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Wireless Media Streaming
By Mark Manoukian
October 28, 2014
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Mark Manoukian
+ I’m
the I.T. Director at Kegler,
Brown, Hill & Ritter in
Columbus, OH. I’ve been
here for over 20 years.
+ Regular
ILTA volunteer
contributor.
+ Member
of the Emerging
Tech steering committee.
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Solutions
+ Airplay
by Apple
+ Airmedia by Crestron
+ Screencast AV by Belkin
+ Chromecast by Google
+ Avior HD by IOGear
+ Miracast, A Wi-Fi Alliance Standard
+ Push2TV, A Miracast Receiver
+ WiDi (Rhymes with Why Die), An Intel Wireless Media
Standard
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Airplay by Apple
+
Available on…
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+
Personal experience…
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Apple Devices
Media devices for which the
manufacturer has licensed Airplay.
Windows devices. NOT
Easy, although I find myself having to
reboot my router.
I use this at home with my iPad.
No experience with this at work, but
we will implement.
Latency is good to great, meaning
high motion video is acceptable.
Costs
+
$100 for Apple TV + Apple Device
"AirPlay logo" by Apple product presentation. Licensed under Fair use
of copyrighted material in the context of AirPlay via Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AirPlay_logo.png#mediaviewer/File:Air
Play_logo.png
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Crestron Airmedia
+
Perhaps the most platform agnostic
solution. Small applets that are quickly
installed are available through…
Any OS – Android, iOS, Windows.
+ Applet is acquired through any browser –
Chrome, IE, Safari.
+
+
Expensive: $1300
+
Personal experience:
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+
+
Incredibly easy for the end user.
Limited to bench testing, but worked
extremely well.
Enterprise-Grade:
+
+
Setup is a little more involved in that it
does not have a wireless NIC, but rather
connects by Ethernet to the wireless
network.
Can be administered remotely.
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Screencast AV by Belkin
+
Nothing to install on the PC. This is a virtual
HDMI cable.
+
Latency is outstanding. High motion video is
acceptable.
+
This solution is a transmitter that one connects
to the HDMI port of their PC, and a receiver
that one connects to the flat-screen display.
+
The transmitter requires power.
+
Super easy for anybody that is capable of
connecting an HDMI cable.
+
Reminder: HDMI only.
+
The transmitter has four HDMI inputs, meaning
that if you have a display lacking enough inputs
then this solves your problem.
+
This solution operates completely
independently of the NIC or WiFi.
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Chromecast by Google
+ Simple
if you have Chrome
and Chromecast already
installed.
+ Requires
Google Chrome
browser.
+ At
$35 it is dirt cheap and it
includes a 6 ft. HDMI cable.
(By comparison, a six foot
cable at BestBuy costs $25.)
"Chromecast dongle" by EricaJoy - Flickr: Chromecast. Licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 via Wikimedia
Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chromecast_dongle.jpg#media
viewer/File:Chromecast_dongle.jpg
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Avior Wireless HD Kit by IOGear
+
+
This is another transmitter\receiver solution.
Pros:
+
+
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Accepts wide variety of inputs – e.g. HDMI, VGA, DVI (with DVI to VGA adapter),
separate audio pins.
Outputs include component and S-Video, which are particularly useful for connecting
to a projector.
The transmitter will broadcast to as many as four receivers.
Nothing to install.
Not subject to wireless NIC or wireless network issues.
Cons:
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+
+
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Calls to the help desk “I’ve connected to the thing-a-majig with the grey cable, and
pushed the button until the HDMI…”
Cost is $450-ish.
May be in limited supply.
Requires power for the transmitter.
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Miracast
+ Miracast
is wireless multimedia streaming standard
promulgated by the Wi-Fi alliance.
+ There are many recievers that claim Miracast compliance.
+ Results vary… widely.
+
+
+
Some devices simply never accept the connection – e.g. my Toshiba
Symbio Blu-Ray player.
Some devices accept connections from Android devices – e.g. my
Panasonic Blu-Ray BDT330 player.
One device accepts connections from Android and Windows devices –
you’ll have to wait for the next slide.
+ The
holy grail… a Blu-Ray player with quality Miracast. Until
then…
+ Microsoft’s impending dongle is a Miracast device.
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Push2TV by NetGear
+
Works really well with Android and
Windows 8.1.
+
Lists at about $60.
+
Smaller than a deck of cards, but much
lighter.
+
Draws power through a USB port,
meaning that if your flat panel has a USB
port you can piggy back the power for the
Push2TV device off of the TV.
+
Firmware makes a big difference, check
and update the firmware.
+
Latency is meh. High motion video and
people subject to motion sickness are a
bad mix.
+
It is dependent on the wireless NIC. If
there are any problems with the wireless
NIC then they might make themselves
known.
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Wi-Di
+ This
is an Intel standard.
+ It
has been subsumed into
Miracast. (?)
+ My
advice: Avoid loading up
any Wi-Di drivers that don’t
land on your device by way
of automatic updates.
Additional Wi-Di drivers seem
to muck up the wireless NIC
in my experience.
"Intel WiDi logo" by
http://www.flickr.com/photos/intelfreepress/8346399311/.
Licensed under Fair use of copyrighted material in the
context of WiDi via Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Intel_WiDi_logo.gif#mediavie
wer/File:Intel_WiDi_logo.gif
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Notes on Microsoft Windows
+ Microsoft’s
new dongle is
based on Miracast.
+ Microsoft
attempted to bake
in addition wireless streaming
functionality in Windows 8. It
failed.
+ …but
succeeded in
Windows 8.1.
It’s as easy as 1-2-3…
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Questions?