Roland develops an electronic piano that flies speakers with a drone

In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of electronic musical instrument maker Roland, we have developed a 'drone speaker' that incorporates a speaker that emits the sound played on the piano into the drone.

Soaring Sound: Meet the Piano of the Future - Roland Articles

This drone is a special aircraft equipped with a speaker that reproduces the sound of the digital piano placed in the center as it is. By playing the sound with this speaker, the sound can actually be heard from the space around the performer, and the performer can feel as if he or she is taking a shower of sound.

Inside the piano is a built-in 'speaker ball' that emits sound in all directions 360 degrees. There are 7 speakers on the right side and 7 on the left side, and the volume can be adjusted individually for each. It seems that they succeeded in reproducing a 'three-dimensional sound space' that could not be realized with conventional speaker systems. In addition, this piano and drone are concept models to the last, and there are no plans to sell them at the time of article creation.

It seems that the biggest problem in sending sound to the speaker was 'delay'. Bluetooth is commonly used for electronic equipment communication, but this typically introduces a delay of 200ms, making it unsuitable for musical instruments. Therefore, Roland adopted a communication platform originally developed for wireless headphones and used it for communication with the speaker.

Also, at the time of the concept announcement, the drone technology has a lot of propeller noise, and there will be problems when reproducing the sound of the instrument. It seems that they are also considering evolving the model when 'quietly floating drone' is developed with future technological development.

In addition, the piano itself has a built-in tablet and display that support touch panels, so you can make video calls and watch lesson delivery. Since it is also connected to Roland Cloud , a service that provides Roland's sound sources and software, it seems that the piano can be used as a control hub for the studio.

Takahiro Murai, general manager of keyboard instrument development, said, 'If you can place the speakers in any direction, you can reproduce the sound field you're aiming for. Through this piano, the audience can feel the keystrokes of the performer. Not only the sound that the artist is playing, but also the sound field felt locally can be transmitted around the world and can be reproduced anywhere.”