Piano Multimedia Now! (was: Can you imagine ...)

[William Bailer]

On Mon, 18 Nov 1996, Dave Stocker, FirTree@aol.com wrote:

A "bold" (I think) proposition follows these quote responses.

>THE question is: Do we want every scrap of technical info we have on a medium
>where it can be shared with the entire world?

Andre Carnegie gave away the largest fortune that the world has ever
known, to saturate the country with libraries.  If he hadn't done that,
I'm certain that some of us would not be here on piano tech at the
moment.

>Like all things in life, there is a good side and a bad side. Good: we get
>the info readily available. Bad: someone will probably get a hold of _some_
>information and ruin a (potentialy) good piano.

Or he may design and build the worlds' best concert grand!

>Knowing the nature of PTG progress, we aren't ready to do anything about it
>for a while ...

Don't bite your tongue on that one!  The new "super CD" is just around
the corner, 15 times the capacity, and read/write.  And prices of all
cd's are going to plumet because in the video market, they are going to
replace VHS tapes.

Here is what I propose:  forget about the past journals for now.  Put a
current years worth on CD, transferred form the digital form that is
used to format the present Journal.  Scan the images in color, even
though they will only print in black-and-white. Then:

1.  Start accepting articles with optional "multimedia" that cannot
appear in the printed form.

Such as:

Color photos (printed in black-and-white, but to appear on CD
in color.

Sound:  demonstrations of tuning to accompany articles.
Performances in well temperaments that are discussed.
A piano technicians journal with sound!  Seems appropriate to me.

Video:  clips of live performances, demonstrated procedures--  "Here's
how I notch a bridge", etc.

Then:
2.  Bulk it up with advertising.  Scans of piano manufacturers'
literature.  Everybody associated with the industry.  Make it a "must
have" commercial reference, as well as consumer resource.

3.  Piano manufacturers submissions, such as whole web sites.
Run FAST on CD-ROM, not like molasses web.

4.  Searchable data bases of everything to do with pianos.  Everybody
who has anything to do with them.  Artists, recordings, music schools,
colleges, etc.  Absolutely everything to do with pianos.

5.  Donated educational material

Completely searchable volumes of articles. Find every mention
of specific parts, a man's name, a procedure, etc; in any combination.

Seems to me if the disk has wide appeal, especially to piano owners and
prospective buyers, that the circulation could be relatively large
compared to the journal circulation.

You can bet, if PTG doesn't do it, somebody will!  Then PTG will have to
PAY to be on it!  I believe that PTG has the respect and authority to do
it--  a higher credibility than any other group, without turning it into
commercial rubbish.  It may be an oportunity, "just around the
corner."

If non-profit, you can get co-operation and trust that a company cannot
get.  But that doesn't mean that it can't pay for itself.

In closing, I would like to make clear that I am not a PTG member, but
that I do believe that PTG is the organization do "it," that it can pay
for itself, and that exclusivity should not be an issue.

"Off the wall," too soon, halfbaked, or viable notion?  More Ideas?

Bill Bailer

\\\  William Bailer                              wbailer@cris.com
\\\  Rochester, NY, USA                       phone: 716-473-9556
\\\  Interests: acoustics, JSBach, anthropology, piano technology