Wireless casting laptop to TV?

[james_ison]

Hi,

 

As a college we are looking at purchasing TV screens to go into the classrooms. It has been requested we investigate what is involved to allow our lecturers to wirelessly cast to the TV's from their Windows 10 laptops.

Has anyone done this and how did you achieve it? My initial thoughts are it's going to be difficult when laptops are on different VLANS, and we have 100's of devices trying to cast. It needs to be reliable and simple for lecturers to use, and there needs to be flexibility in that lecturers can go to any room and cast to that tv without requiring support.

 

Thank you,

James

[Chaniel]

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapters are pretty decent - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/microsoft-wireless-display-adapter/8vwdj9bd9xlz?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab

 

They don't actually connect to the Wi-Fi network (it uses WiFi Direct to connect) but they are inexpensive and work really well tbh. Super simple for a teacher to connect (Open Laptop > Action Center > Connect or press Win+K). The downsides I can think of are management - you will need to go around each room with a laptop and the app to update firmware, rename them etc and the fact it's Windows/Android.

[round2it]

Just got a hisense 65" roku tv has miracast built in works perfect

 

The microsoft adapters are good also

499 at argos 2 year warranty

[Bev]

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapters are pretty decent - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/microsoft-wireless-display-adapter/8vwdj9bd9xlz?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab

 

They don't actually connect to the Wi-Fi network (it uses WiFi Direct to connect) but they are inexpensive and work really well tbh. Super simple for a teacher to connect (Open Laptop > Action Center > Connect or press Win+K). The downsides I can think of are management - you will need to go around each room with a laptop and the app to update firmware, rename them etc and the fact it's Windows/Android.

 

We used these at the previous school where I worked, with MS Surface devices. They were pretty reliable, you can swipe on a touch screen and connect to the display from the sidebar.

 

 

 

We have HISENSE tvs, I am going to try out the Miracast, that could be really useful for visiting guests.

[chazzy2501]

The v3 Microsoft Display Adaptor (4k version)is £45 on insight. It now has CEC so can change the input (so one less headache) it has a clear prompt on the screen (Win+K) and you can customise the wallpaper.

 

The new adaptor can optionally connect to your wifi directly this will offer performance benefits but will also allow regular users get a popup on their device telling them its available. This allows for a one click connect. ((this is because it is expected that the device is powered off with the display as most displays power off their usb when in standby))

 

The scenario is that the user turns on the display the adapter powers up at the same time and when its finished booting (30s) it can alert the user via the desktop. (they have to connect once for this to work) otherwise do the win+k.

 

EDIT: I highly suggest that you double tape the dongle slightly protruding from the display (if a tv) for a much faster pairing and better response (wifi through the panel works but unpredictable).

Edited May 13, 2021 by chazzy2501

[chazzy2501]

oh, I'll add this as a separate note. if you want mircast with User Input Back Channel (UIBC) for an interactive display there are none, they all use their own software. I did look at getting a Interactive display with a Windows PC built in then have that using the connect app (mircast) in kiosk mode.

 

My early tests were hit and miss.

[SamanthaD]

Hi James,

 

Consideration needs to be given to the type of devices that will be casting to the screens. Wireless Display Adapters work great for Windows devices as they use WiFi direct type technology so no issues with VLANs etc. Lecturer just presses Win+K on their laptop, finds the adapter, enters a PIN code, off you go. However they are not networkable, so you have no oversight and firmware deployment is manual (ok for small campuses but not really feasible at scale).

 

But if you need Mac, or Chromebook things get more complicated. There are many different offerings from Barco, Extron, AirServer, Kramer, Mersive, WePresent, WolfVision... loads of choice. But configuring them onto the network can be problematic!

 

Perhaps some idea of the devices likely to be used and scale you're looking at would help?