Can I use ATV(2) and Airplay from iPad without a network?

Question

I'm going on holiday to a rented villa which has a TV (which I assume has an HDMI port) but there is no internet connection, therefore no router or local WiFi network.  I'd like to be able to play content from my iPad and/or iPhone via Airplay on the TV using my AppleTV (2) (which I could easily take with me).
However, experimenting at home, it seems that ATV won't do anything at all unless connected to a WiFi network.  Airplay works fine even if the network is not connected to the internet; even purchased content seems to be ok (but DRM free - I haven't bought any non-DRM-free music).  However, without a separate WiFi router, ATV doesn't seem to do anything.  In particular, my iPad doesn't "see" it, and can't connect to it, unless both are connected to an existing network.
I don't understand why this should be so.  Should it not be possible to connect two WiFi devices (eg iPad and ATV) to each other without needing a router?
I can get it to work if I use my MBP to set up a WiFi network by using Internet Sharing to share my (non-existent) ethernet connection using Airport.  Airplay then works between my iPad and ATV.  However, this is a rather clumsy arrangement - I'd been hoping I wouldn't need to take my MBP with me for that week.
So, am I doing anything wrong, or is this (Airplay from iPad to ATV without a router) just something ATV can't do?  And is it "can't do" (ie ATV has the wrong chipset or something) or "won't do" (ie Apple have set it up so it won't work like this)?  And if it's "won't do", any chance Apple will provide this functionality in the future?
Message was edited by: Doug the Mac
After submitting this, I found an answer to a similar question last December (Can I create an ad-hoc (WiFi) network between my iPhone and Apple TV?); basically saying that you need the router; but I'll leave this as a question (a) to help others find it, because I looked before I submitted and didn't find a relevant discussion and (b) just in case someone else has a better idea......

Answer 1

You could take the airport and setup a wifi network without Internet. The atv2 can connect without Internet access to a wifi network setup with a router. Be patient when it connects, it tries to establish an Internet connection and it takes a while to find there isn't one!! Eventually it offers to connect without Internet. Once connected you can stream to it as usual. One word of caution - don't disable home sharing, if you do and re-activate it the atv2 seems to need an Internet connection to verify your account.
I did precisely this recently when I had to wait for a couple of weeks for Internet to be connected at my new house.
But, you need the router - unlike iPhone, iPad etc the atv2 will not connect to an ad hoc network.