home button?

[Norphy]

Are the iOS device and the AirServer on the same subnet? Do you have the Bonjour Print Services installed on the PC?

[Darylrese]

I do have bonjour print services installed. Will the icon only appear once it detects an airplay server?

 

Our pc's are on a different VLAN to our wireless, im guessing we need to therefore host the server on a wireless device or get a wireless card? Subnet masks are the same on iphone and pc with server running.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Darylrese

[Norphy]

Yes, the AirPlay icon will only appear when an AirPlay server is detected, whether it's an AppleTV or a piece of software like AirServer.

 

If your iOS and AirServer devices are in seperate VLANs, they're not going to see each other as they're going to be in separate subnets too. The subnet mask is not relevant to this. You need to put both devices into the same VLAN. Re-read my posts and substitute 'subnet' for 'VLAN'

[Darylrese]

OK so i put the MAC Mini onto our wireless (same SSID as server) and now it works

 

This means every PC that needs to use it would need to go wireless dispite going on the same network? I don't think thats going to be an option

 

Any way round this or would we need to buy wireless cards for every machine? Could you fit the wireless card, connect it to the ssd (same VLAN) and still keep the ethernet cable to the network (2 ip addresses on one machine)?

Edited March 14, 2013 by Darylrese

[Norphy]

This means every PC that needs to use it would need to go wireless dispite going on the same network?

 

You see, that's the trouble. You've just told me that your wired and wireless infrastructure are on two separate VLANs. Despite being on the same physical infrastructure, you effectively have two distinct networks joined together with a router. The AppleTV and AirServer use Bonjour to broadcast their availability. Bonjour is a multicast protocol which can not traverse routers. The only way that you're going to get this to work is to use a product like this: Aerohive's Free Bonjour Gateway which acts as a Bonjour gateway between networks or to make sure that both devices are in the same VLAN.

 

You can put a wireless card into a PC and still have it connected to your wired LAN. This is what we have done because we have run into the same issue as you. Our wireless LAN and our wired infrastructure are on separate VLANs and that was the simplest way that we could think to get this working. Windows will generally use the fastest connection available to it for general traffic so you shouldn't see any performance issues this way.

[Darylrese]

ooooo i think the wireless card might be the way forward then! USB dongle or PCI Card? We have slim cases so would need a low profile wireless card, USB dongle would be better suited i expect if it does the trick

[Norphy]

Up to you, either should work. I've gone for a PCI card because they're not quite so nickable and the aerials are a little more powerful. This works well:

 

Edimax EW-7612PIN V2 300Mbps Wireless 802.11b/g/n PCI-E Adapter with 3dBi High-Gain Detachable Antennas: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

[Darylrese]

thank-you VERY much. Looking forward to trying this out tomorrow.

 

Have you ever tried the Hive Bonjour gateway?

 

Again the only thing im thinking of is that we have an admin wifi and a student wifi, if students want to show their screen to the board as well as teachers, we cant have the teachers on admin and students on the student wifi as airplay button doesn't show (just tried it)

 

Also if you push your device to a computer connected to an interactive whiteboard, would you be able to control the app from the whiteboard? I dont think that's possible, but would be really cool if you could!

Edited March 14, 2013 by Darylrese

[Norphy]

1) We tried the AeroHive product but didn't get too far with it. I'm sure we'd have got it going if we had the time but sadly we didn't, we needed a quick fix.

 

2) Your staff and student wifi networks must be on separate VLANs again. Apart from putting your teacher devices on the student network or vice versa, there's not an awful lot you can do about that. That said, our guest wireless network is locked down to only allow ports 80 and 443 through, I don't know if yours would be the same?

 

3) Not a chance. All the iOS device is doing with AirPlay is encoding what's on the screen into an H264 video stream and sending it to a player. It's nothing fancy but there would be no way of interacting with it on the whiteboard or the PC without some kind of fancy app on the iPhone and Apple probably wouldn't let that onto the app store.

[bclarke]

Reflector App is another. Works on all platforms, deployable and very good pricing.

[Darylrese]

Thanks

 

You had any problems with the audio with airplayserver? Sometimes it works, othertimes it doesn't no matter what device is connected.

 

Can't even get Reflector to launch when airplay is turned on

 

Tried installing Hive Gateway, can deploy it and ping it but the hive manager isnt picking it up

Edited March 15, 2013 by Darylrese

[Driftingashore]

I'm looking at this too. To anyone with AirServer set up: I assume you have passcodes installed on it. If so, if someone logs in with the passcode, how long does that device gain access for? i.e. if a teacher wanted to show a student's work on an iPad they had, could she connect it, then when the AirPlay session is over, does the password need to be re-entered, or does the session persist? If so, any idea how long?

 

Thanks

[Darylrese]

Hive just phoned me up after registering for the free bonjour gateway and they supply AP's and such and hopefully can give me a hand getting the gateway to work in our school.

 

 

Driftingashore - Im on the free trial at the moment but i just set a password to test for you and if you turn airplay off on the device then back on it doesnt ask for the password again, only the first time. I did it all within minutes though so im not sure if theres a time limit. Ill leave it logged in for awhile to test for you.

 

Will keep you updated.

[j224]

I'm looking at this too. To anyone with AirServer set up: I assume you have passcodes installed on it. If so, if someone logs in with the passcode, how long does that device gain access for? i.e. if a teacher wanted to show a student's work on an iPad they had, could she connect it, then when the AirPlay session is over, does the password need to be re-entered, or does the session persist? If so, any idea how long?

 

Thanks

 

Not sure if there is a time limit. The teacher can very quickly and easily change the password if need be though, to stop kids from continually connecting to AirServer without being asked to.

[Darylrese]

OK so had it connected for half an hour, didnt log me out or prompt for the password. Turned airplay off and back on and didn't ask for the password again from my iphone 4s.

 

Hope this helps

[kennysarmy]

We are moving from the reflector App to Apple TV for the following reasons:

 

1. Less lag.

2. Less messing about updating the app on numerous teachers desk when updates are available.