Streaming music over Bluetooth is fine. If you’re looking for an integrated solution to stream music from a bedroom computer around the entire home, however, Bluetooth-streaming solutions isn’t the way. You need to stream the audio over WiFi and that’s exactly what Rocki facilitates.
A device that connects to any speaker with an RCA or a 3.5mm slot, it instantly endows the equipment with WiFi streaming capabilities. Simply plug one on the kitchen speakers, one on each bedroom audio setup, another on the home entertainment center, and so on, and you’re done, ready to wirelessly play music over WiFi anywhere in the house.
Rocki measures about the size of a bar of soap, with a stylish design that looks like some form of cut gemstone. Each one is fitted with onboard electronics that receive audio signals via WiFi, then feeds it to the tethered sound system for playback, along with a USB-rechargeable 900 mAh battery. Each unit, which comes in a selection of colors (green, black, yellow, red, pink and purple), measures 92 x 54 x 17 mm, with a weight of 48 g.
You can select which Rocki units to stream audio to via an app that’s available on both PCs and mobile platforms (native iOS and Android apps, an HTML5 app for everything else), making it dead simple to use even for the technologically-challenged people in the house. The app is a full-fledged music manager, too, so it can access any music stored on your network, whether on a NAS, a networked PC, or a Transporter Home Cloud Storage.
Currently, Rocki is raising funds for a production run on Kickstarter. Available pledges to reserve a unit starts at $49.