Wireless display adapters

[carguy45]

I'm looking some suggestions for Wireless display adaptors.

I have worked in IT for 25yrs, so am not unfamiliar with much of this technology, but am having an issue finding this specific type of adapter - so let me explain.

We have a number of small conference rooms which currently have Microsoft Wireless Display adaptors. They connect to a HDMI slot on the TV, and have a USB end also which plugs into the TV's USB ports and draws power from there. They're very simple but worked brilliantly for both visitors & staff running presentations and so on - flick the TV source to the Display adapter screen (which has some handy onscreen instructions for guests), then turn on your laptop or tablet and connect wirelessly to the display, no cables or additional hardware needed.

A few of them have been lost during refurbishment. They were originally £55 each, Microsoft in their infinite wisdom have discontinued them and they now seem to be upwards of £300 each via the usual channels, which is ridiculous. There are many, many alternative display adapters on the market (chromecast, miracast, etc) but most seem to create separate Wifi zones which the device has to join. This doesn't work if you're also needing to stay connected to the corporate wifi to access the network whilst mirroring the screen. Others have more complex physical setup, e.g. dongles and so on for the devices, AC chargers for the adapter - these will inevitably end up lost or damaged as our conf rooms are very busy.

We can't use the built-in screen mirroring functions on the TVs as they're on the corporate network, and visitors/guests access Wifi via a guest zone which is segregated from the corporate one for security.

So I'm looking for something which does exactly what the Microsoft one did, and just as simple, but still relatively affordable. Does it exist?

[geeks]

I dont know exaclty which ones we use in the office but they are Miracast and they work brilliantly, you connect to them as wireless display adapters and retain your wifi connection. I can find out which ones we use if you like?

Heads up though, they do not work with Mac as they are not airplay enabled, not sure if thats an issue for you?

[carguy45]

geeks said:

I dont know exaclty which ones we use in the office but they are Miracast and they work brilliantly, you connect to them as wireless display adapters and retain your wifi connection. I can find out which ones we use if you like?

Heads up though, they do not work with Mac as they are not airplay enabled, not sure if thats an issue for you?

If you could, that would be great - I've looked at a few Miracast ones but they didn't seem to retain the original Wifi connection.

Don't use Macs so not an issue.

Thanks

[geeks]

carguy45 said:

geeks said:

I dont know exaclty which ones we use in the office but they are Miracast and they work brilliantly, you connect to them as wireless display adapters and retain your wifi connection. I can find out which ones we use if you like?

Heads up though, they do not work with Mac as they are not airplay enabled, not sure if thats an issue for you?

If you could, that would be great - I've looked at a few Miracast ones but they didn't seem to retain the original Wifi connection.

Don't use Macs so not an issue.

Thanks

Cool I will ping the internal IT guys and find out.

Appreciate it may not be an issue for you but visitors/guests might use Mac which is why I pointed it out.

[carguy45]

geeks said:

Cool I will ping the internal IT guys and find out.

Appreciate it may not be an issue for you but visitors/guests might use Mac which is why I pointed it out.

Fair point, they seem to be relatively uncommon in our industry as I hardly ever see visitors with them but I'll keep it in mind.

[geeks]

IT report we use Crestron units but they werent sure which ones. Hopefully that helps.

[carguy45]

geeks said:

IT report we use Crestron units but they werent sure which ones. Hopefully that helps.

Thanks, the brand name will give me something to search for

[mattlovescars93]

We use Barco Clickshare, it’s pretty good but it’s not cheap, their must be better alternatives out there.

[GuyW]

geeks said:

IT report we use Crestron units but they werent sure which ones. Hopefully that helps.

Narrowing it down a little, you'll want to look at Crestron's AirMedia units. Won't be anywhere close to the same budget though.

I'm assuming the most obvious option can't be used, directly connecting via HDMI? Even if you've got to run some additional cabling.

[carguy45]

We have HDMI but due to room layout the cabling can be messy, and not all corporate laptops have hdmi connections (some are displayport) - I know we can use adapters, but having a wireless option would be neater solution all round.

[buggalugs]

mattlovescars93 said:

We use Barco Clickshare, it’s pretty good but it’s not cheap, their must be better alternatives out there.

We have a few customers using ClickShares they work well. Cheaper peeps use the Windows built in win+k display sharing thingy.