Back in April we showcased a great productivity app that helped you communicate between your office and the field. This month, we’d like to show you a different app which will arm you with the ability to present whatever is on an Android or Apple device, to a computer. One of the benefits here will be that you’ll save time on training your technicians whenever a “big” update shows up on one of the applications they use for their job. A great example would be the transition from ESC Mobile 13 to ESC Tech; with Reflector 2, you can stream your presentation to a larger monitor so you can show all of your technicians at once, how to use their software. If you’re lucky, you may even be able to convince those technicians to follow along with their own devices as they watch your presentation.
Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
- Reflector 2, on your Mac or Windows computer. They have a free trial!
- iOS users will need to make sure they are using iOS 6, or newer, and have AirPlay.
- Android users will need to make sure their devices are on version 4.4.2, or newer, with Chromecast.
Not sure if your device is compatible, go here and find out!
Now, let’s show you this program in action with a scenario:
I have ten technicians that have all switched over to the new ESC Tech app and they’re coming into the office, bright and early, to see a presentation on how they’re going to use it. Here’s what I’m doing to get everything ready…
I’ve setup in the conference room and have hooked up my projector to my Windows PC. I then downloaded Reflector 2 and installed it on my machine. Like our ESC Connection Server, the Reflector 2 program runs in the lower-right corner of the Desktop. So, I double-click on the little icon to bring up the program.
That’s basically all I need to do so far on my computer… it’s literally ready to go and waiting for my device to connect. Next, I get out my iPhone 6 and bring up the AirPlay option, select my PC and enable Mirroring. Observe that in the image above, the window is named Scott – which is my PC’s name. Your PC’s name will likely appear in that window, making your life that much easier - thanks Reflector 2!
After I selected my computer through AirPlay, almost immediately on my PC I now see this… That’s not a picture of a phone in front of my monitor, that’s a picture of my phone trapped inside my monitor! Okay, it’s not trapped, but you get the idea. How neat is that? It’s awesome.
Now I just have to wait for all my technicians to arrive so I can show them my presentation. I can even, if you take a look at the image above, click that little Record button to save my presentation so I can show it to any technician that doesn’t show up to my meeting.
At this point I’d encourage you to check it out, if you head over to their webpage you can download a free, 7-day trial of Reflector 2. The only limitation, I noticed, was a watermark. The program doesn’t appear to have any features that are only available to the purchased product. As a side note, the Record feature is pretty slick too, the recording only captures the presentation, and you won’t actually see the computer desktop.
Hopefully you found this article useful. You should see more of these types of articles coming in the future. We’ll continue showing you some of the latest technology and give you helpful tips on ways to streamline your business. If you have a moment, feel-free to check out our past newsletters; they offer a multitude of topics ranging from interviews with the dESCO family, to popular “How To” explanations. Well, see you next time and thanks for reading!
Written by Scott Haugsjaa
Featured in July 2015 Newsletter
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