SMART Board 6000 / 7000 Series Screen Share Reliability Issues

[RAK_ITAV]

Hi There,

 

We currently have 50 SMART board screens installed around our school site and we are currently facing issues with the reliability of the Screen Share application that's built into the AM30 / AM40 Android modules.

 

To be straight with you, the Screen Share function has NEVER worked reliably (This has been occurring ever since we had our first 6000 series installed a couple years back) - Some devices won't be able to connect at all (regardless of the device's OS), some will but have massive lag making the experience completely unusable, devices will randomly disconnect and then won't be able to reconnect until the board is reset, and of course on some days specific classrooms will work absolutely fine. It has got to the point where our teaching staff refuse to use the application and are demanding Apple TVs which we really don't want to have to invest in!

 

So far support from Smart has involved links to their knowledge base which hasn't helped at all. I've checked all of the required open ports with our Network Manager, and white listed all of the recommended URLs in Smart's setup guide. We have also checked WIFI coverage in problematic rooms but most of them have their own dedicated AP! I can't find any other articles or forums regarding the reliability of the app so beginning to think it's just us!

 

Does the Screen Share function actually work? Are any organisations able to use it reliably? Am I missing a key part of the setup?

 

Any reply would be greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks,

 

Rob

Edited January 30, 2019 by RAK_ITAV

[telspar]

No, it has not worked reliably for us yet, but it does seem to be slowly getting better. Update your wifi card drivers, update to Windows 1809 if you can.

One particularly difficult issue I am trying to resolve is forcing the wifi direct connection to use 5ghz. Anytime it uses 2.4 here the connection is much worse. When it does connect over a 5ghz signal it is usually a very usable connection, but until I can force all of them to use that all of the time I only recommend this feature for non-video use and only to teachers that seem confident with trying new technology. We have HDMI and USB to a desk or podium in every room and I don't anticipate that ending anytime soon.

 

We are mostly using the screen share / miracast function within Windows, but I have found essentially the same results with the chromecast and airplay connections. Which connection option are you using the most?

[RAK_ITAV]

Thanks for your response! We're using a variety of devices but predominantly iPads and Surfaces. It's becoming more of an issue as our IT committee are pushing more and more towards byod - we've decided that because of this Screen Share issue, we're not ready.

 

Interesting point about 2.4 vs 5ghz connection. I will definitely feed this info back to our network manager to see if that can help. We are predominantly 5ghz now but still have some ap's with 2.4 connection so that could well be causing a problem.

 

The issues we are experiencing are consistent with pretty much any device, whether that be a Surface, iPad, iPhone or from a Chrome browser which certainly points towards the network, or to the hardware itself. It seems that using the 'reset' option in the AM40 settings, under the screenshare option enables the connection to work fine for a short time, to which it eventually deteriorates over time - I can't tell our staff to constantly be doing this though, it's one of those features that should 'just work'.

 

I'll report back when we explore forcing 5ghz!

[telspar]

FYI an update 3.2.2006 for the AM40 or 50 IQ units just came out with a few improvements on the screen sharing. This update got some of my boards that insisted on using 2.4 to now use 5ghz.

[RAK_ITAV]

Thanks for the update! I did notice ver 3.2.2006 earlier this week and have since been checking to make sure that it has been deployed site wide (some of our screens, although set to auto update, still refuse to automatically update!).

 

I also noticed in the settings for screenshare you can now disable the specific protocols individually - most of our rooms strictly use Apple devices which has allowed me to disable the other two protocols. This seems to make the remaining one far more stable. The re-positioning of the 'Reset Screenshare' button to the app homepage is a welcomed change too.

 

Overall, an important update which fingers crossed will generally improve mobile device interaction! Teachers and Pupils are off for Easter break at the moment so I'll find out in 2 weeks!