HDMI compatible

[breakinglight11]

This past weekend I bought a couple special cables for my iPad. The first was a lighting to HDMI adapter and the second was a regular HDMI cord. With this, I can plug my tablet into any screen with an HDMI input and have it display what’s on my device. I tested it on the television in my living room and was pleased to find it just worked the way I hoped it would without any fussing.

I got it for a couple of reasons. The first is because my tablet is my primary media devise of any kind. I don’t use cable TV anymore, so if I ever watch anything, it’s through some file or service on my iPad. If I ever want to play a movie or TV episode for other people, it’s way better to be able to put it up on a screen rather than huddle around my tablet. HDMI specifically enables the use of applications like Netflix, so that’s the hardware format I chose.

The second reason, which is arguably the more important one, is I’m hoping it will enable my classroom teaching a bit better. I’m only teaching at Lesley this coming semester, and they don’t have in-room computers attached to the projectors. I find typing notes which the projector then shows on the screen to be the clearest and most efficient way to display them to the class. You can’t do that without the proper cables when relying on an iPad. Previously if I ever needed to do this, I would have to go through the hassle of borrowing them from the university IT department. So, even though it was kind of expensive, I decided to just buy my own and have them whenever I need them.

I am a little concerned that not every room has HDMI compatibility. The classrooms I am assigned may not. It may be possible for me to book a different room sometimes, but that has to be done in advance and may not always work out. But I’m hoping this makes it at least a little easier for me, especially for showing clips or episodes.

Comments

[natbudin.livejournal.com]

At work, all the conference room displays have an AppleTV attached, so you can use AirPlay to wirelessly stream from any Apple device (or plug in with a cable if you prefer or use a PC). It's really a pretty great experience to be able to just hop in a meeting room and project without any fuss.

[laurion]

When Regis decided to do a one-to-one device progam and give every student and faculty person an iPad, a lot of the logistics fell on me. The problem with the AppleTV is that it requires HDMI, and therefore an all digital flow from device to switcher to display. That gets very expensive very quickly when you are talking dozens of enterprise level classrooms. I found AirServer as a piece of software that cost us (at the time) $2 per classroom to stick it on the computer in every classroom. Then with a tweak to our new wireless infrastructure to run mDNS across networks we had an instant airplay receive with existing equipment. One month later I asked for and got my first raise from them.

No help for Lesley though, who has bizarrely decided classrooms don't need computers. And apparently isn't providing laptops to adjuncts.

I find it's transformative to teaching when the teacher can be anywhere in the room instead of having to take center stage.

[natbudin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, AirServer is a neat solution! Kudos for implementing that.

I think the reason AppleTV was a reasonable solution for my company is that we were already using TVs rather than projectors in most conference rooms, and those already had HDMI inputs, and also we didn't use switchers at all. Under those constraints, AppleTVs are a fantastic way to go. :)