AirPort Intercom
Posted July 9th, 2005 @ 04:16pm by Erik J. Barzeski
I've been thinking about how nice it would be to have an intercom system in my house. I'd put an intercom in the basement, the kitchen, the living room, and at least one room upstairs (though possibly in two).
Currently, I've got about as many AirPort base stations or AirPort Expresses.
Why hasn't Apple combined the two? Imagine a "plug and play" type intercom where each intercom unit - buy as many as you like - is also an AirPort base station. If AirPorts already decrypt compressed and encrypted signals (for AirTunes), about all that would be required is the addition of a button (press to talk), a little speaker, and a little microphone.
Or just let me plug something into the USB port!
Seems like this thing would work pretty well. I'd buy two more AirPort Expresses (and the USB mic/speaker) or AirPort Intercoms (the made up name I've got for this product).
Donate Life
Posted 10 Jul 2005 at 5:32pm #
And maybe they could put can-openers in them, too.
Posted 10 Jul 2005 at 5:49pm #
No need to be a smartass, Charles.
Posted 17 Jul 2005 at 11:41pm #
ISTR my family had some intercoms in the house when I was little. They weren't wifi obviously, but they weren't wired either -- and knowing my dad, they were probably dirt cheap at Radio Shack. If they still produce these things, you ought to be able to get a half dozen of em for the cost of one Airport Express.
Posted 09 Jan 2007 at 5:37pm #
For what its worth I agree that this would be nice. In general it would be great to see third party development for this device. I have been using Airfoil to redirect windows apps to airport devices with good success. I ran across your site looking for a neat way to 'broadcast" without heavy application overhead a message to multiple airport units as a PA system. I was thinking of recording MP3 voice messages to play to airports in worse case.