Bluetooth headphones are great, but sometimes you have a favorite wired pair of headphones you just don’t want to let go of. A new Kickstarter project lets you use them wirelessly by employing something you probably already keep in your pocket: your smartphone.
The Blipcast is a small piece of hardware that connects to your TV and sends the audio signal to mobile devices over Wi-Fi. The device can either connect to your home router, assuming you have one, or function as a standalone access point if you don’t. Once the Blipcast is set up, you simply use the companion app on your iOS or Android device.
While you can use the Blipcast for a variety of purposes, it’s clear from the look of the box and even the company’s own wording that this is meant for use with a TV. It connects to your TV or A/V receiver using either a 3.5 mm analog connection or an optical digital connection. The device is USB powered, so requires no external power if you’re using it with a relatively modern TV.
There are already plenty of options for doing what the Blipcast does. For example, Amazon’s Fire TV devices support Bluetooth headphones, and some Roku remotes have a built-in headphone jack. That said, the Blipcast is a more universal solution, and supports sending audio to multiple mobile devices from one unit.
The Kickstarter campaign for the Blipcast included a number of early-bird discounts, which have all been taken at this point. The minimum pledge to receive a Blipcast now is $100, and this is limited to a total of 2,500, but as of right now there are still more than 2,400 available. For $275, you get the “Blipcast Home” package, which includes three Blipcast devices as well as an RCA 3.5mm adapter in order to use the device with a record player or A/V receiver.
The Kickstarter campaign started kicking on January 1, and at the time of this writing it hasn’t yet reached $20,000 of its $100,000 goal. Still, the campaign doesn’t end until the end of the month, so if the Blipcast seems useful to you, there is still plenty of time to head over and back the campaign.
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