5 Things You Must Know About Apple’s Airplay

For the past few months, I have been ‘sussing’ Apple’s new Smart Home Automation feature – AirPlay technology. It’s a game-changer folks! and here is a short overview of what I am after learning recently about the technology:

#1: WHAT IS AIRPLAY?

For those of you who have not come across the term previously, Airplay is Apple’s wireless technology that may be used to share music, video, photo’s and meta-data between various devices.

#2: WHAT IS AIRPLAY USED FOR?

Airplay is used to stream music, pictures and even video Content from an iPad, iPhone, iPod and a PC with iTunes to a growing range of Airplay enabled products.

#3: WHAT TYPES OF PRODUCTS ARE AIRPLAY ENABLED?

There are two product categories of Airplay enabled devices, namely Airplay senders and Airplay receivers:

Airplay Senders

Airplay sender devices include:

• PCs and Macs running iTunes
• iPhones
• iPods
• iPads

Airplay Receivers

Airplay receiver devices include:

• Apple TV
• Airport Express

Apple has also opened up the technology to third-party consumer electronics manufacturers. Since it became available; a number of manufacturers have started to incorporate into the following types of product categories.

• Airplay Receivers
• Airplay Speakers
• Airplay iPod Docks

#4: AIRPLAY VIDEO CAPABILITIES

At the time of writing this post the only set-top box capable of processing Airplay video signals is the Apple TV. Lots of rumors swirling around with regards to integrating Airplay into third-party set-top boxes and new HDTVs, but nothing concrete yet! I use it at home for sending content from the App provided by our national broadcaster (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) to our projector via the Apple TV – works perfectly.

#5: LIMITED MULTI-ROOM MUSIC FUNCTIONALITY

Although Airplay is ideal if you wanted to stream music from your iOS device to a set of in-ceiling speakers for instance; however it does not provide the level of sophistication included in multi-room music systems such as Sonos and Casatunes Air.

HOW TO SETUP AIRPLAY?

There are three simple steps:

1. Verify that AirPlay is enabled on your Apple TV
2. It goes without saying but you need to be sure that your iOS device and Apple TV are on the same network.
3. Open an App, Youtube for instance, and tap the Airplay icon – that’s it!

Thanks and have a good week wherever you are in the world.