Spiiksi Box for venues with weak internet

The Spiiksi Box is a Raspberry Pi that brings an event's interpretation to a room with a weak internet connection. The box joins the venue's internet, takes one stream per language from Spiiksi, and plays it to every phone on its own Wi-Fi. However many people listen, the venue's internet carries about 0.4 Mbps per language.

Phones on the box's Wi-Fi reach only the box, never the internet, so they can't use up the venue's connection. Listeners need no app.

You can build a box yourself from the parts below. For help choosing parts or planning a venue, contact us (see Contact and support).

What you needAsk

• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ or newer (3B+, 4 or 5). A Pi 4 or 5 has the most room to spare; a 3B+ is enough for one room. Older models (3B and earlier, Zero) aren't supported.
• A USB Wi-Fi adapter with access point support. A Pi's own Wi-Fi handles only about 10–15 phones, on 2.4 GHz. A USB adapter with external antennas serves the listeners on 5 GHz and reaches the back of a hall. Choose one with a MediaTek MT7921AU or MT7612U chip: these work with Raspberry Pi OS without extra drivers. Many Realtek adapters can't run a Wi-Fi network on Linux, even when the box says Linux. For example:
  • Alfa AWUS036AXM (MT7921AU)
  • Alfa AWUS036AXML (MT7921AU)
  • Netgear A8000 (MT7921AU)
  • Alfa AWUS036ACM (MT7612U)
  • Netgear A6210 (MT7612U)

  Keep the antennas the adapter comes with: "long range" high-gain antennas can take it past the legal transmit limit.

• The official power supply for your Pi model, plugged straight into the Pi. On a Pi 3B+ or 4 with the adapter, a powered USB hub keeps the power steady.
• A plastic case (a metal case blocks the Wi-Fi) and a 32 GB microSD card.
• A network cable to the venue's network, if you can. It's the most reliable connection. Without one, the Pi's built-in Wi-Fi joins the venue's Wi-Fi while the USB adapter serves the listeners. With a cable in, the cable is used.

Setting up a boxAsk

About 20 minutes, once per box.

1. Write the card. In Raspberry Pi Imager, choose Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit). In its settings, turn on SSH and set a user.
2. Install. Start the Pi with a network cable and the adapter plugged in (installing turns the Pi's Wi-Fi into the listeners' network, which would cut an SSH session over Wi-Fi). Sign in with SSH and run:

   curl -fsSL https://spiiksi.fi/downloads/box/install.sh | sudo sh

3. Choose a PIN. On a phone, join the Wi-Fi Spiiksi and open http://10.42.0.1/setup. Choose a PIN straight away: until you do, anyone on the box's Wi-Fi could choose it.
4. Connect to your account. On the setup page, tap Connect to Spiiksi, sign in on spiiksi.fi and approve the box for your organization. Nobody types a password into the box.
5. Choose the event and Wi-Fi. Pick the event, the name and password of the listeners' Wi-Fi, and, without a cable, the venue's Wi-Fi. To let the speaker's laptop use the internet through the box, open the setup page on the laptop (on the box's Wi-Fi) and turn on This device under Internet access.

Once connected, the box shows in the dashboard under Spiiksi Box (only organizations with a box see it) and on the event's page. There you can change the box's event, name and Wi-Fi, and print its QR card; the box picks up changes within ten seconds. Removing the box there disconnects it.

A box that isn't connected to an account still works: paste an event's listener link on the setup page instead.

If the PIN is lost: put a file named spiiksi-box.txt containing reset=yes on the card's boot partition (the one any computer can open) and start the box. It forgets its PIN, event and internet access, and you can set it up again.

At the eventAsk

1. Plug it in: network cable and power. The box is ready in about a minute.
2. Put out the QR card. Print it from the Spiiksi Box page, or show it from the setup page (Wi-Fi for listeners → Show QR card). One code joins the box's Wi-Fi, password included; the other opens the listener page at http://10.42.0.1.
3. Listeners pick a language and tap play. They hear the interpretation and read the captions as on the normal listener page.

Each phone counts as one listener toward the event's plan, and the box itself takes one more place. When the event is full, a phone beyond the limit sees "The event is full" and tries again every 20 seconds.

Questions from listeners, polls and ratings need the internet, so the box's listener page leaves them out.

The setup page shows whether Spiiksi is reachable, how the box is connected, and how many phones listen to each language.

Speaking from the boxAsk

Plug a USB sound card (for example from the venue's mixing desk) or a USB microphone into the box, and it speaks for its event itself, with no laptop at the lectern. On the Spiiksi Box page, under Audio input, choose the input and channel and the room it feeds, check the level, then Go live. It's billed like any other speaker.

At the venue, the same controls are at http://10.42.0.1/speaker, behind the speaker password set on the Spiiksi Box page (the setup PIN opens it too).

UpdatesAsk

The box checks for updates every half hour and installs them only when nobody has listened for ten minutes, never during an event. Only updates signed by Spiiksi are installed, and if a new version doesn't start, the box goes back to the previous one.

Common problemsAsk

Phones don't see the Wi-Fi, or only a few can join. Check that the USB adapter is plugged in and is a supported one (MediaTek MT7921AU or MT7612U). Without an adapter, the Pi's own Wi-Fi handles only about 10–15 phones. Don't put the box in a metal case or behind metal.

The setup page says Spiiksi isn't reachable. Check the network cable, or, without one, that the venue's Wi-Fi is saved on the setup page and within reach.

An iPhone shows a blank page. Use http://10.42.0.1, not spiiksi.box: iCloud Private Relay and Safari can look the name up elsewhere.

The box restarts or the adapter drops out. Usually power: use the official power supply, and on a Pi 3B+ or 4 a powered USB hub for the adapter.