A Creative Solution to an Uncommon Problem

I recently was asked to help provide a solution for a rather interesting situation. My mother and father were planning to take a group of people in their RV on a three day road trip from Nashville Tennessee to Pincher Creek Alberta in Canada. Needless to say, their activity and entertainment options would be rather limited for such a long journey in such a confined space. And thus the problem presented itself.

The plan was to present a number of options for entertainment along the trip such as playing cards, having meaningful conversation, reading, and watching movies on the 27" TV located above the drivers cab. The only problem with this plan was that their older TV only had one speaker about the size of a quarter and it couldn't be heard over a sleeping baby, not to mention the road noise created by a 30' house on wheels.

A standard solution for a problem like this would be to add a piece of equipment like a receiver then run wires to the left and right of the TV and install descent speakers that will output enough volume to overpower all the other commotion. Although this would have been a fun install and preferable in my opinion, it was simply not an option.


The space available in the RV did not allow for any additional speakers and a receiver would not be able to fit in the shallow cabinet designated for the DVD player and TV converter box. Leave it to my father to present a most unusual situation and to top it off he had a budget of near zilch. I was going to have to work with what was there and somehow get louder sound from the TV.

The solution I ended up with was in my opinion (and let’s face it, it’s the only one that counts here.) a very creative one. After a quick survey I decided that I could somehow connect to the existing car radio that already had speakers running throughout the RV. But with no axillary input on it I would have to figure something out. I though of a device I often used for my iPod that uses a low powered FM transmitter to send the music to the radio, I figured it couldn't hurt to try it.

After deciding on the solution all I had to do was install it.  A splitter here, coupler there and a hole or two drilled and -voila- we had sound! I output the audio directly from the DVD player, ran it through the FM transmitter to an unused station into the on board radio of the RV and the Sandlot (1993 staring Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar & Patirck Renna) was then coming out of every speaker speckled through the RV at a volume that was well over ambient noise.

Maybe this wasn’t a preferable solution for the audiophile or movie buff, but it was the perfect solution for my mother and father.  The only thing I would have liked to do differently would be to get a little more volume by adding a line level amp increasing power to the FM transmitter. But considering the total cost was about $50 and some creative thinking I’m pretty happy with the end result. So next time you are presented with an interesting or unusual situation just employ a little bit of creativity and you might just end up with a great solution that fits your needs perfectly without all the hassle or cost that more conventional methods might bring.