I work in a church where we have a projection booth on the second story. We use a Mac to run all our projection needs. I’m trying to figure out if I can use my iPad 2 while at the podium (about 20 yards away) to Skype and project the conversation through our system. I saw your video about iTap VPN, but wasen’t sure if that would do the trick.
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Scott Totten
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How Do I Skype From iPad To a Projector Through My Mac?
Comments: 2 Responses to “How Do I Skype From iPad To a Projector Through My Mac?”
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I don't think Skype is what you need for that. iTap VNC will let you control that Mac with your iPad. But I'm not sure that is what you want either.
You say you want to "project the conversation" -- what do you mean by that, exactly? Something to do with the camera? Chat text? Display slides?
Might be a bit late for you, but I was looking into the same thing for this past weekend. Hope this helps someone else who come across this
If your projector has HDMI inputs then you could use and Apple TV and snag the audio at the projector to send back to FOH. This is the most expensive option I considered.
If HDMI isn't an option (and you have access to a Mac), check out AirServer (www.airserverapp.com). Version 4+ provides mirroring over airplay and it worked perfectly on the first attempt during both testing and live. It cost a few bucks ($14.99 or $11.99 with and educational discount at time of writing this) but it's well worth it. The developers are able to upsize the iPad's screen to the full size of the monitor without losing quality and audio is superb.
Another alternative is an app called Reflection (www.reflectionapp.com). It works the same as AirServer but it's full screen mode isn't exactly full screen - just the normal sized iPad screen with a grey boarder around it. The plus is that it's a bit cheaper though ($4.99 IIRC).
I also tried a app called PocketCam (available on iTunes App Store). It's advertised as a way to use the iPad's camera on a Mac or PC. I was't able to get it to work on the PC or Mac with Skype though so I can't recommend it at this time.
The only problem we had was added latency on the video. Video and audio were sync'd on the iPad but the projector was about a half second behind. You could offset this with a delay on the audio at FOH (if available). For us, considering our ministries were 6000 miles away, we decided the latency issue wasn't worth fighting.
For setup, we ran an Aux mix for the pastor's head mic and a wireless handheld from the board into the Mac's line input and just used the internal mic on the iPad. There were no problems with feedback at all. Just make sure you keep the incoming audio level in check on the iPad or else Skype starts to cut the audio. Once the call was initiated on Skype, enable Airplay (double click the home button and swipe all the way left).
Some other advice:
1. Ask everyone to disconnect from the wireless connection during the call so they don't eat into your bandwidth.
2. Do a practice first! For me, being a bit of a techie, things went smoothly but there were are always logistical hiccups that your unique A/V setup could create
Good luck!