I lecture on technical and security topics using Power Point in different venues around the world. Often we are showing a large group of students how to complete complex mechanical tasks like disassembling locks or opening them with covert entry tools. As an example, last year at the Dubai Police Headquarters we taught forty criminal investigative agents about lock forensics and covert entry in an intensive hands-on setting. In order to teach detailed techniques in live demos, we set up a special wired camera connected to a digital light projector. Students could watch what we were teaching, but what we really needed was a way to show the mistakes that individual officers were making so everyone could benefit in a live setting. In other words, the optimum training experience would have been to examine what each student was doing so everyone else could see without crowding around different workspaces.
This year we are again presenting at DefCon in Las Vegas. We are talking about insecurity engineering issues involving the defective design of popular gun safes and how they can be compromised quickly and easily, even by kids as young as three years old. As part of our talk we want to have conference participants open a number of small safes produced by five different manufacturers to demonstrate the ease and speed with which their security can be circumvented. We wanted to be able to shoot live video from a variety of angles and locations within the lecture hall, so that everyone can see the techniques close-up. To do this requires a wireless camera and the ability to project its output to a thousand people in the audience.
I have a variety of cameras that I use for shooting video but none of these are capable of working wirelessly. I checked the App store for both Google and Apple as well as the Internet for a solution, but they only exist if you route the video, via WiFi or broadband, through a server and then back to your laptop and connected projector. In a venue like DefCon this would be difficult, so I looked for another solution.
My parameters were simple: a small handheld camera with integrated wireless. It must have good light sensitivity and resolution, and also be capable of wide angle to macro and auto-focus. I looked at the GoPro sports camera with a WiFi attachment but the system did not allow for direct communications with a laptop. It requires connection to their server and then access to the Internet from another computer. This would not work for our purposes. So I decided that the best option was either my Android or iPhone if I could find a way to feed images or video to my laptop. Both of my phones have good cameras and of course wireless capability.
After speaking with a very knowledgeable and inventive Apple technician, we determined there was a simple, cost-effective, and quite good solution to the problem; one that I am sure you will find very useful if you lecture and need totally wireless video within a 300 foot range. It requires only two or three components (depending upon the video input of your projector) and an iPhone or iPad that is running the latest OS.
It turns out that the $99 Apple TV module will sync with other Apple products and can mirror whatever is on the screen of the smartphone or tablet This means that you can turn the camera on, select a WiFi network (which does not require an Internet connection), and then select Mirroring and Apple TV after double-clicking the home button on the phone or tablet.
I purchased an Apple Airport Express wireless Router which is another tiny module. I set a password to encrypt the session, paired it with the Apple TV, and connected the Apple TV HDMI output either directly to a projector, or through a Kanex Pro HDMI to VGA converter. That’s it. No difficult setup, and instant portable high quality wireless video within the range of your router. You can use an existing network, or set up one dedicated to your video. I chose the latter because I did not need to connect to the Internet and the Apple Airport Express easily handles video.
If you need live video capability, at any venue, to allow participants to watch what you are demonstrating, this is a very simple solution that provides excellent quality for a total cost of about $250.00. It offers total mobility and flexibility with a camera that you may already own.
