From the world of the future: a piano with a built-in tablet and drone speakers
The Japanese company Roland, in honor of its own 50th anniversary, presented the concept of an electronic piano, which received the obvious name 50th Anniversary Concept Piano. The instrument is distinguished by many bold solutions: non-standard design, omnidirectional built-in acoustics, additional speakers installed on drones and the ability to broadcast a concert to the whole world.
Classical acoustic piano, whether it is a home piano with vertical strings or a large concert grand piano, has such a shape for a reason. These are not only hammers striking the strings, but also the resonance inside the case and the reflection of the sound coming from it.
Roland engineers decided to repeat this effect by embedding 360-degree speakers in the upper edges of the case, each of which contains seven speakers — this array helped to create a three-dimensional sound space unattainable by conventional stereo systems on electronic pianos. The sound field setting is available for each synthesized instrument.
Another important aspect is the acoustic properties of the room in which the instrument is played — the sound acquires volume, reflecting off the walls and ceiling, forming special shades. In the case of an electronic instrument, the reverberation effect can be considered the most obvious solution, although it only simulates an echo, so Roland engineers preferred to use additional speakers, only it was decided not to install them permanently, but on drones that easily move around the room.
Here, the developers had to face a couple of difficulties: wireless connection of speakers via Bluetooth gives an average delay of 200 ms, unacceptable for such a project, so they used an alternative protocol of their own design, originally intended for wireless headphones.
But nothing could be done with the noise produced by drone propellers — the authors of the project decided to just wait for the necessary technology to appear. But a patent application has been filed for the technology of automatic control of drones with speakers — they move in space, optimizing the sound of the instrument.
Finally, on the back of the electronic piano cover, there is a tablet computer designed to solve a variety of related tasks: training for beginners or broadcasting for virtuosos, connecting to Roland Cloud resources or launching a Zenbeats digital audio workstation, showing notes or working with external devices via USB MIDI and Bluetooth.
The magnificent wooden concept piano is made from a single piece of Japanese oak. Obviously, none of our friends is going to own something like this in the near future, but such products offer us a little glimpse into the musical future.
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