Posted By Paul Kafasis on April 23rd, 2017

Update (May 18th, 2017): Airfoil for Mac 5.6 restores direct streaming to all models of Apple TV. Get the latest version now from the Airfoil page. Airfoil Satellite TV will no longer be needed to stream to the Apple TV. See this post for more details.

Update (September 25th, 2017): Airfoil for Windows 5.2 and above restore full Apple TV compatibility as well. Grab the latest from the Airfoil for Windows page.

As described in Friday’s post, we’ve been working on two distinct solutions to enable you to stream audio from Airfoil to the newest Apple TVs. We’re now able to provide you with the first of those solutions.

Get Airfoil Satellite TV Now!

When tvOS 10.2 broke Airfoil’s ability to send audio directly to the Apple TV, we began working on an alternative method of getting audio to the device. We’re now pleased to provide Airfoil Satellite TV, an app to turn your Apple TV into an audio receiver for Airfoil. With Airfoil Satellite TV running on your Apple TV, you’ll again be able to send audio from your Mac or Windows machine to tvOS-based Apple TVs.

To download the free Airfoil Satellite TV, just search for it in the App Store right on your Apple TV. If you have automatic downloading turned on for your Apple TV, you can also click this link to get the app. When you’ve got the app running, just use Airfoil to send audio to the “Airfoil Satellite on <Your Apple TV Name>” device. Once you do, you’ll again be able to rock out with audio from your Mac or PC playing through your Apple TV.

Airfoil Updates Still To Come

Airfoil Satellite TV restores the ability to use your Apple TV as a receiver for Airfoil, but it must be running in the foreground. As discussed in our previous post, we’ve also been working in parallel to restore Airfoil’s ability to stream directly to the Apple TV with no app required.

We’ve recently completed the preliminary work to enable Airfoil to connect with tvOS-based Apple TVs, and we’re working on bringing the functionality into Airfoil. Once that’s ready, we’ll ship free updates for Airfoil for Mac and Airfoil for Windows. While we can’t yet give release dates for these updates, you can be sure we’re working hard to get them to you as soon as possible.