Bluetooth range extender for audio component

Question

I have a Tascam CD-200BT audio component that is a Bluetooth receiver that I have installed in my school's gymnasium. Because of the location of the rack mount, I'm worried that the internal antenna for the BT receiver isn't going to give it a very good range because of the wall and bleacher structures around it.

Is there a Bluetooth "booster" or extender device that can help boost the connection between the receiver and a device (like a phone) connected to it? The rack mount is impractical to be moved, but the booster could possibly be placed to afford a better signal.

Answer 1

No, there's no such devices, and it's unlikely they should exist: Bluetooth uses the same 2.4 GHz band as wifi (and a lot of other things), and as part of its transmission scheme, it hops over 80 MHz of bandwidth. In other words, it's kind of a narrowband system, only using a band too narrow to "see" the multiple propagation paths in one room (but only during each jump).

That's bad, because an amplifier typically introduces a significant delay, so that your system, designed for this channel that doesn't need an equalizer, would see the amplified signal come in after the direct signal, and that will interfere. Can't put things on different channels – that's not how BT works.

Also, Bluetooth "receivers" actually do need two-way communication. Sadly, that also requires "two-way amplification", and there's no separate up- and downlink frequencies, so this won't be feasible to implement, as you could not build a booster that doesn't start boosting its own signal (there's no way to tell it apart). Add the channel sharing with all other 2.4 GHz hardware to the mix, and you'll see that this will be hard.

Answer 2

Take a look here:

https://www.architecturelab.net/best-bluetooth-range-extender/

I think they are able to extend the range because they are actually boosters inside.