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Case Study

North American Beverage Group Replaces Conference Room Cables and Adapters with Ditto

A leading North American beverage producer needed wireless technology to replace the cables and adapters in its conference rooms. IT Project Manager Dean Wheeler spearheaded the company’s quick transition to Ditto, a cloud-based screen mirroring software. Ditto resolved compatibility issues and inefficiencies caused by wires and adapters and created a user-friendly, wireless meeting environment in company offices.

Old Conference Room Tech Created Collaboration Headaches

Dean Wheeler was tasked with finding a wireless technology to deploy in company conference rooms. Employees primarily used Video Graphics Array (VGA) connectors to manually connect their computers to conference room projectors during meetings, but VGA presented challenges.

VGA connectors were created in 1987 and are low-resolution by today’s standards. The outdated technology presented several compatibility and efficiency issues.

"Employees or guests might walk into a conference room with a computer that has a VGA, mini display, or HDMI port…or nothing at all,” Wheeler said. “So we had four or five different cables sitting on the conference room tables. Which one do you choose?”

Wheeler began searching for a conference room solution that’s easy to deploy and manage, wireless, cost-effective and user friendly for non-technical employees. He considered a few hardware solutions, including Crestron and Christie Brio.

“Nothing worked very well,” Wheeler said. “If it worked ok, the costs were prohibitive and it didn’t work with existing technology. We even looked into touch-screen solutions such as Cisco Spark and Microsoft Surface Hub, but touch screen isn’t the best option for the non-creative environments.”

Ditto Connect app running on a MacBook and Ditto receiver on a TV behind it

North American Beverage Group Improves Meeting Collaboration with Ditto

Wheeler began a two-month Ditto pilot when he discovered the technology in January 2017. A unique Ditto room code was assigned to the conference rooms that contain an AirPlay or Cast receiver, such as an Apple TV or Chromecast. Wheeler and the company’s security team determined that Apple TVs were the best enterprise-grade receiver to pair with Ditto because of Apple TV security advantages.

Diagram showing how the Ditto Connect app screen mirrors content to receivers

Wheeler used his pilot period to make sure Ditto worked with the company’s network security and settings to pair with the Apple TVs. Once he discovered this wouldn’t be an issue, he edited the Apple TV screensavers to display Ditto connection instructions for staff.

Employees and guests could walk into a Ditto-enabled conference room and quickly display their Mac or PC to the Apple TV simply by entering the Ditto code into the web-based Ditto connect page. Since Ditto is tied to a specific room rather than a specific user, it can be used by an unlimited number of people without requiring user licenses or approvals.

Person using Ditto Connect for Web on a MacBook

“Ditto makes displaying content easier for employees,” Wheeler said. “We don’t have to worry about somebody having an incompatible connection.”

"Ditto is the identified technology we’re going to be moving forward with in conference rooms. The technology has been easily adopted by anybody who uses it regardless of technical background. You don’t have to be an IT professional to understand how to use Ditto.”

Quote About Ditto Icon
Dean Wheeler IT Project Manager

Large-Scale Ditto Deployment Planned

Wheeler ultimately decided that pairing the Apple TV with Ditto was the best solution for the company. With this setup, employees could wirelessly display Mac and Windows computers, iPads and iPhones to the primary display. Ditto has given the company a cutting-edge, cloud-based technology that makes meetings more efficient and productive.

Wheeler can deploy Ditto and the Apple TV hardware to each new conference room in just 20 minutes. The beverage company plans to roll out Ditto to at least 40 conference rooms between office locations in Canada and the U.S.

Ditto:
  • Resolves compatibility issues
  • Erases the need to purchase costly hardware-based mirroring solutions
  • Ensures the IT team doesn’t have to manage thousands of user software licenses
  • Allows employees and guests to instantly share content from their Macs and PCs to the appropriate Apple TV without any previous setup or receiver licenses

“Ditto is the identified technology we’re going to be moving forward with in conference rooms,” Wheeler said. “The technology has been easily adopted by anybody who uses it regardless of technical background. You don’t have to be an IT professional to understand how to use Ditto.”

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