Keyboard Gets Music Data Streaming from the Net

Yoshiko Miwa


Many people have come to recognize the existence of consumer electronics products using broadband Internet connection, including HDD video recorders. Of course, it is prompted by the fact that broadband connectivity is getting widely available at home.

Connecting HDD video recorders to the Internet offers clear advantages, such as using online TV program table service and recording reservation using cellular phones. These new functionalities influenced the quality and the manner how people record TV programs. There are also attempts to offer streamed video over broadband connection. These factors contributed to the growth of HDD video recorders.

But a very small percentage of consumer electronics products utilize the Internet at present. The biggest reason must be that general public cannot grasp the advantage of Internet connection. People use the Internet a lot at home. But they still need to know what devices they want connected in what way to offer what advantages. Product vendors need smarter marketing and usage proposals to get them interested.


Connecting Musical Instruments to the Net

On September 10 2004, Yamaha announced a new model of Portatone series (portable keyboard for family use), PSR-3000 and PSR-1500. They are the first keyboards from Yamaha that can be directly connected to the Internet.


Photo 1 Yamaha Portatone PSR-3000, offering Internet connection

It is not that there were not any keyboards which can be connected to the Internet. There is a keyboard with built-in PC, and some keyboards that can be connected to the Internet service through cellular phone. But they have not changed the way keyboard is used.

Electric musical instrument has high affinity with computers and network communication, as seen in Desktop Music (DTM). Keyboards started offering PC connectivity a long time ago. If the PC can connect to the Internet, data from the Internet can be transferred to keyboard. But at home, it may be impossible to place a keyboard where it is convenient to connect to PC and the Internet.

If you want to connect something to the Internet, you would like them to connect directly to hub or wireless access point.

PSR-3000/1500 was developed for ease of configuration to achieve real plug and play. It's because keyboard lovers do not necessarily have enough knowledge about computers and Internet.


The State of Electric Keyboard

What is the current electric keyboard for family use like?

Keyboard is, of course, a musical instrument. It is there for people to play music and enjoy. Electric keyboard enables switching tones to play with the most suitable tone for the situation. Acoustic key board allows users to change the tone and sound strength by the way users press keys. Similar mechanism is available in some electric keyboards, for more expressive and powerful play.

But majority of electric keyboard users are novice players. They are not able to play as they want. Therefore, many electric keyboards offer music data (in standard MIDI format in the case of PSR-3000/1500), for automatic play. Music data can be added by memory card or USB connection with PC.

Novice users today are serious players of tomorrow. Electric keyboard has self study function for user to learn how to play. For example, keyboard can play left hand part and users can practice right hand. Some keyboards have lights built in to keys, to illuminate the right key to push next. It is a relatively simple way to use music data.

Many keyboards have large enough display to show musical score. In this way, users do not have to have separate score ready, as long as music data is available. Therefore learning new songs is easier. Some goes further to show how users should use their fingers.

In a sense, electric keyboard is a computer system with various input methods (key, buttons, dials, etc) and output methods (sound, image, text). It is only natural to get connected to the Internet.

PSR-3000/1500 uses ITRON as OS, for high real time requirement for musical instrument. Electric keyboard is a real time computer system.


Connecting to the Internet

PSR-3000/1500 has a 320X240 LCD. PSR-3000 has a color LCD. It is not large enough for general Web sites, but enough for the Web site prepared for this screen.

Internet connection can be done through normal LAN cable. But the device itself does not have LAN connector. Connection can be done through a USB-Ethernet converter. Just plug Ethernet cable to the converter, and IP address is allocated for immediate access to the dedicated site.


Photo 2 The product has an USB port, for connection through USB-Ethernet converter

Yamaha chose not to build LAN connector into the product "to support user preference of wired or wireless connection and future connectivity technology", says Satoshi Miyata, PA and DMI Business Department at Yamaha. Electric keyboards at home can be used for long, often 5 to 10 years. It would be unnatural not to imagine that connectivity technology won't change over these years.


