A wireless solution for your average MIDI studio ..

[Martin Naef]

(Just noticed I'm being devil's advocate here - take my comments below 
with a grain of salt, as a challenge to make sure you solve the right 
problem)

On 15.07.2011 15:15, Jay Vaughan wrote:
> The devices do run on batteries, and last about 2 years with fairly
> active, heavy use .. this is the advantage of ANT+ over Bluetooth, in
> fact.

That's cool, but I was referring to the controlled devices. None of my 
current music toys run on batteries. And frankly, I wouldn't want 
anything that relies on batteries connected to a device that requires 
external power. I'd still be tethered, but in addition I'd have to run 
extra maintenance for the batteries.

> Yes the idea would be to totally eradicate MIDI cabling, and we can
> do this (we also have repeaters and bridges already working very
> well, so this would beef up the security aspect as well).

Yes, but looking at the complete music system: It won't make a 
difference to me if I hook up the device with 5 or 7 cables (or even 1), 
it's still a cable mess.

Now, if I can pick up a tablet and control all devices, that's a great 
start. Example: Right now I can't control the reverb unit while I'm 
sitting on the drums - it's too far away from either the main computer 
or the actual box. But all I need to solve that is a great control 
application on the tablet that transmits MIDI over WiFi to the main 
studio computer. No special hardware required.

As I said earlier: Try to imagine a *complete* system on a stage, 
including multiple audio sources, multiple players.

Also imagine a system in a studio. In my opinion, wireless only makes 
sense for things that are actually portable. For the rest that sits in a 
rack, I'd love to replace the current spaghetti with a single Ethernet 
cable that also carries power.

Martin