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Need to use your TV for something other than watching TV? With more people working from home, there are several ways you can use your TV as an extra display – without a lot of fuss. We will show you the three different ways to turn your TV into a collaboration space.
The most traditional way to connect your laptop's screen to your TV is using an HDMI cable. While this approach has the lowest initial cost, but it also creates the most problems.
Most HDMI cables are 6 feet long – and getting longer cables run the risk of signal loss. So either you have to work very close to your large screen display – or string long cables across the room. If you do go this route at home – make sure to use gaffer tape to secure the cables on your floor – otherwise tripping over a cable can pull down either your TV, your laptop – or both. If you are in an office environment, you should hide these cables in the floor or walls so they are properly secured.
One other drawback of HDMI cables is that it can be hard to connect other devices like your tablet or phone to your TV. Also, in case you have a TV with 4K resolution, it is difficult and expensive to split the screen to show multiple sources with HDMI cables and splitter hardware.
Wireless Presentation System BenQ InstaShow
As an alternative, wireless methods of connecting a laptop to a TV are growing in their popularity. There are a lot of benefits to wireless screen mirroring. It enables you to connect to a TV without any cables – from all kinds of different sources. The best ones can split up your 4K TV into different sections so you can have multiple presenters or sources on the screen.
Imagine if you are a realtor with a home office – you can have one section connected to your notebook showing a listing, a second to your phone showing the Zillow page, third to a tablet running a tour video, and the fourth section to your desktop computer showing MLS comps. More importantly, with the right equipment, you can do this without having to call in an IT expert to get it running.
One of the least expensive ways to connect a laptop to a TV is with Google Chromecast. If you have a single Windows laptop, and only occasionally want to connect to your TV, this is is a solid option. If you are Mac user, then you may want to look at an Apple TV – which works great with a MacBook or an iPad – but won’t connect to your Windows notebooks.
Both these solutions are good for sharing videos or an occasional presentation, but if you are going to use your TV for business or education applications such as a home school, you need something that can provide secure and reliable data transmission.
In the last couple of years, there are many new ways to use your TV to collaborate and share can notebooks, phones, and Blu-Ray players players without compromising security or having to load risky apps on your device. For a classroom, meeting room, or huddle space, you want a system that uses HDMI and/or USB-C buttons to connect a laptop to a TV without an app – and enables encryption so that you don’t have to worry about having your content recorded. These are more expensive than the consumer-oriented solutions but enable neat features such as splitting up a 4K TV screen into four separate sections to see multiple inputs at the same time.
BenQ InstaShow screen mirroring systems are designed for classroom and meeting use, where you may have more than one presenter and need an easy to use and effective wireless presentation system. There’s no driver, no app, and no network logins needed. Any team member simply plugs in an InstaShow button on their notebook and can present on the TV in just seconds. Depending on the model, you can have up to four people using laptops, tablets, and smartphones to share your TV simultaneously – enabling vital team collaboration. According to Projector Central, InstaShow’s “combination of video quality with ease of set up and use is nothing short of amazing.”
Sometimes it can be difficult to find answers to your questions when trying to find the right wireless screen mirroring system to connect to your TV. Since many resellers don’t have experts in this area that can help –where can you turn?
If you are looking for advice on choosing the right system for your business or classroom, you can talk directly to an experienced BenQ product expert who has access to many different models and can guide you to the best one for your application. We also can help you find a reseller nearby, or if you want, you can purchase one right on the phone. You can reach them at 888-818-5888. If you want to email them instead, you can reach them at BenqB2B.BQA@Benq.com.
Wireless screen mirroring systems are relatively new on the market, but you can find more detailed answers to your questions on the BenQ Wireless Presentation System page which has more detailed articles on common topics such as using Mac’s or AV devices with a screen mirroring system as well as comparison of popular models.
