Networking a Grand Piano

Over the course of the last ten years that I have been reviewing, selling, installing and supporting home networking products I rarely come across a product that exemplifies the benefits and enhanced enjoyment of a connected home as well as the grand piano that I gave my wife for Christmas retrofitted with the Opus7 Music System from PianoDisc (http://opus7.net/). Normally I write this blog about a class of products without endorsing any particular product to let the professional integrator decide which make and model best fit their needs. In this column, however, I have to decided to endorse a given product since the Opus7 Music System is in a class by itself.

The Opus7 Music System, released in 2004, adds a silent Linux based computing platform attached to the underside of any grand piano. Opus7 supports two primary file types: MIDI and MX3 (compressed digital audio and MIDI in the same file). The piano is always controlled by the MIDI component of the file and there are two separate forms of accompaniment. Symphony accompaniment is generated via MIDI messages sent to the internal SymphonyPro sample-based MIDI synthesizer. The SymphonyPro synthesizer can provide up to 128 different sampled instrument sounds, everything from bass and drums in a jazz trio to a whole symphony orchestra. Additionally, "live" (recorded) music can accompany MX3 playback. The "live" music can consist vocals and other sounds not available via the SymphonyPro. Both of these audio enhancements to the piano acoustics are amplified and sent to the stereo speakers also attached to the underside of the piano.

The computing platform has a wired 10/100 Ethernet connection or a bridged 802.11b wireless connection to connect the piano wired or wirelessly to the home network switch backbone. Now one can control the songs played on the piano from any browser connected workstation in the home, whether that be a desktop, a laptop, or one of the newer touch screen web-tablets. In addition, since the piano is connected to the home network one can move MIDI songs from an office computer onto the Opus7 Music system for piano playback or take songs that have been played and recorded on the piano hard drive and move them back to the office computer. I took piano songs recorded by my nephew over Christmas and attached them to an email that I sent to all my extended family members (and to potential recording studios, my nephew is that good!).

The fact that the Opus7 Music system is attached to the home network (and therefore to a broadband Internet connection) means that the Opus7 can now download piano MIDI files directly from the Internet for playback at home. PianoDisc has set up a file server with a few of these songs that demonstrate the powerful feature that an Internet library of music can add to their piano. Instead of purchasing individual shrink-wrapped piano CDs or floppies one could download the songs directly to the piano and purchase them by credit card from the office computer. Or, imagine a monthly audio subscription service like those offered by Rhapsody.com for Piano MIDI files and you can envision how all of those grand pianos (that often sit idle in our client’s homes) can suddenly be brought to life!

Last, but not least, one can connect the audio output of the piano plus symphonic orchestration to a whole house music distribution system. The same beautiful music one hears directly from the piano inside the house can now be heard from the backyard deck or patio speaker system…a great addition for this summer’s barbeques.

I obviously get excited when I write about a product like the Opus7 from PianoDisc because it clearly demonstrates the increased value of adding networked connectivity and broadband Internet access to your home’s electronics. The Opus7 does much more than today’s existing piano players that are limited to input from discrete floppy disks or CDs and controllable from fixed key IR remotes. Now one can enjoy a product with a potentially limitless database of music, playable in any play-list one can dream up (and time schedule if you’re so inclined….I set our piano to play “Hail to the Chief” at 7AM each morning so when the kids wake up they are at proper attention when I walk into the kitchen for breakfast) and controllable from any of the increasing number of rich graphical computing platforms in the home, be they PCs or Macs.

Your home's broadband connection that was originally used to share high speed internet access and download email has now spilled over into providing entertainment content not only for the home AV systems but now for a product as sophisticated as a grand piano. Products like the Opus7 from PianoDisc give you an exciting solution that adds enduring value to your digitally enhanced home.

(reprinted from Residential Systems Magazine)