A wireless solution for your average MIDI studio ..

[Peter Korsten]

Op 15-7-2011 13:01, Jay Vaughan schreef:

> We're throwing around the idea (naturally) of building an ANT-based wireless network system/technology/product for music studios that allows them to control MIDI-based equipment wirelessly, using an Android tablet or iPad.
>
> What do you guys think of the idea?  If you could buy a package for $500 that would allow you to plug in your rack of MIDI gear and administer it (patch changes/editing/etc.) from a wireless tablet, would you go for it?  Any ideas about the viability of such an idea that you want to share?

The impression this gives me is that you have a technology, and try to 
find a market/product for it, rather than thinking from the viewpoint of 
the product.

As Martin pointed out, just controlling the MIDI wirelessly whilst you 
still need cables for power and audio is not particularly useful. If 
you'd have, for example, a device that has MIDI in and out, plus two or 
more audio inputs (or even outputs, if you want to hook up an effects 
unit), that would be a cool idea. But ANT is not for broadband 
applications, so you can't really do that. What you can do is get rid of 
part of the cable mess, but not all. And if this device I mentioned 
would work on Firewire, you'd end up with only two cables - fewer than 
with an ANT-based solution, because the device could be bus-powered.

Nowadays, quite a few devices such as Blu-ray players offer remote 
control by an iOS or Android device. That's pretty cool, but it uses 
wi-fi, and ANT doesn't really add much to what is already established, 
other than the lower power usage.

A niche that I see that could be useful is if you have a small MIDI 
keyboard that runs on batteries. If you could hook it up to that, you'd 
give a performer a lot more freedom where to put that keyboard, without 
all manner of cables getting in the way.

Perhaps a better idea would be to engage with keyboard manufacturers to 
have them build your technology into their products, so that they can 
produce a wireless portable keyboard. But that would be a niche in what 
is already a niche market.

- Peter