Linking up the tunes between multiple boats.... WIRELESSLY

[Detonate]

We've got a group of us, including @maboat , that hook up at the lake often, and we usually want to join our stereos together so that we are all playing the same music.

The easiest way has always been to just stretch a headphone cable between the boats and call it good.

However, ideally I'd like to find a way to transmit the output from one boat and stream wirelessly to multiple boats.

I actually boat a high power FM transmitter that I thought was going to do the trick, it had like a 5 or 25 mile radius. Not sure it was even legal to be honest. But the quality was pretty crappy. I keep thinking there has to be a better way.

I saw these on ebay today, not sure if they could be rigged up to work or not.

Joyo JW01 Digital Wireless Guitar Bass 2.4G Audio Transmitter Receiver System http://r.ebay.com/hpIKnN


Says that it supports one to many... So maybe... Anyone ever done this? Or have any thoughts?

Also found an interesting article on hacking an airplay express, the problem with that is that the source has to be a phone, or something. I really want the source to be the output of my amplifier. This way I can still ipod or whatever through the boat remotes...

 

[jcyamaharider]

I know that 3 other boats that I boat with all have clarion head units with blue tooth, can these headunits all blue tooth to one phone and play through all of the boats? I am thinking this might work?

 

[Detonate]

Bluetooth is only one to one....
Need something for one to many!

 

[jcyamaharider]

That sucks. This is something that we need to figure out before boating season gets in full swing. Who wants to pull a boat over to the house to see if we can get this figured out?

 

[leeatmg]

The answer, if it exists, is probably WiFi. Correct that Bluetooth is one-to-one. However, you can have multiple Bluetooth devices active at once so it is theoretically possible to have multiple Bluetooth streams from one device. WiFi is just easier.

An example of this is the Airport Express from Apple. It's a portable WiFi router that also has an audio out jack. It allows you to stream from an iPhone or iPad to it, but the trick is that you can have multiple Airport Express devices on a network and direct the audio to some or all of them simultaneously. I use it myself at home to send audio to my patio, bar, or upper level dependent on how we are entertaining. It would work for what you are trying to do, but it requires an AC plug. If every boat had an inverter the problem is solved.

 

[leeatmg]

Here's a link to the device for reference...

http://www.apple.com/airport-express/

 

[jcyamaharider]

So would something like this work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TP-LINK-TL-...078115?pt=COMP_EN_Routers&hash=item3f2db99aa3


Edit: I guess you still need the modem with this.

 

[leeatmg]

So would something like this work?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/TP-LINK-TL-...078115?pt=COMP_EN_Routers&hash=item3f2db99aa3

I don't think it would without additional hardware. The key is the audio out jack on the router, which I did not see on that device but that the Apple device does have. You'd need to add some sort of audio converter to the USB jack and hope that there's a driver that can feed the audio signal to that converter when attached to the USB jack.

 

[dan144k]

Company called mobileblackbox.com makes a FM transmitter. We have the V6000 model. Cost was about $100. We bought a few for our Kingdom Hall. To use for translating in a different language and for hearing impaired or recording. People just bring their own radio and headphones.

 

[leeatmg]

Another option (and I use Apple because I know it - there may be another similar solution) is to see if there is a head unit that is compatible with Airplay. Airplay is Apple's streaming audio/video format, and a lot of home A/V receivers now have that capability. Works much the same way - an iPhone will recognize any Airplay devices and allow you to select some or all to send the audio to.

 

[Detonate]

Yeah, I had read an article on using Airport, and even how to hardwire it for USB.

The problem there is the source has to be a computer basically... And probably more specifically iTunes. A phone can only stream to one airport at a time.

It seems like when I find a good receiver, I can't find a transmitter. And when I find something that will work as a transmitter, the receiver options are limited... /sigh

 

[leeatmg]

I missed the line from the OP about wanting to take the head unit audio and not from another source, so some of what I've posted would not work for that intention. I'll have to think on that a bit. Not sure.

 

[leeatmg]

Yeah, I had read an article on using Airport, and even how to hardwire it for USB.

The problem there is the source has to be a computer basically... And probably more specifically iTunes. A phone can only stream to one airport at a time.

It seems like when I find a good receiver, I can't find a transmitter. And when I find something that will work as a transmitter, the receiver options are limited... /sigh

Actually, an iPhone can stream to as many Airports at once as you'd like. If there's more than one in range, they will all show up and you can select them individually to receive audio output. If you had one in each boat, you could turn off a boat that was being naughty...

Still doesn't solve the audio source issue, though. For the Airplay/Airport Express solution to work, the audio would need to originate with an iDevice.

 

[Julian]

How about this....requires iPhones....

https://itunes.apple.com/be/app/seedio/id546283234

 

[leeatmg]

You could use an inexpensive A/V sender system with multiple receiver devices, but then you'd still have the issue of needing an AC inverter. Something like this:

http://www.allaboutadapters.com/24ghzwiautrw.html

 

[leeatmg]

How about this....requires iPhones....

https://itunes.apple.com/be/app/seedio/id546283234

That's interesting...would work, but each boat would need an iDevice attached to its head unit.

Also, that link is to the German iTunes store - here's the US version. $2.99 - might have to download that just to try it out.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seedio/id546283234?mt=8

 

[BoaterGuy]

How about this (its 12v too!):

http://www.amazon.com/0-5-Fail-Safe-Long-Range-Transmitter/dp/B003FO4UHW

 

[leeatmg]

How about this (its 12v too!):

http://www.amazon.com/0-5-Fail-Safe-Long-Range-Transmitter/dp/B003FO4UHW

That definitely seems like it would work, though the sound quality via FM might not be great. If that's not a concern, that might be worth a look.

 

[Detonate]

Yeah, that's actually along the lines of what we tried a year or two ago. The FM quality was not so great.

Seems like just sticking to wired is probably the easiest thing to do...

What I might do is just run some 3.5 outputs to both side of my boat so that I don't have wires dangling all over the place....

 

[octavio3311]

I was going to recemmend the WetSounds WS420 EQ - they advertise the capability to link boats similiarly equipped. But after looking up the specs, it too uses cables from 1 boat to another.