Test & Improve WiFi for Airtame 2

Symptoms of under-performing wireless communication

• Airtame streaming is “choppy” - it stops and starts constantly.

• Over 1 second of delay between the computer & TV screen during an Airtame stream session.

• Disconnections during an ongoing stream session.

• Stream sessions take over 3 seconds to start, once the “Share Screen” button is pressed.

Initial steps to try

Try these steps before diving into more technical diagnostics and improvements:

• Make sure that the Airtame device is powered properly. Airtame 2 can be powered by the power adapter or Airtame PoE only. Airtame 1 devices can be powered by either a TV or a power adapter, but we strongly recommend using the power adapter and ensuring the device is receiving enough power. 

• Reboot the access point.

• Check that your access point doesn't have any power-saving settings enabled. This may increase network latency.

• Check the positioning of an Airtame device. Make sure that it is positioned on the edge of the TV/display or on the side of the TV/display to avoid the no WiFi zone.

• Make sure that Airtame is close to an access point (within 10 meters/30 feet for Airtame 1 or within 15 meters/50 feet for Airtame 2).

Common reasons for underperforming WiFi

• The Airtame device and access point are too far apart. For optimal streaming experience, we recommend a WiFi signal strength of minimum -50 dBm.

• There’s no clear line of sight between the Airtame device and the access point, i.e. there are physical signal blockers like walls, furniture, people, or electronic appliances:

• Interference from other access points in the vicinity transmitting over the same WiFi channel:

• Interference from other radio wave-based products like handheld transceivers, cordless telephones, microwaves, or Bluetooth. This is very common when using a 2.4 GHz frequency band.

• The access point is overloaded with too many devices connected to it at the same time. This can be checked in the management interface of your access point or network controller.

• The access point's firmware may be outdated, or Tx power is low.

Network tests

• Perform an extensive ping test toward the Airtame device IP address:

• Windows network ping test

1. Search for "CMD" and open.

2. Type "ping + Your device IP address -n 20"

• Mac network ping test 

1. Open "Terminal" (Search or find in your application/utility folder).

2. Type "ping" followed by the IP of your device with a space in-between.

• Matrix to evaluate your results

1. <10 ms | Perfect latency and quality

2. 10-50 ms | A bit of latency and fine quality

3. 50 - 200 ms | Noticeable latency and quality reduction

4. >200 ms | Dropouts, bad quality, and definite latency

5. ≤ 1.0% | Healthy packet loss

• Use a WiFi Scanning App to find and set your access point WiFi to use a less saturated band and channel:

A wireless network console will provide tools to assess channel interference, but this tool can only provide data on the WiFi performance at the access point location. However, the Airtame device may just be installed in a problematic location. To test the WiFi performance, at the location of the Airtame device, is with a WiFi scanner application running on a computer allows you to run a WiFi scan with the computer near or next to the location of the Airtame device.

Here you can see the results of a WiFi scan. The 5GHz band has fewer SSIDs on it and some channels only have one other SSID - this means that there will be less interference if your access point is using this channel.

Many WiFi Scanning Apps also include a graph to show signal strength and interference (noise) of a specific WiFi, a high SNR value is desired:

Improvement Steps

• Check that the Airtame is placed as close as possible to the side of the screen pointing towards the access point. TVs block WiFi. The best way to avoid this would be to use the HDMI extender with Airtame 1 (which comes in the box), and for the Airtame 2, it's ideal to mount the device onto the wall around the TV, rather than behind the display.
  
  An Airtame device signal strength can be easily verified in Airtame Cloud:

• Check your wireless system's deployment guide to ensure you’re benefiting from the best possible physical installation of the access points, i.e.: placement above head level, enough distance between each access point, position for best radio wave propagation, etc.

   

• Configure Quality of Service to prioritize streaming traffic.

   

• If the WiFi system is already operating at its limit, a new screen-sharing solution will be impacted by this network saturation. If that is the case, consider deploying your new Airtames with a PoE adapter or ethernet adapter.

Expected performance of Airtame over WiFi