BREAKING NEWS: The crowd funding campaign for this product is now live.
A new British invention designed to make walkie talkies and music players work seamlessly together and without the need for a wifi or mobile signal is about to seek crowd funding vie the Indiegogo platform.
The Airwave is a Media Player app and Bluetooth-enabled hardware that integrates the power of a walkie-talkie with your phone wirelessly, allowing users to communicate and listen to music from a single pair of earphones without needing to get their walkie talkie out on the slopes.
So the target market is walkie talkie users on the slopes, particularly off piste and in areas where there’s no mobile signal – still most areas on the mountain, where relying on your phone for communications can be dangerous.
The Airwave works by users uploading its app to their phones then plugging in their earphones, selecting a track, and hitting the slopes. At the same time they put the small Airwave unit, plugged in to their walkie talkie, in a pocket or back pack, not needing to be touched anymore.
Users can then transmit audio over the radio by speaking into the microphone on their earphones.
Whenever someone else transmits to you, your music will temporarily pause, playing their voice to your earphones.
It can be used anywhere on the mountain, at full range, without mobile signal or Data roaming. Because it’s wireless, you can store the walkie-talkie and Airwave in a pocket or backpack and not have to touch it all day.
The Airwave is the product of Rob Wheatley, an entrepreneur and avid snowboarder. In 2008, a near fatal experience at Whistler Blackcomb gave him the idea for a reliable communication device to use across all mountain terrain.
In 2014 Rob joined forces with engineer Luka Mustafa to develop the technology that would become The Airwave. After extensive international testing, The Airwave is now ready to launch the first stage of investment toward manufacture with their crowdfunding campaign launching September 2015.
“We created the Airwave so that we could ski and snowboard to music whilst riding in a group, without sacrificing communication.
We’ve tested the technology internationally in all conditions and we’re really excited about how well the device is progressing. We can’t wait to move forward with the next stage of development and share The Airwave with skiers and boarders the world over.”
