Black Boxes: TERK Technologies Leapfrog WaveMaster 20 A/V Transmitter

by Chris Raley
Fall 2001

TERK Technologies
(631) 543-1900
[www.terk.com]
$100 (additional receiver modules $60 each)

With entertainment centers mainly confined to the living room, you have to buy extra components or string cords through your walls or attic space if you want to be entertained in the rest of your house.
Leapfrog WaveMaster 20 from TERK jumps into this area of home entertainment and frees you from the tangles of cords while expanding the use of components you already have. Leapfrog consists of a transmitter and receiver that use an FM signal at 2.4GHz. The transmitter sends video and stereo audio up to 100 feet using polarized transmitting and receiving antennas. The upshot is you can transmit the television or video signal from the entertainment center in your living room to the TV in your bedroom or backyard without running extra line or hooking up cable. The Leapfrog will even transmit wireless video to your TV from a camcorder.

Out of Box Experience
The two units that comprise Leapfrog are 6.9 x 4.4 x 1.8 inches each. Accompanying Leapfrog are all the cables you need to send and receive a signal: two sets of RCA cables, one coaxial cable, one 3.5mm to 3.5mm cord for attaching an IR extender and two power adapters.
Setup was simple and straightforward. We hooked the transmitter up to our VCR using the RCA cables and the receiver up to a TV in another room using the supplied coaxial. We turned the units on, tuned the secondary TV to channel three and we were up and running, using the VCR's remote control to surf through the television channels.

Tweak if Necessary
While setup should take no time at all, you may have to spend a little time tweaking your Leapfrog to get the best performance. We put the transmitter inside the entertainment system so it would be hidden from view. While the picture was mostly clear, it would occasionally get fuzzy.
Consulting the instructions, we removed the units from their hiding places and put them up high. Next we pointed the transmitter's flat directional antenna in the general direction of the receiver, tweaking each antenna until we got the clearest picture. Then we scrolled through the frequencies until we found one that brought the cleanest signal. When we tried watching a videotape transferred over the Leapfrog, we had no reception problems at all.

Sounds Good
To test Leapfrog's audio abilities, we hooked the transmitter to a portable CD player and connected the receiver to our living room stereo. The sound transmitted nice and clear.

On the Downside
The Leapfrog does have its limits. You can't scroll through the channels from the receiving TV. So you won't be able to channel surf from your deck or bed. Any channel changing must be done on the source TV.

Summary
TERK's Leapfrog WaveMaster 20 is a simple-to-use device with a simple objective: connect two A/V devices without cords. While the use has its limits, TERK has definitely leaped from the living room into the rest of the house.

SMART SPECS