Airplay - iOS 8 - iPad Air

[stoneacheck]

Anyone else notice the sheet for Airplay on iPad running iOS 8 is very short? It lists maybe 2-3 sources, whereas on iOS 7, the sheet would extend almost to the top of the display. We've got 15-30 sources per building at any given time and it's frustrating for students and staff to scroll through that tiny list. Just making sure it's not some weird restriction or something we're doing on end.

I've tested on 8.0 on iPad 2 and 8.0.2 on iPad Air. Screenshot link - https://www.dropbox.com/s/87ua0u56vt5qage/IMG_0013.PNG?dl=0

[jarradyuhas]

If those are Apple TV 3 revision A devices, they could just be the ones close in proximity since peer to peer airplay is now available. Are those AppleTV devices hard wired or are they wireless? I know that it shouldn't matter, but the peer to peer could be overriding the hardwired option. You can try disabling the wifi on the AppleTVs if you're hard wiring them and see if that resolves it.

[stoneacheck]

They are a combo of Apple TV 3 rev A and staff laptop Macbook Airs running Airserver.

All apple TV's are hardwired over Ethernet. How do you "disable" the wifi, other than setting up Ethernet properly (we've given them manual IP addresses as well)?

[murph]

Yeah we are seeing that too on all iPads on iOS 8.0.x so far, even non managed ones. I've submitted feedback to Apple, so I'd suggest the same for you too. http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Not sure if that helps or not, but it's worth a shot.

[ItsMe_Sean]

On iOS8, Air play no longer is dependent on Bonjour, it now uses bluetooth proximity to detect and negotiate connection to an Apple TV. This will be the same whether the Apple TV is on wireless or cable AFAIK.

As long as the device can be seen via bluetooth it should appear in the Air Play list, just make sure the bluetooth is enabled on your Apple TV too. Also keep in mind, if your devices are on a different VLAN to the VLAN your devices are on Air Play may not work, check if you can communicate between the two VLANS so Air Play can work.

Just keep in mind, this will also be the same in OS X 10.10

[stoneacheck]

@Shadow_Within, sorry if I wasn't clear. I understand it uses BTLE and less common 5ghz channels to communicate instead of just the infrastructure wireless - http://help.apple.com/deployment/ios/#/apd8fc751f59 is actually quite helpful in describing the new features.

What I'm describing is a bug on iOS, specifically on iPads that reduces the visibility of the Airplay destination list to only showing a few cells height in the sheet, while 15-30 sources are present and scrollable, the view only shows a window tall enough to see 2-3 at a time. The issue isn't present on iPhones due to the Airplay sheet overtaking the entire screen, rather than being a popover.

Compare this screenshot on iOS 7 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/dkx7fhnjwavijhy/IMG_0830.PNG?dl=0
to the one I posted above on iOS 8 - https://www.dropbox.com/s/87ua0u56vt5qage/IMG_0013.PNG?dl=0

These were taken in the same building, VLANs don't come into play with this setup.

[ItsMe_Sean]

Ah, sorry, definitely in that case then, I would suggest filing a bug report via http://radar.apple.com

[cdenesha]

yes it is happening to us as well. Also was disconnecting a lot

[tadholyfamily]

@cdenesha
Are you having issues with older model iPads and iPhones frequently disconnecting from AirPlay? Never had trouble with iPad 4 AirPlay until the iOS 8 update. Still works reliably from iPad Air and iPhone 6.

[mgarb]

From http://help.apple.com/deployment/ios/#/apd8fc751f59

*When you deploy Apple TVs on a large enterprise Wi-Fi network, consider the following guidelines:

Connect Apple TVs to Ethernet whenever possible

Don’t use Wi-Fi Channel 149 or 153 for your infrastructure network

Don’t place or mount the Apple TV behind objects that could disrupt the Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi signals*

I think after the update to iOS8, the WiFi interference from peer-to-peer AirPlay is really creating havoc on our connections.