Since Apple TV doesn't have a way to charge the apple remote, our classroom Apple TV remotes run out of juice.
Under normal circumstances, we only use Apple TV for Airplay mirroring in conference room mode. But for troubleshooting it would be nice if techs could use their phones to access the menus and settings.
I tried putting the MAC address of my phone into the profile under the "remote" payload but I realized that this probably requires setting up the Apple TV with an Apple ID and then having to add the device to the "HOME" app as an "accessory." This is an institutional, supervised device--not something used at home at all. There's got to be a way.
Oh by the way ever since the latest IOS update the Apple Remotes for 4th gen and above ATVs in our environment won't work anyway. They say they're paired but nothing works. If a device needs a reboot we unplug it. If a device needs a complete refresh (usually when it was offline too long to get the new profile with the new radius cert while the old cert was still alive), we have to plug it into an ethernet port on a VLAN with open DHCP pool so it gets an IP address, then use apple configurator to erase, then "prepare" and re-setup using auto-advance prestage. Then it finally picks up the scoped profile with the new wifi payloads and certs. It's kind of a pain. At least it works pretty fast.
If everything is running perfectly, there's no need for anyone in a classroom to touch the remote. However, it would be nice if certain iphones could control all Apple TVS without having to do Apple ID shenanigans. That way when a tech walks into a classroom at least it looks like they're trying to do something. 🙂 And that way we could simply remove all the Apple TV remotes because they haven't worked anyway since October.
