using airplay without the internet - possible?

[djneils98]

SO i have an apple TV3 and a mac-pro and at home via my home wifi network I can use my lounge tv as an extension or a mirror of my mac - works fabulous.
Now i'm a tutor in a college so thought it would be great to be able to use my mac or iPad on the classroom projector wirelessly via the apple tv airplay. Surely this would be a great feature for business people wanting to do presentations in clients offices etc?
First I tried making a direct wifi connection between the mac and the apple tv. No go
Them I got hold of an old wireless router thinking that would work but again no go (no way to get the router to connect to the internet at the college I work in so it's basically just acting as a switch)
Does airplay really require an active internet connection to work? Is there any way to connect an apple tv directly to an iPad or mac?
stumped and grateful for any suggestions

 

[priitv8]

AirPlay does not need internet, but the Home Sharing does. Even with a WiFi hotspot created from your mac (wire would be even better ), you should be able to play back something on your Mac and then switch on the AirPlay.
But you won't be able to browse your library from the AppleTV UI.

 

[djneils98]

thanks
when I connect the mac and the apple tv via the switch (with no internet) the apple TV can see my files in iTunes and play them fine. But this is not what I want - i'm trying to achieve screen mirroring or desktop extension (both of which work fine at home when internet enabled)
I get no airplay options on the mac or any iOS devices on the router acting as a switch (no connection to the internet)

 

[priitv8]

I get no airplay options on the mac or any iOS devices on the router acting as a switch (no connection to the internet)

Then it is a Bonjour problem. I.e the service discovery does not work for whatever reason. In theory Bonjour should work even with self-assigned IP addresses.
You need to make sure, that you have on both devices similar network setup (subnet mask and default gateway). If you have IPv6 enabled on both ends, it should work without special IPv4 configuration as IPv6 is preferred over IPv4.
Check if you have manually assigned IP settings on either of the devices. If so, let them be automatic.
If this special IP setup will differ significantly from your home setup, I'd create a special Location just for that. You can create locations on Mac OS X only, not on iOS.
Using network locations
Link-Local Addressing and Bonjour

 

[djneils98]

thanks
everything is set to automatic. The only difference between it working (at home) and not working (at work) is the lack of internet connection. I've tried an iPhone, mac and iPad - all will work at home but not at work. The router i'm using at work is my old virgin media hub (recently got a new one)

 

[priitv8]

Why the old router? What if you connect your aTV directly to Mac via Ethernet cable?
Also, make sure that thing is not doing any routing or NAT. It needs to work as simple switch.
To begin with, check what network settings are you getting on both devices? The IP address, Subnet mask and default gateway?

 

[djneils98]

Why the old router? What if you connect your aTV directly to Mac via Ethernet cable?
Also, make sure that thing is not doing any routing or NAT. It needs to work as simple switch.
To begin with, check what network settings are you getting on both devices? The IP address, Subnet mask and default gateway?

Thanks
Tried a direct Ethernet connection and no go for mirroring at all
Will have another try with router but it was all on standard settings same mask gateway etc