Boulder, Colorado based AirTurn, Inc. has introduced a USB powered hands-free page-turning device especially for musicians who wish to use digital sheet music. The AT-104 is a two-part hardware system that enables you to move forward and backward in an electronic document one page at a time. Part one is the USB transmitter, which is connected to a pair of pedals of your choice. Part two is a simple USB dongle that acts as the receiver when connected
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| The AT-104 receiver |
Hardware
The AT-104 hardware is small and inconspicuous - as it should be for a musician wanting to use it for performances. The USB receiver is about the size of a typical flash memory stick, and the transmitter is only about as big as your palm. Glossy black plastic shells help to conceal the hardware even more. I tested the AT-104 with my both my home piano and the one I play at church. I found that the only reason people noticed the pedals and transmitter was because they observed the computer sitting atop the piano and wondered what I was doing.
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| The BOSS FS-5U pedals and AirTurn's transmitter |
Function
The technology behind the AT-104 is relatively simple. Whenever a pedal is depressed, the transmitter sends either a “page up” or “page down” command to the receiver. Of course, this command will then display the next or previous screen in your document. The kit did everything it was supposed to do when I set it up. The USB receiver was plug and play on my MacBook Pro and in Windows XP. I also opened up some Microsoft Word documents and PDF files to see how the pedals moved pages in different software. These programs were able to understand the commands as well and would perform a “next screen” type of “page up/down” action. In other words, they would not necessarily skip to the next whole page but would rather show the next screen of type wherever the bottom of the monitor had cut off the text.
Using the AT-104 takes some getting used to. It’s a bit disconcerting to have the music instantly change pages when you’re used to naturally compensating for the delay and motion of a page turn. I also found it a little confusing during certain measures trying to operate the piano pedals and tapping the BOSS pedal together. After practicing for about fifteen minutes, I noticed improvement, so I’m sure it wouldn’t take long to re-train my technique.
I did not experiment with how far the transmitter and the receiver could communicate, but I was able to operate it from across a room. That’s probably far enough for most applications. The response is very quick with no noticeable lag. There is a delay adjustment in the MusicReader software that you can tweak to prevent double page turns when the pedals are depressed more than once in quick succession.
Software
If there is a weak link in AirTurn’s AT-104, it is the MusicReader software. Since AirTurn doesn’t develop the software themselves, I can’t fault them directly for many of the complaints I have. The interface is probably best described as “clunky.” It appears almost identical in Windows and OS X, and seemed pretty “buggy” when I used it. I initially tried using the software in a limited user account on OS X, but it gave me errors wherever I turned. It seemed to run fine under an administrator account, but I opted to try Windows XP instead. Even in Windows, it crashed several times and failed to convert files properly and consistently.
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| The MusicReader software interface |
MusicReader uses a MRS file extension, which requires using the included MusicConverter software to turn PDFs, JPEGs, or other files into the MRS format. According to Hugh Sung of AirTurn, there are several reasons for the proprietary format’s use. There are some image filters applied to documents, algorithms recognize white space between staves to help intelligently determine resizing and half-pages, and it adds an annotation layer to mark on. Still, since PDF is such a broad standard, being able to use PDFs in MusicReader without conversion would be welcomed. One PDF that I tried to convert in multiple ways was simply refused. I ended up having to export JPEGs of each page and convert them individually with MusicConverter. I then had to piece the music back together to export as a MRS. Not exactly intuitive or user-friendly.
Despite its shortcomings, the bundled software basically does what it’s supposed to do. It moves the pages forward and backward on command. There are some nice features that help me overlook some of its quirks. The ability to annotate on the music is especially nice. This essentially gives you text, drawing, and highlighting capabilities for making notes or marks on the music. It’s non-destructive, so the marks that you make stay in MusicReader and don’t affect your original file. MusicConverter also enables you to setup repeat points in a piece. This keeps you from having to rapidly tap your foot to get back to a previous page. You can simply re-arrange or duplicate pages needed for the repeat in a piece to allow you to keep tapping forward through the music.
Summary
While the AirTurn AT-104 fills a gap for today’s music performers, there are certainly some improvements to be made for future revisions. Native support for PDF and possibly Finale’s MUS format would be very helpful. However, for those musicians with a vast digital music library, being able to use their music without having to print everything on paper is invaluable. Like many things, sheet music is moving increasingly into the digital realm and being purchased online, making devices like the AT-104 more vital than ever.
AirTurn has promised a Bluetooth version around the end of the year. This will enable support for more devices such as the Apple iPad and other tablets that lack USB ports. Hopefully that version will bring with it a simplified and cleaner app that will appear more at home on modern operating systems and make it easier for musicians to adopt a new technology over a very old technique.
For more information on AirTurn, go to www.airturn.com.
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