Replacing a meeting or class room projector? Don't!

Now that I've got your attention, you should know I'm not quite as black and white on the matter as the title suggests. What this how-to is really about is using some other technologies you have available to deliver presentations and media using a television.

In recent years many of the meeting rooms I've been in have had a modern television installed with HDMI input allowing transmission of both video and audio. Increasingly they're network capable. Technologies such as Miracast are advancing and becoming more prolific.

That said, we're not quite ready with all platforms to deliver wireless screen mirroring for the average user. Jailbreaking or rooting expensive equipment isn't a comfortable experience for everyone.

Apple's AirPlay, however, has enabled that level of functionality for more than a year and I've been happily using it for some 'magic' in meetings by hooking up my AppleTV to the in-room television and using AirPlay and an iPad to output.

Fear not, non-Apple fanboys and fangirls, we'll look at other options in the coming months.

What you need

• A television with HDMI input
• iPhone 4S or later, iPad 2 or later, iPad mini, or iPod touch (5th generation) running at least iOS 5
• Apple TV generation 2 or 3 running at least version 5 software - these cost NZ$159  
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/g/n network (you can use a MiFi if you're needing to be mobile)

Steps

1. Hook up the AppleTV to the television
2. Connect your iOS device and the AppleTV to the same network (so they can 'see' each other)
3. Double-click the home button on your iOS device to display the footer with your recent apps
4. Swipe to the right once for iPad and twice for iPhone and iPod to display the output button (rectangle with an upward arrow/triangle per the pictorial instructions below)
5. Select the AppleTV and enable mirroring if required

Once this is all set up you can happily share your screen with your colleagues or class, stream media or use an Office compatible app to display your PowerPoint presentations. All this whilst moving freely around the room (without having to be in line of sight with a slide clicker) and easily handing controls over to other presenters.

Check back later this week for using QuickOffice for PowerPoint presentations on iOS; and using ZappoTV's 'AppleTV AirPlay Media Player' to stream media from an Android device to your AppleTV.