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We set up AirPrint using unicast DNS-SD on our campus about a year ago and it turned out to be a big success, so we're looking at trying to get AirPlay working so our faculty and students can wirelessly show content on our classroom projectors.

There are still a couple of other things preventing an ideal implementation (username and password authentication, for starters), but I've been trying to set up a working demo nonetheless. Getting AirPrint working was basically just a matter of advertising the same records over a DNS-SD domain instead of the multicast (.local) one, but doing the same thing for AirPlay doesn't seem to cut it. The devices don't recognize the DNS-SD AirPlay servers as available.

I've uploaded a screenshot of my DNS-SD configuration with the original (from AirServer, which works normally for multicast) here.

I realize this is still a fairly new feature and documentation is lacking, but has anyone been able to get AirPlay working via DNS-SD? If it simply only works over multicast, I can accept that, but its potential is so appealing for us that I thought it'd be worth asking if anyone else has figured it out.

petrus
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Moduspwnens
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2 Answers2

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I've gotten this to work, but the method wasn't pretty. Because the multicast address for airplay is subnet local -only- it can't be propagated as-is by a standard router. I ended up setting up Avahi on a Linux vm with interfaces into each required subnet. Avahi was, in turn, configured for service reflection (enable-reflector=yes). This allows the daemon to gather the various mDNS requests and propagates them into the various connected subnets.

I'm not especially a tremendous fan of this solution, but it does work for a dozen or so VLAN's without too much drama. The moral of this story is, unfortunately, that these protocols are, at best, problematic.

rnxrx
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Apple apparently made sure Apple TVs don't work with unicast DNS-SD as "a concession they made to content providers and that no amount of DNS records or search domains would allow the Apple TV to be contacted/used from another network." So you're out of luck, unfortunately.

TRS-80
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