We had a bit of a dilemma the other day at an elementary school, where I was tasked with installing Apple TVs in classrooms with new flat screens. This is our new direction, away from LCD projectors and dongles and dangling wires. Although I’ve used Apple TVs many times in the past and have never encountered difficulty configuring them, this time with 10 to install and activate, it was a whole new ballgame. Each device attached to the network connected to the network immediately, had great signal strength, and appeared to be connected in all the right ways. However. There was some issue, in that the device was not actually reaching cyberspace and could not activate. I could not resolve the issue and required that I call in the chief. I never mind asking for help, and I always tell my teachers and learners that there is no shame in asking a question. It’s much better than experiencing frustration and disappointment when you are stymied by situation. So, G arrived and took a look at the situation. Of course, I do always feel better asking for help when the solution is not immediately or instantly apparent to the person for whom I have asked assistance. He scrolled through all the same menu items that I had, entered the same information I had entered, tried all the restarts and rejoins that I had, still to no avail. However, asking the question and bringing in another troubleshooter usually reminds me that we are always smarter together then we are separately. Sure enough, within a few minutes, after a bit of pondering and talking, he had the idea to attempt to connect the Apple TV by tethering to his iPhone to determine if the problem was the device or the network.
Within minutes, we were able to activate the device, disconnect from his 3G connection and reconnect to the school network, and it all worked as it ought.
By the way, if you are using AppleTV to display an iPad or computer, and you are having problems, make sure you have turned on mirroring, and that all devices are connected to the same network. And of course…. you can always call on me for help.
Welcome back 🙂
Hi Lisa….
Speaking of troubleshooting…
I think I figured out the work-around for kids to look at each other’s blogs…. and since I’m telling you about blogs, I thought I might show you I was able to find yours…. The trick is just to post a link on my blog to theirs, or have them enter learn.sd79.bc.ca/myfriend’sstudentnumber into the address bar of their browser while they’re logged in. I noticed the girls had already commented on each other’s, and somehow that twigged me to try this trick…. I’ve suggested it to our eager boys and will see what comes of it… meanwhile, I need your help editing my page…..