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Cutting the Cord - Bringing Your Business Into the 21st Century with Intel [57:40]

Some technology changes quickly, some not so much. We've been slowly losing the cables that tether us to our desks, and now that trend is speeding up. Join Bill Hersh, Solutions Coordinator, as he demonstrates how to easily make your customers' conference rooms and offices more user-friendly, while making their employees more efficient and simplifying their days. In this technical video webcast you will see Intel® Pro Widi, WiGig, and vPro™ in action and learn how to get customers to transition to these technologies.

Resources

DandH.com Resources:

External Links:

Downloadable Resources:

Top 10 Questions for using Intel vPro Technology in SMBs

Webcast Q&A

Does this work on Android™ tablets?
Android tablets can interact with WiDi receivers via Miracast, and can therefore be managed by Pro WiDi clients. Other than that, the Intel technologies covered in this webcast are only supported on Windows-based systems.

What is the max distance for Intel WiDi Pro?
Intel lists the maximum supported distance for any WiDi signal as 20 feet.

The new Surface™ Pro 4 and Surface Book docking station is wired. Can WiGig from HP be used with Surface? Also, can vPro™ be used without having Kaseya, Spiceworks, etc.?
As far as we know, neither vPro nor WiGig are supported on the Surface Pro 4. vPro can be used with a standalone client, although we find that such clients are not as robust as a network management solution like those listed. The full list of vPro-supported software can be found here.

What are the hardware requirements for Intel WiDi Pro?
Hardware requirements are simple: Pro WiDi is supported on machines that support vPro.

What percentage of laptops sold at D&H have Intel Pro WiDi?
Looking into this.

Is a WiDi Pro laptop backwards-compatible with an old WiDi projector?
Yes

What Spiceworks app were you using in the demo?
That was the latest version of Spiceworks Network Monitor, version 1.3.00132.

What tablet were you using in the opening video?
The only tablet used in this webcast was the HP Elite Tablet 1011 G1, which was used to demonstrate the WiGig technology and was used as the local machine to remotely manage our management server and the Dell 7450 vPro-enabled laptop.

While doing the vPro demo, you mentioned "the server managing the vPro systems". What are the requirements for a vPro server?
There is no vPro server requirement, per se. In our lab, we have one server detailed to serve as a redundant AD server and a network management server. This is the machine that we have Spiceworks Network Monitor loaded on. The specs on this machine are fairly robust, but they wouldn't need to be; a single-CPU system with 32GB of RAM could do the same job.

Does WiGig work with Lenovo?
We're told that it does, but have been unable to determine exactly which machines support it.

What is the best method to determine if your current customers systems are WiDi capable?
We would check the CPU and chipset in the system against specs at http://ark.intel.com, which would include that capability in its feature list, if supported.

Does WiGig use standard WiFi, or does it use its own send/receive technology?
It uses an existing Intel wireless chipset, but is a superset of that chipset, so there is a separate signal that rides over the standard WiFi.

Is there is a list of what chipsets or what laptops support WiDi. Some manufacturers don't specify WiDi as a spec or don't specify the WiFi chipset, especially the cheap retail holiday models.
Please see above for the easiest method for determining whether or not WiDi/Pro WiDi is supported on a given machine.

Is Pro WiDi available for new Macs with Gen 6 CPUs?
WiDi is a Windows-only product, per Intel.

When you deal with clients with vPro and Pro WiDi and tablets with Mirrorcast, what do you do?
Any Miracast device is supported on WiDi. They will appear as a manageable presenter client to Pro WiDi users.

What is the difference between the ScreanBeam Pro Business Edition and the ScreanBeam Pro Education Edition (other than price)?
The ScreenBeam Pro Business Edition gives you WiDi, Actiontec's ScreenBeam Central Management System, and support for Intel Pro WiDi. The ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition gives you WiDi and the Central Management System, but not support for4 Pro WiDi. This means that an educational institution using the ScreenBeam Pro Education Edition can offer secure WiDi to its instructors and centrally manage all of those receivers from one single pane of glass, but the presenters are not using Pro WiDi.

Are WiGig docks cross-brand compatible with all brands? If not, why not?
Yes, they are.

Are all of the Intel's wireless SKU's available for purchase at D&H?
All Intel products are available from D&H; if you are not seeing a particular SKU, please contact intelspecialist@dandh.com and request information on that product.

Is Pro WiDi capability part of the actual Intel processor? Can it be added into a currently-owned laptop that is not currently compatible?
Pro WiDi is actually part of the wireless connection and the chipset, which means that adding it into an existing product is not possible.

Part of my business is repairing PCs/laptops/etc.; why would I want to offer something where my customers don't see me as often?
At no time do we suggest that you slow down seeing your customers; that would be silly. However, the value here is in keeping your customers up and running as quickly and consistently as possible. Better time with your customers would be holding a lunch-and-learn to train them on the latest new technology that they're using in the office or consulting on what they'd like to improve.

My customers don't have meetings like this.
Are you sure? Have you sat and talked with them to see if they do, to be certain? Even if they do not, does that mean that they wouldn't, given the space and technology to do so? If you're waiting for your customer to ask for something, then this might not hold value for you. If you're a little more proactive, however...

What is the value of having access to the BIOS in a system that isn't in front of you? You'll need to have it to fix it.
Well, that's not necessarily true. If there is a hardware issue that requires repair or replacement, you're correct. However, any software issue can be fixed as easily remotely as locally. You can boot to a local (to you) drive and you can load software from where you are. In addition, even if there is a hardware issue, you can do your troubleshooting remotely, enabling you to have all requisite replacement parts with you when you get to the faulty machine.

Which management platform do you recommend?
We don't. Each platform has its own unique value and each VAR has its own unique needs, and we prefer that each VAR figure out which platform works best for them. We use SpiceWorks for the flexibility and the community.

Is HP the only vendor to offer a WiGig dock?
No, Dell also has one for some of their systems. At this point, we're not aware of anyone besides those two vendors offering them, however.

Still Have Questions?

Feel free to contact the Solutions Lab team at solutionslab@dandh.com or contact Solutions Lab team members individually at their contact information below: