Wireless VGA/Miracast? Or an 'AirPlay'-esque solution for Wind

[jona1984]

I'm installing some new projection systems in meeting rooms in the venue I manage, and before I just go 'old school' with a standard VGA wall link, I was wondering whether there was any reliable wireless solution that would do the same job? This is mainly because the layout of our venue lends itself to wanting to present from anywhere in the room, rather than be 'tethered' to a VGA wall input. I realise you could still wander around with a wireless 'clicker' device to advance slides etc, but it's not quite the same....!

 

I'm aware that a lot of similar spaces are using Apple systems (like AppleTV) to allow guests and presenters to push presentations and video from their laptops/tablets/smartphones to a projection screen or similar. This solution is great when it works, but I'd imagine 75% of our clients would probably be using Windows laptops. I've heard that there's a similar wireless display mirroring specification called 'Miracast' but I don't really know much about it. It would be used 75% for static presentation slides, but there's always a chance we'll want to show full motion video, so whatever solution we find will have to be powerful/fast enough to work in this way.

 

Another idea was that we'd find something that would run on a Raspberry Pi and then allow clients to link their devices (Windows, Mac, Linux etc) to that for easy screen mirroring etc...?

 

Any ideas??

[pjb304]

At work people have been looking into similar things. The apple TV got ruled out fairly quickly as in our experiences it doesn't seem to transfer particularly well to a corporate use. Whilst I'm not involved in the project I believe the current proposed solution is this kramer box

[AHYoung]

I think you need to do a bit of research as to what people need from meeting rooms. The suggestion of using a rasberry pi sharply followed by the phrase "easy screen mirroring " made me smile. more acuarately the phrase should be "spending untold wasted hours attempting to get clients laptops configured and connected to a mildly sketchy homebrew solution" theres also a massive difference between using a wireless clicker and a wireless connection as you dont walk around with your laptop presenting,The way people actually use rooms is that they sit/ stand near the screen, so if theres a cable input there its generally all good. Its also worth knowing that vga isnt really that standard anymore, but you cant ditch it just yet as theres still people out there without a digital out on a laptop and theres just as many without a vga, so you really need both

If you want to be universally accessible. fit a vga and hdmi input somewhere sensible, but buy a projector with a wireless capability, that way if it works for the users all good, if it doesnt no problem, just plug it in.

The Kramer stuff works well as far as I can see, but its more geared to internal rooms ie all the staff get used to using it and the fact that you can easily switch what laptops on the screen, and as you are a venue im assuming its lots of external people comming in and each one of them is going to have to be trained in its use and the thing setup on their laptop, this wont take long, but doing it for every single booking ? thats almost a full time job in a big busy venue. Maybee you can leave the laminated instruction sheet, but who reads them?

Miracast is pretty much like connecting to wifi, you select the input on the display , it gives a splash screen with the access code, you stick it in your device and click ok. but in my experience like the wifi it doesnt allways work ,

[Nick Mawer]

Please feel free to contact us at Kramer directly to arrange a demonstration. If you want to find out more about the advantages of the VIA range, and how they work, visit http://www.true-collaboration.com/

The office number is 01296 330011

[Sully]

We have a Crestron Airmedia box in my office for ad-hoc presentations on a telly and it does what it says on the tin and is very easy to use, being able to connect to and show random things from a smartphone works very nicely indeed too. The video performance however isn't perfect.

Sully.

[Joe Fernand]

As others have said it'll depend on how much 'Tech Support' you wish to assign to the project - wires are going to be far less time consuming than wireless.

 

You can install multiple VGA/HDMI/DVI sockets within the room plus a simple Input selector rather than having to tether everyone to a single position.

 

Joe

 

 

 

[jona1984]

Thanks everybody. Had no idea about that Kramer device. Would love a demo; it sounds very versatile. Wonder what it'll cost us tho...!