innovative tech by steinway & sons lets the piano play itself during live-remote performances

Steinway & Sons unveils spiriocast

Since 1853, Steinway & Sons has been dedicated to making the finest pianos in the world. For over 165 years, Steinway grand pianos have been a treasured companion to thousands of families and different generations around the world. The piano manufacturing company celebrates uncompromising artistry and craftsmanship masterfully combined with digital innovations. This year, the company signaled the next step in the evolution of the piano with its SPIRIOCAST, an innovative new software that allows master musicians from around the world to capture a live performance and play your piano remotely.

To celebrate its launch, one of the greatest pianists of all time, Lang Lang, was invited to the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg to demonstrate the unique abilities of the stunning technology with an intimate private concert. designboom visited the iconic music hall and relished an extraordinary remote performance, perfectly in sync with video and audio. The show started with the superstar playing a series of pieces from his new album, dubbed ‘The Disney Book’, at the Steinway & Sons Spirio Studio located on the outskirts of the city. The performance was broadcast directly to the Steinway piano on stage at the Elbphilharmonie, while guests enjoyed the concert in real-time. After his virtual set, Lang Lang made his presence at the music venue with a breathtaking recital proving that the broadcast offered an identical acoustical experience. For a grand finale, his wife, Gina Alice, joined for a duet of Brahms’s Hungarian Dance, captivating the crowd.

To learn how intricate craftsmanship meets innovative technology, designboom also visited their factory in Hamburg, where 1,500 pianos are crafted each year. (see more about the piano’s construction in our previous article here.)

image ©designboom
full-width video ©designboom

reproducing the emotions of the musicians 

When Steinway & Sons (see more here) launched their SPIRIO | r in 2019 — the world’s finest high-resolution player piano — they revealed a new powerful means of expression, evolving the future of the piano industry. Throughout these two years, its technology has constantly been developed in an attempt to offer music enthusiasts a unique experience that keeps up with today’s digitalized and connected world.

SPIRIOCAST is a new streaming tech that allows the broadcast of high-resolution music data from one Steinway & Sons SPIRIO piano to another in real-time via a connected iPad. Completely hidden from view, the innovative sensor system — which is embedded into the instrument during the construction process — captures the movements of the piano’s hammers and pedaling. SPIRIOCAST transmits high-resolution data, including audio and video, catching every nuance of the play, all the while transferring the emotions of the musicians to their audience, as if they were present. The vividness of the play is delivered with unrivaled reliability by the person who performs, reaching in perfect harmony with the sound, tone, and touch, from each note’s vitality to the pedal’s intricacy.

Imagine pressing a single key on a piano, and at the same time, in perfect sync, the same key moved on hundreds of pianos across the world. Watching the piano keys ‘dance’ without a performer, one could say it’s rather an otherworldly experience that simultaneously opens a new era for the piano industry.

SPIRIOCAST allows a performer to replicate the performance in real-time | image @Franziska Krug/Getty Images for Steinway & Sons

‘We have successfully harnessed technology to recreate and transmit a musical acoustic experience that would have been unthinkable prior to Spirio. It comes about from the hard work and drive we have at Steinway to ensure we constantly innovate. We feel very lucky to be working with many of the world’s finest pianists, it is an honour to capture every nuance of their playing, developing software and hardware that faithfully reproduces those performances on the finest acoustic pianos in the world,’ commented Eric Feidner, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Steinway & Sons.

each month, the content library available on the SPIRIO app expands, automatically updated from the Cloud | image @Franziska Krug/Getty Images for Steinway & Sons

the instruments are crafted by a team of dedicated artisans with decades of experience | image ©designboom

the SPIRIO | r is implanted into the instrument during the construction process | image ©designboom

each single Steinway piano is unique, bearing its own musical character | image ©designboom

uncompromising artistry and craftsmanship, and quality materials have remained the same since the company’s foundation | image ©designboom  the factory accommodates a countless amount of wood | image ©designboom the construction takes one year | image ©designboom

each piece is marked with a number that it maintains throughout the production process | image ©designboom

project info:

name: SPIRIOCAST

brand: Steinway & Sons