Using Internet service

The Web site dedicated for this product is located in Yamaha keyboard portal site called Net Music Town. Available contents are "Hikihodai" for keyboard practice, "Utaihodai" for karaoke, "Music Stream" for automatic play of music like FM radio, according to your music preference, and "12 Heikin Uranai" which plays a lucky song for you based on your astrology data. Music data is constantly added and renewed.


Photo 3 Accessing the Internet with PSR-3000 Display

Free contents are limited. It takes 630 yen a month to use all the contents. But using music data normally costs 200 yen a song. Nearly 10,000 pieces of music are available on this service, so it would cost 2 million yen if you would have bought them all. In that sense, the monthly fee is reasonable.

Web browser is NetFront, often seen in small devices. You could theoretically see IPv6style while listening to auto play, or renew your blog site, adding your comments on the difficult part of your lesson on the day. But Yamaha restricts the users to access only the dedicated site.

The reason, Yamaha says, is that it would be meaningless to be able to access various sites by keyboards. Test input would require consideration on input device, while increasing user support load. This product, after all, is a musical instrument.


Why Use Streaming?

Music data is sent to the device through streaming. One of the reasons Yamaha chose streaming over download is copyright issue. The company makes sure that that music data cannot be stored on the device. Of course, it is helped by the fact that broadband connectivity is getting commonplace, which reduces the need for time-consuming downloads. As long as the device is connected to the Net, unlimited data on the Internet can be consumed whenever users want, anytime for as many times they want. That is the advantage of Internet connection Yamaha wants to get across to users.

At present, PSR-300/1500 only accepts data from Yamaha server. The only data PSR-3000/1500 send are data transmission requests. Currently, Yamaha does not support uploading user-created music data or music session over the Net. Yamaha designed the current product as the first step in connecting musical instruments to the Internet, but "we would like to enable two-way communication in the future", says Miyata.


Musical Instrument Vendor Proposes New Internet Use

"We would like foremost to appeal that quality of PSR-3000/1500 as musical instrument," says Hideyuki Orii, a member at EM Sales Department at Yamaha. "We would like to say that in addition to the quality, users can have new fun in connecting to the Internet, bringing new value."

The current services offered at the dedicated site are already enticing, and dedicated services have some room for expansion.

Adding protocols for use, in order to enable bi-directional communication, for example, would require firmware renewal over the Internet. But support for new data format would need a new product, the company says. Somewhat restricted, but limited flexibility contributes to ease of use.

In developing PSR-3000/1500, Yamaha conducted usability testing with housewives of 30s to 40s as testers. These people typically can use PCs and connect the device to the Internet, but they are not accustomed at all to the fact that Web browser is on a musical instrument. Therefore, developing easy-to-use interface was quite a challenge, the company says.

Miyata says he noticed that using PCs and using musical instruments are contrastingly different. He incorporated the lesson to the current PSR-3000/1500. The product is basically a musical instrument, but expected to incorporate the advantage of the Internet further. Musical instrument may be able to offer a new proposal on the user interface for non-PC devices.


More Reasons to Connect to the Internet

Musical instruments are mainly used to play for enjoyment or to learn them.

For play for enjoyment, Miyata says that one of his wish is to enable P2P communication among Internet-connected electric keyboard. That enables creation of user community and mutual exchange of data. Online sessions would not be something reserved for a few world-renowned musicians, if such common products would have bi-directional communication capabilities.

For learning, one would be able to imagine the spread of e-learning, using electric keyboards directly connected to the Internet. Music lessons basically are bi-directional. Bi-directional communication opens up a whole new world.


Would It Lead to IPv6?

PSR-3000/1500 does not support IPv6. But Yamaha developers hope it would be widely available soon. PSR-3000/1500 is a proposal from Yamaha, with a vision to connect all electric instruments to the Internet. Therefore, they say that they want to see IPv6 spread in the world. It is difficult to propose technology from musical instrument world to the Internet world. Musical instrument can only take in the popular technology on the Internet. But still, one could imagine that electric instruments would turn to net instruments in not-so-distant future.

With the spread of IPv6, all musical instruments could be connected to the Internet, with more interactiveness. Contents would be able to evolve real time with the release of new movies and others. Musical instruments are waiting for IPv6, too.