iPad Pro to Large Display (Monitor / TV) for Performance

Hi everyone,

I’m a musician (percussionist) and often have to read my music from significant distances due to the size of my instruments. I’ve been reading from the iPad Pro (original 12.9", though I just purchased a new one via my university) but even that screen is often not large enough as I often have ~5 feet between me and the device, with instruments in between.

I’m looking for recommendations for how best to connect the iPad Pro to either a larger monitor or television. I’m thinking somewhere in the range of 32" or larger screen, but don’t have one available to test on at the moment. Here are the areas of decisions I’m faced with:

  1. Monitor or TV?
    I’m trying to decide what the pros and cons of each would be.

  2. HDMI or some other kind of connection?
    Airplay crossed my mind and would be okay for rehearsal, but I’m not sure I would trust it in a performance environment. Whatever the solution is, it has to be very stable b/c I obviously need my music to be fail-safe. Setting up lots of instruments is already stressful before gigs, so I’d prefer not to have to troubleshoot an Apple TV and wireless connection if possible.

  3. Is there a way to connect the iPad to 2 large screens?
    Often my instrument setups require me to turn and face various directions, and it would be ideal to have the music in various places. I often use a Bluetooth foot pedal to turn the pages, and perhaps there is a way to do this on both screens simultaneously from the same iPad source.

Here are some additional details that might help with any input:

  • I plan to use a bluetooth foot pedal to turn the pages
  • Running from the iPad is important b/c I use the Apple Pencil to make my markings.
  • I read everything out of the app ForScore

Thank you for any and all advice you might provide. If I can get this new rig working it could be a real game changer!

Andy

At that distance I think even any recent TV with 1080 resolution would be fine. Or a monitor. I doubt there will be much difference. I have used mine via HDMI and Airplay and both work great. If you want a wired connection you’ll want a usb c hub with HDMI. I purchased an iHome dock from Walmart for about $35 that includes 1 USB A, HDMI, and a USB C in for charging or attaching a drive. It’s worked great. There are other hubs with more ports but this was a convenient purchase and had enough ports for my needs. Most hubs allow charging via the USB C in port which is probably important.