Scenario
You want to share with your customers a rich experience from a iOS / Android or Windows Phone device on your monitor that you can project. This give the customer a great immersive experience of what it’s like to be an end user and helps you tell that story.
Background
There are a number of tools on the market to share your iOS device on your screen, iTools, Reflector just to name a couple. One of these tools is Airserver. Airserver enables you to project a device to your monitor using Airplay or Miracast. This gives you an opportunity to share the story with your customers. These tools are great and they are powerful to really help explain and demonstrate features.
In this example post we will show you how to get a free trial of Airserver and install this to share your iOS screen. In future posts we will show other technologies
Step 1 : Sign up for the Airserver Free Trial
Go to http://www.airserver.com/Download and click the download for free … when you click that option you will get a chance to register… in the registration use “enter your details below” and put your email address in the email option (you can also use facebook however for this example i have used the registration option).
You will then shortly receive an email to be able to download the software.
An email similar to the below will drop in your mailbox with your license code
“Hello Justin,
Thank you for requesting a free trial of AirServer. To receive your activation code and begin your free trial, click on the link below:
http://www.airserver.com/Download/Confirm/
If you did not request a free trial of AirServer, please disregard this message.
Best regards,
AirServer Team”
Click on the link to validate your account and this will now offer you a activation code and download link to get your copy for Windows or Mac
Step 2 : Airserver Install
Depending on the options and requirements you need there are 2 install methods;
1. Use airplay, the enables you to use your iOS device connected with the cable or stream over airplay. This requires itunes to be installed.
2. User miracast , this enables your devices if it supports miracast to stream over a wifi connection to your monitor. It does not require itunes however you do need an appropriate NDES Netwrok Driver with MiraCast you need NDES 6.4 driver (http://support.airserver.com/customer/portal/articles/1746310-airserver-universal-system-requirements )
a. To find out if the WiFi adapter is running Windows 8.1 (NDIS 6.4) driver, open Power Shell and run this command: Get-NetAdapter | Select Name, NdisVersion
Once you have chosen your install method find the installer and run it
Click Next at the initial screen
Next select the protocol support you want to use. Remember you need itunes for airplay and the correct NDES network driver for miracast
And next again after all the checks are validated ….i.e if you don’t have an appropriate NDES driver it will say you need to install itunes/quicktime and filters etc you can then click next as its ready to install
Accept the end user license agreement
In the activation select “I am trying out AirServer Universal and have a trial activation” this is where you will put the activation code you received earlier when downloading the software
Set the installation location and click next
Define if you want airserver to automatically start or you select it to start
And now click Install
Now click Finish
Step 3: Connect your iOS device to Airserver
First start airserver from your start menu (if you have not automatically started based on the earlier install)
You will see a new icon (highlighted green in this example) in your tray icons
Now connect your iOS device by a cable (Airplay) or mirracast by swiping up from the bottom of your ipad clicking the Airplay button and selecting your PC name and enabling mirroring
Your iOS device will now magically appear on your screen and give you a killer demo environment.
References :
Airserver – http://www.airserver.com/
Airserver Support – http://support.airserver.com/
Apple iTunes – https://www.apple.com/itunes/
Apple QuickTime – http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
Airserver Universal System Requirements – http://support.airserver.com/customer/portal/articles/1746310-airserver-universal-system-requirements