reggiep Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 Hi All, I have been asked to put an apple tv in each classroom so that each staff member can project their iPad onto their whiteboard. That's no problem as I have done it to 9 classrooms already. My worry is that as they are wireless they may start causing issues as there will be so many of them. Has anyone else done this and if so did you have to carry out any extra work? Thanks
bwestlake Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 also have a look at air server, it places a client on the pc and you basically view the iPad on the pc.. its a lot cheaper than an apple tv. AirServer - The Most Advanced AirPlay Receiver for Mac and PC We ave a couple of apple TVs and air servers around and haven't had any difficulties so far.
klingklang Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 We were just about to order 10 Apple Tv's but we tried a demo of airserver and have had no issues at all with it
FN-GM Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 They use quite a bit of broadcast traffic, personally I would look at sticking them on a separate VLANS (along with the iPads.)
dhicks Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 My worry is that as they are wireless they may start causing issues as there will be so many of them. As pointed out above, have a look at AirServer for a cheaper option. Also, less devices to go on your wireless network. Either way, you're going to have 40 Airplay devices on your network. Airplay uses Bonjour to announce itself to the rest of the network, so you're going to have 40 devices all periodically doing a network-wide broadcast announcing themselves - for 10 devices that might work okay, for 40 that might be a bit much. Also, any time anyone connects an iPad, they'll get a list of 40 Airplay devices to choose from. I'm going for AirServer installed on wired PCs, with filtering at the edge switch level to stop Bonjour traffic leaving a switch. Our wireless endpoints are directly connected to our switches, so when you connect to a wireless device you should be able to see just local Airplay devices (ones connected to the same switch as you), and hopefully Airplay traffic through the central switch should be reduced / eliminated. 1
RichCowell Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 There's another disadvantage to Apple TV's - the remotes are pretty small, and go missing easily... and the devices are pretty much useless without them...
abillybob Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 We have around 40 also here, never had any Wi-Fi issues. You should be fine!!
Quackers Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 We have 30+ Apple TVs here, we use the wired ethernet though to help reduce the amount of wireless traffic. There's another disadvantage to Apple TV's - the remotes are pretty small, and go missing easily... and the devices are pretty much useless without them... The remotes are in our office as they are not needed once setup. The Apples TVs switch them selfs on and off and since we Airplay everything to them i don't see why the remote would be needed.
RichCowell Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 The remotes are in our office as they are not needed once setup. The Apples TVs switch them selfs on and off and since we Airplay everything to them i don't see why the remote would be needed. I meant if anyone wants to use them for anything other than AirPlay...
HPlum78 Posted June 9, 2014 Posted June 9, 2014 If you have an i fondleslab then the remote app will let you use that as the remote! if you just want to be able to stream from your fondleslab then you can use what has been mentioned above AirServer or you can do the same via a Pi as well Using a Raspberry Pi as an AirPlay Receiver - Tuts+ Mac Computer Skills Article Seems a bit much installing aTVs all over the place at apples prices.
ben604 Posted June 16, 2014 Posted June 16, 2014 Reg! I'm in a school with 32 here and we occasionally get issues with videos being shown while mirrored, but plugging ethernet in resolves that problem. You could run ethernet to the ones where you have spare sockets to reduce the load on the Wifi? 1
Fazza Posted June 18, 2014 Posted June 18, 2014 With that many you'd probably be better off getting a separate wireless infrastructure to cope with them all. Try and speak to Apple Education for tech advice or an Apple Specialist Reseller as that's a lot of devices to buy all in one go and could be a very expensive mistake.
matt40k Posted June 19, 2014 Posted June 19, 2014 Out of interest, have you looked a chromecast? Just thinking £100 a pop for a Apple TV vs £30 for chromecast, times that by 40... works for IOS as well
Arthur Posted June 19, 2014 Posted June 19, 2014 £100 a pop for a Apple TV As of yesterday, the Apple TV is now £65.83 + VAT. Still expensive compared to a Chromecast, but only by £40.83.
speckytecky Posted June 19, 2014 Posted June 19, 2014 On cost alone, if nothing else, Airserver for me is the way to go. One off payment for our site of, I think something like $39 against that we bought three Apple TV sets along with HDMI / VGA converters which came in with a cost of over £100 a set. Plus there's the other issue of where to safely place the Apple TV / Converter kit. Tried fixing it to a wall but it was still a mess and also pretty open to thieves.
reggiep Posted June 24, 2014 Author Posted June 24, 2014 Reg! I'm in a school with 32 here and we occasionally get issues with videos being shown while mirrored, but plugging ethernet in resolves that problem. You could run ethernet to the ones where you have spare sockets to reduce the load on the Wifi? I didn't even consider using the ethernet sockets. I'm doing a review of rooms now!
Norphy Posted June 24, 2014 Posted June 24, 2014 Out of interest, have you looked a chromecast? Just thinking £100 a pop for a Apple TV vs £30 for chromecast, times that by 40... works for IOS as well As good a little device as the Chromecast is, it has its limitations. Primarily, it doesn't support mirroring from an iOS device; you can only stream video to it. That and I don't think it supports enterprise wireless networks either.
ass17 Posted July 4, 2014 Posted July 4, 2014 Don't worry about it as iOS 8 and AppleTV future updates will allow airplay over Bluetooth. Coming sept/Oct this year
Arthur Posted July 4, 2014 Posted July 4, 2014 future updates will allow airplay over Bluetooth. Bluetooth is only used to setup the connection. Once the iOS device is connected to the Apple TV the streaming will be done over Wi-Fi.
ass17 Posted July 4, 2014 Posted July 4, 2014 Bluetooth is only used to setup the connection. Once the iOS device is connected to the Apple TV the streaming will be done over Wi-Fi. In IOS 8 wifi airplay will be peer to peer, no network required.
Arthur Posted July 4, 2014 Posted July 4, 2014 In IOS 8 Wi-Fi AirPlay will be peer to peer, no network required. That's what I meant (Wi-Fi as in Wi-Fi Direct).
ass17 Posted July 4, 2014 Posted July 4, 2014 For us we have 80 air servers over bonjour, we have our staff wifi on a seperate vlan so we send bonjour traffic on this vlan only. No issues so far
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