Streaming in the classroom: Introduction

I’m on a quest! I’m on a quest to find the best wireless streaming solution for a classroom. 2020 is nearly here and there are more than a few options out there and at a wide variety of price points.

Unfortunately, I cannot look at every possible Frankensteined configuration so I will be focusing on some of the big names that are already out there and their solutions. Right now here is what’s on our table to demo and review.

• Mersive Solstice Airpod
• Barco Clickshare
• Airtame 2
• Crestron AirMedia 2
• Apple TV (latest generation)

To be fair we already have a deployment of Apple TV’s so I will probably start with that device first. My school just recently received a demo unit of the Mersive Airpod so that will most likely be the next post after that. Then we will just see.

Why?

Our teachers and staff use Apple laptops and the Apple TV’s are really good for that. However, the inexplicably drop the teacher connectinos, sometimes had serious lag with video and sometimes just don’t want to cooperate at all. We are looking for a device that will allow teachers to stream video and mirror their displays with very high reliability all the while maintaining high resolution and not dropping too many frames.

We (the IT team at my school) would also like to be able to manage them remotely from a single dashboard. This allows us to control when to update them, how to configure them and to download logs to analyze or send to the manufacturer for technical assistance.

Goal

Obviously to find a solution that works and that is reasonable in price that is relatively straight forward to use. Will our school find a solution? I am not so sure but it is certainly worth exploring and you, my friendly reader, are invited to join me on this journey.