We just released AirLinc - a wireless audio recording app

[AirLinc]

We've been working away on developing an iOS-based wireless audio recording solution, targeted for videographers. As we've finally released it, I'm keen to get some feedback from people in the industry! Start/stop/monitor a recording live & remotely without paying $600+ for the traditional gear. Also syncs files between devices for redundancy.

Our inspiration came from one of us working to make real estate videos. The benefit of wireless mics were obvious, but so too was the peril of a tight budget. We started to toy around the idea of an iPhone to iPhone wireless recording solution, as these days iPhones have some pretty impressive tech capabilities.

Turns out it works quite well, and having the high quality displays on the iPhones plus internet connectivity opens up some exciting possibilities. Current thing for us to investigate is connecting different types of mics, but at the moment we've found 3.5 mm TRRS lav mics work well.

Anyway... we've since done plenty of development, and we'd love to have some pros try it out. App store link and our site - any and all feedback is much appreciated!

 

[linuxcooldude]

I would be interested in testing / demo for my tech show broadcast & Youtube channels. As long as I can use an iPhone and a iPad Mini. Always looking for new products to showcase.

 

[AirLinc]

I would be interested in testing / demo for my tech show broadcast & Youtube channels. As long as I can use an iPhone and a iPad Mini. Always looking for new products to showcase.

We'd love for you to test it out and chat about it in your broadcast! Just keep in mind that if you don't get the paid version (USD 12.99), the recording length is limited.

Currently our app store version is just built for iPhone, so you'd have to do an "iPhone only" download on your iPad. That means the UI will be a bit zoomed in, but it'll still work fine. Having said that, we'll see if we can get a proper iPad version out this week, along with some other fixes.

Just get them on the same wifi network (personal hotspot if you want) and you should be good to go. Keen to hear what you think about it, so please do post here when you've done the review!

 

[sevoneone]

This is a great idea and I love the way you have executed it. Couple of questions/suggestions:

1) Is the recording time limited by there not being a 12.99 license on the local/recording iDevice, the monitoring device or both? It would be nice if the app only looked for the license on the remote/monitoring device, that way if you were in a pinch you could use anyones iDevice as the transmitter and use yours as the monitor/remote.

2) iPad version of the control/monitor with mixer like controls that will control multiple source devices. Do this. I'm sure you're already thinking about it.

 

[AirLinc]

This is a great idea and I love the way you have executed it. Couple of questions/suggestions:

Glad you love it, particularly the execution! There's countless ways to turn a concept into a product, so we're happy to hear that our approach is making sense to people.

1) Is the recording time limited by there not being a 12.99 license on the local/recording iDevice, the monitoring device or both? It would be nice if the app only looked for the license on the remote/monitoring device, that way if you were in a pinch you could use anyones iDevice as the transmitter and use yours as the monitor/remote.

You're spot on. You only need to make the purchase on one of the devices (microphone or receiver). The vision is that you, being the audio producer, have the paid version of the app and some plug-in mics, then you can just borrow other phones (cameraman, actor etc) to use for free.

Inspired by this purpose, we've been striving to keep our app very lightweight; quick download means quick setup. Currently it's around 2.3 MB.

2) iPad version of the control/monitor with mixer like controls that will control multiple source devices. Do this. I'm sure you're already thinking about it.

It's pretty exciting.

 

[Steve-F]

This is great!
Downloaded the trial and had it working with mine and a friends iPhones in a few moments. Very simple to use as well. Only criticism is I would like to boost the recording level a bit more - I found we had it on max both with the iPhone mic and an external mic we tried.

Steve

 

[AirLinc]

This is great!
Downloaded the trial and had it working with mine and a friends iPhones in a few moments. Very simple to use as well. Only criticism is I would like to boost the recording level a bit more - I found we had it on max both with the iPhone mic and an external mic we tried.

Steve

Hey Steve,

Thanks for trying it out! I'll note down that feedback. We came across this during our testing, and we found that the max gain in iOS is quieter than we'd prefer. Nevertheless, we'll investigate some possible solutions.

Has anybody used it in a shoot yet?

 

[Scooter28]

What a great app!

+1 on a version being able to control more than one microphone source device.

Someday perhaps you can add a video recording option to the receiver app, so we could shoot video + trigger remote audio recording on one device.

But multiple source control first

 

[AirLinc]

What a great app!

+1 on a version being able to control more than one microphone source device.

Someday perhaps you can add a video recording option to the receiver app, so we could shoot video + trigger remote audio recording on one device.

But multiple source control first

Yep we're gathering that people are pretty keen for that feature!

As for shooting video whilst recording audio remotely, you can do it at the moment. You just have to use Apple's Camera app for the video. The process:

1. Start the audio recording in AirLinc
2. Swap to the Camera app and start video recording
3. Stop recording video
4. Swap back to AirLinc and stop the audio recording

Currently there's a bug where the remote iPhone doesn't reconnect when you return to AirLinc, but we'll be rolling out an update shortly that addresses that. It will still say Disconnected momentarily, but it will reconnect, and you can then sync over the full audio recording.

Though we'll keep integrating video in mind - would be handy for very quick setups.

 

[Scooter28]

As for shooting video whilst recording audio remotely, you can do it at the moment. You just have to use Apple's Camera app for the video.

Oh, that's great that it'll work through simple multitasking! Thanks for outlining the process. I'll definitely be trying this app out and looking forward to its updates.

 

[linuxcooldude]

i've been testing it out since yesterday and like the simplicity and ease of use. When i did the video the mic maxed out, but it was probably how I was recording the video and caused a feedback loop in audio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3-gyj4xes0

 

[AirLinc]

i've been testing it out since yesterday and like the simplicity and ease of use. When i did the video the mic maxed out, but it was probably how I was recording the video and caused a feedback loop in audio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3-gyj4xes0

Yep just found your review, thanks for taking the time!

We came across a bug that may have caused this earlier last week. Once the update is out, I'll let you know. Definitely want to see this resolved, even if it is an unusual case.

 

[linuxcooldude]

Yep just found your review, thanks for taking the time!

We came across a bug that may have caused this earlier last week. Once the update is out, I'll let you know. Definitely want to see this resolved, even if it is an unusual case.

As I said in the video, during the initial testing phase did not have a problem with the application. For the video I hooked up the iPhone to the Thunderbolt HDMI out to a capture card. I route all audio to and from the computer to a mixer. I assumed that some how I was getting a feedback loop some where the way I had it hooked up.

 

[AirLinc]

As I said in the video, during the initial testing phase did not have a problem with the application. For the video I hooked up the iPhone to the Thunderbolt HDMI out to a capture card. I route all audio to and from the computer to a mixer. I assumed that some how I was getting a feedback loop some where the way I had it hooked up.

Does that involve some screen capture app on your iPhone where it also captures audio? The main symptom (VU meter at max) matches that of the bug we fixed.

Update - we just released 1.0.2 which hopefully will fix that bug if it's not a feedback loop. Keen to know if that's worked for you!