A wireless solution for your average MIDI studio ..

[Jay Vaughan]

> That changes the dynamic a lot, though most of the live shows I see
> now days don't have large MIDI rigs on stage either.  

What I ask is if this is a response to a problem that might evolve into an interesting solution, or if its a mega-trend which dare not ought to be disturbed?  Perhaps people will use iPhone synths on stage, pretty soon .. and if so, wouldn't it be nice to have a wireless set of sensors to use them with?  

(Its already happening with wii and jailbreaks and puredata bundles, and so on..)

If this develops, for the thousands and thousands of people who still have and use "legacy MIDI" gear for real live events (lets hope it still happens, somewhere), then I guess its a given that there will be adapters.

ANT <-> MIDI

I think its feasible to put the whole package in a small cylinder, half the height of a shotgun-shell perhaps, [>:MIDI plug, ANT package / Battery]

Then you can just access the whole legacy rig as sensors from your iPad.

> They have a
> laptop and a controller.  In my case, I would *love* to be able to
> have that laptop further away and have my keyboard and drum controller
> free of cables (audio comes from the laptop, so they only need power).
>  That would be significant.  Being able to dock an iPad or phone into
> a midi controller and have that be the end of it would be ideal.


Well, I must admit that I am blinded by the roomful of ANT devices I have available to see and work on right now, but for sure its a viable way to get the data in ultra-low power to a receiver, and phones/pads are going to do ANT soon enough (at least their components will; hardware vendors are providing silicon that covers the full spectrum of modern wireless protocols, in a single chip package).  

Anyway .. Sensor networks are pretty robust.  A hospital full of ECG/blood-sugar data and so on is a bit more delicate than MIDI.

BTW, I discovered today that the iPad can do ANT, as in it has a radio component that can be tuned to ANT frequencies.  Apple have not exposed the interface to a framework.  Jailbroken iPads, though, is the big question I have on my mind tonight .. 

;
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Jay Vaughan