Air Waves (Pro) for Android

Try out Air Waves Lite!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=twig.nguyen.airwaves.lite

What does it do?

Air Waves is a "one to many" local radio broadcasting service which could be used for many things such as live translations for an audience, a baby monitor or a 2-way intercom/walkie-talkie.

Prior to creating this app, we had looked into alternatives. The translation system we needed for Ecclesia Mission Hills church (translation service) was almost $8,000. That included only a transmitting station, microphones and 4 headset devices.

With Air Waves, we paid (in $AUD):

wireless N150 router ($60)

$120 for x2 cheap Android phones to test our setup with

$20 for x2 in-ear Sony headphones

$0 to bring your own additional listening device

So for $200 we've provided the same service which an $8,000 system would have, except Air Waves is easier to set up and far cheaper if we need more headsets.

How to use it?

It doesn't get much simpler than this!

Broadcaster: Click on the microphone to start broadcasting immediately.

Listener: Simply click on the headphone icon and choose the channel (or language) you want.

Note: all devices need to be on the same WiFi network.

Advanced usage

Press menu to set your device name

Press menu to enable/disable audio playback via headset (for speaker)

Hardware required

At least 2 Android 4.1+ devices

A router with wireless capabilities (preferably at least N standard)

(optional) Some headphones and/or microphone for better audio quality

Notes

I've only tested on a handful of phones, simply because I can't afford to buy every phone in the market.

Below are the phones I've personally tested and works with Air Waves:

HTC Droid Incredible 2

HTC One X

Nexus 4

Samsung i9000 / S2 / S3 / Note 2 / S 3 Mini / S4

Sony Xperia X10 mini / Z1 / Z3 / Z5

Xiaomi Mi 2S

ZTE T12 / Telstra Uno

Some additional advice

Both broadcaster and audience must be on the SAME wireless network.

Each listener will use approximately 20Kbps, so please ensure your broadcasting device can handle the given number of listeners. See below for a detailed breakdown.

There is noticeably less audio latency on Android +4.1 devices as Google has fixed up some audio processing issues and again in Android 6

If you use a hands free microphone, the microphone used will affect recording quality. (Garbage in = garbage out)

Each broadcasting device has different methods of noise cancellation. Pick the one which works best for you.

Some features on wishlist

automatically reconnect to server

use non-blocking IO

Contact

If you have any problems, EMAIL ME!

Feel free to try it out and email me your feedback. Don't use reviews/comments as a form of "bug reports".