Apple TV management

[synaesthesia]

I could quite easily create an essay about how unintuitive, unreliable and generally poor the entire Apple ecosystem is outside of a consumer environment. I've made a further 24 swear words out of Apple related kit and software in the last 3 days alone. I do not and likely never will be able to understand how people can possibly advocate the use of this equipment in education; I rank them below £40 Android tablets of spurious manufacter in terms of reliability and usability.

 

So, rant out of the way, I've been attempting to sanitise and manage what we have on site. A fair few iPads and Apple TVs; more than the likes of Mosyle will handle on free licensing but not enough to warrant spending money on an MDM, but JamF is looking tempting.

Until then, we have a **apbook on Monterey and Configurator to do what we need alongside ASM.

I've just given up on the TVs. They "should" be manageable, but it just doesn't work. Googling and scrolling through pages of threads about how difficult it is has given me a migraine, with hundreds of people having the same problems; not pairing, not preparing, blueprints not applying. They all have the same problem, and the fixes some have found only apply if you're hopping on one leg during a blue moon singing the opera song from the Fifth Element.

 

But Apple's are so easy.

 

Has anyone got real world experience managing apple TV's in this manner? They should never have been bought for their purpose here (signage), but it's what we have. They're the 4K models with no physically connectivity other than ethernet, hdmi and power.

 

I've given up for now and starting to attempt the iPads, which I have done before but no doubt will find a million foibles and workarounds to make the simple even slightly feasible.

[3s-gtech]

I have a few old gen 3s about. I just set them up with AC2, giving them wifi settings and allowing AirPlay. Never gone beyond that, and they've been fine, but I don't try anything more complex. How are you using them for signage?

[synaesthesia]

I have a few old gen 3s about. I just set them up with AC2, giving them wifi settings and allowing AirPlay. Never gone beyond that, and they've been fine, but I don't try anything more complex. How are you using them for signage?

 

3rd party app which again I'd rather didn't exist, but it works and don't have the means to replace. I've gone simple with my configurator too, even just as far as only setting up wifi settings & management addresses but they just constantly time out whether on ethernet or wifi

[EssentialRug]

3rd party app which again I'd rather didn't exist, but it works and don't have the means to replace. I've gone simple with my configurator too, even just as far as only setting up wifi settings & management addresses but they just constantly time out whether on ethernet or wifi

 

Could it be a firewall issue? This may be helpful https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210060

 

Apologies if not the case...

[3s-gtech]

3rd party app which again I'd rather didn't exist, but it works and don't have the means to replace. I've gone simple with my configurator too, even just as far as only setting up wifi settings & management addresses but they just constantly time out whether on ethernet or wifi

That's annoying. They tend to be reliable here - when they're not, I just rebuild them again (or skip them if that doesn't do it).

[synaesthesia]

Could it be a firewall issue? This may be helpful https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210060

 

Apologies if not the case...

 

No it's a good thought, but shouldn't be an issue internally at least - one thing I've done to rule that out is to just slam a switch between the the mac and the iGit to no avail. It might even be old mac/newer macOS syndrome (mid 2012 ***pbook pro, 2017 OS) but other folks with the same issues are using up to date stuff. And as expensive as it is to change out the signage solution, it's probably cheaper to replace all the signage appleTV's with androids/smart TVs than to buy a recent Mac

[bknaggs]

What's your setup? A Mac of some sort Airplaying to various Apple TVs?

[synaesthesia]

No, its a dedicated app (TrilbyTV) which is cloud based. There's versions for android etc which I'd like to do, just a shame the displays aren't smart which would make it lovely and easy!

[bknaggs]

That looks like something that should "just work".

 

How many have you got? Can you just set them up manually and then make sure they can't pair with a remote/be accessed some other way? Stick them on their own VLAN and bypass any web filtering/https inspection then try not to get angry when you walk past them?

 

Sorry I've got no experience of managing an Apple TV but I've managed iPads for years and it might not be Windows and Group Policy but it does work. Jamf especially if you decide to move in that direction.