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iOS 5: Setting Up Wireless AirPlay for Presentations, Games and More

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If you have an Apple TV and an iOS device running iOS 5, then you have the ability to use wireless AirPlay to stream the screen of your iPad onto an external display through the Apple TV. As someone who does public speaking for a living, I looked forward to this feature. I downloaded the new Keynote update, fired up my Apple TV and started Keynote on my iPad. I couldn’t find anything in the new version of Keynote that had anything to do with AirPlay. Fortunately, I found the solution and want to share it with you.

The implementation of running Keynote presentations through AirPlay has a very non-Apple feel to it. Instead of being simple and straightforward, the feature is hidden.

Here’s how to find it and get it going:

AirPlay Settings is hidden in the task manager

  1. Make sure that the Apple TV and iPad can communicate by first playing a video on the iPad
  2. While the video is playing tap the AirPlay button next to the player controls and select Apple TV – if it plays move onto the next step
  3. Exit the video on the iPad and double tap the Home button to reveal the Task Manager at the bottom
  4. Swipe from the left to the right to reveal the iPod player controls
  5. Tap the AirPlay button, just like you did in step 3 – it sits between the forward and volume controls (see above)
  6. Select Apple TV and turn Mirroring to On
  7. Tap the Home button again to close the Task Manager and open the app you wish to use with your Apple TV, in our case Keynote
  8. Open a presentation and run it as you normally would

Keynote running through AirPlay on the Apple TV

You can select between multiple presentation modes, but my favorite is shown above with the speaker notes below the current slide. You can also reveal the thumbnails of all the slides in the presentation by swiping from the left edge of the screen inward.

Real Racing HD lets you play using your iOS device as a controller

Wireless mirroring and AirPlay works well with a number of other apps. Real Racing 2 HD will give you the ability to not only play your game using the iOS device as the controller, but now with the most recent update ($6.99) you can play against up to three other players in a split screen mode.

2Screens is a whiteboard app that uses wireless mirrong thorugh AirPlay

2Screens ($4.99) is a nice whiteboard app that works with AirPlay. The app shows only the white surface on the external screen connected to the Apple TV and on your iPad gives you a screen with the interface that lets you draw, type, and add pictures from your Camera Roll. Anything you add on the iPad will be displayed on the Apple TV, but not the toolbars or selection box when you add images from the Camera Roll.

If you find other great apps for use with the new wireless mirroring on the Apple TV with AirPlay, let us know in the comments below.

23 Comments

23 Comments

  1. Willem van der Greft

    10/14/2011 at 2:05 am

    And with the iPad1? Mirroring is not there! In the description of the Keynote App there are no exceptions mentioned.

    • Remaia

      10/14/2011 at 3:07 pm

      It is an iPad2 only capability according to the original press releases.

  2. Petedovey

    10/15/2011 at 9:33 am

    I don’t get the option to turn mirroring on or off. Just selection between iPad apple tv?

    Any suggestions. Yes it’s an ipad2.

    • Willemvandergreft

      10/15/2011 at 10:03 am

      You see it when you choose Apple TV

      • Petedovey

        10/15/2011 at 10:18 am

        I choose apple tv and it just selects and exits. Updating apple tv software. That may be the issue. I will post if successful.

        • Petedovey

          10/15/2011 at 10:43 am

          Straight out of the box I had software version 4.3 installed. Updating to 4.4 solved the issue.

          If anyone else runs into the same issue, Go to Settings, General, Update Software.

        • Danielhewson1

          10/20/2011 at 1:56 am

          I’m having trouble getting mirroring to work on my iPhone 4s not getting the option only iphone or apple TV. Tried updating apple TV software as you suggested but says 4.3 is up to date?
          I reset and forced it to update still only 4.3! Any other ideas?

        • Tjgehrking

          10/20/2011 at 9:58 pm

          I am having the exact same problem with my Apple TV / iPad 2!!! I’ve tried updating/restoring several times and it continues to say 4.3 is up to date….FRUSTRATED!!!

    • Bhauptma

      11/05/2011 at 1:01 pm

      Try turning ur modem/gateway off and on.

    • Los624

      04/27/2012 at 12:02 pm

      try viewing a video or playing music from your itunes account first. I had the same thing happen a couple of times, but after i play something else (photos, video, music etc.) using airplay, I could mirror without the problem.

  3. Doug345

    10/16/2011 at 8:07 am

    Mirroring works ok but shuts off the sound on the iPad ,so slide shows with sound doesn’t,t work . Any suggestions?

    • Chester

      10/18/2011 at 9:05 pm

      I’m looking forward to using this as well, but my presentations require sound playback from Keynote! Will Keynote+AirPlay not support this?

    • Jdrake46

      10/26/2011 at 3:27 pm

      I have same problem. When selecting video to insert into keynote the sound plays (while mirrored) but as soon as it’s inserted in keynote it will run with no sound. This occurs both when you select the clip and run on keynote layout screen and also with keynote running.

      Are there any solutions to this??

  4. Drrene

    11/06/2011 at 7:11 pm

    I have spent hours today, Knowing that this was possible, googling, searching and reading through the apple site, reading keynote tutorials, finding nothing till now!!! THANK YOU!!! works perfect!!!

  5. Drrene

    11/06/2011 at 7:17 pm

    oh and for the sound issue..try making sure that your phone is not on vibrate and turned up..

  6. Jkmreidy

    01/17/2012 at 9:15 pm

    Do you have to be in a wifi bubble to make this work?

  7. Symo_36

    01/24/2012 at 9:23 pm

    I like your post any solution for some one who only has 1st gen IPad that does not have mirroring

  8. Soren

    02/11/2012 at 3:58 pm

    This is not available on the iPhone either – would love to hear if someone has a solution for the iPhone!

    • Los624

      04/27/2012 at 12:06 pm

      This does work for iphone and ipod touch. check that you have the latest updates. any of the apple devices that show the itunes controls when you double click the home button will work.

  9. Alex

    05/15/2012 at 4:05 pm

    Thank you very much! Saved me quite a lot of head scratching… :)

  10. Zach

    06/25/2012 at 7:44 pm

    I cant get my ipod touch to mirror only audio there is no mirror
    of and on button in the task manager just apple tv or itouch
    Please help!

  11. Dan Snodgrass

    07/25/2012 at 9:27 am

    1. ATV and iOS device have to be on the same wireless network. If you are on a corporate network, additional configuration will be required on the wireless controller in order for discovery to work.

    2. There are two AirPlay modes. The basic one is the desktop mirroring alone. The second kind still requires desktop mirroring to be turned on from the application switcher nav bar but once activated some apps do what’s called “screen echoing”. The above mentioned whiteboarding app has this capability (as does another nice whiteboarding app called Note Taker HD) that shows just the whiteboard but not all the menus and UI stuff that the presenter would be seeing on their iPad. Other apps that have screen echoing include Keynote, Netflix, and YouTube.

  12. Jack

    03/18/2013 at 8:25 am

    Great! Works perfectly on my iPad mini and Apple TV with both using my home wireless net work.

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