The Ultimate Invisible Player Piano System

Everyone who visits our gallery falls in love with our exclusive Invisible Player Piano System.

Unlike other systems, Pianomation by QRS is easier to use, more durable, better sounding and best of all, it’s virtually invisible!

State-of-the-art technology makes your piano part of your home entertainment system. Music is available over the Internet, through MP3 players and media servers, from CD and even DVD including concerts and music video collections by Frank Sinatra, Diana Krall, Billy Joel, Elton John, John Tesch, Yanni and dozens more.

Pianomation has to be seen to be believed. Stop in our gallery for a fun and free demonstration.

**PIANO GEEK ALERT**

Player Piano History Lesson

The first player pianos were pneumatic systems that caused a note to play when a hole in a paper roll passed over a vacuum suction point allowing air to rush in and cause the hammer to strike the string. This was a technological wonder in the early part of the twentieth century, but the system had serious design flaws. First, it could only play at one volume level… LOUD! Through years of development, reproducing pianos introduced some level of dynamics, but they could not accurately reproduce the nuances of an accomplished pianist. Second, because pneumatic systems work by continually sucking air into the mechanism, a lot of maintenance was required and the systems did not hold up over time. Finally, due to their complexity, sound of drawing air and loud motors there was a lot of operating noise.

Still, with few other home entertainment options, millions of people crowded around their player pianos and sang along as the song’s lyrics scrolled up as the paper roll played. The introduction of the radio followed by the Great Depression led to the end of the pneumatic player piano industry in the 1930’s. After World War II some smaller player pianos were introduced, but by then the player piano was simply seen as a noisy, heavy and expensive alternative to the radio.

In the mid 1970’s, Marantz introduced a system that used electromagnetic solenoids to play piano keys. It worked great, was reliable and used cassette tapes instead of the large paper rolls that contained only one song. In the 1980’s, Marantz sold the technology to Yamaha, who replaced cassette tapes with floppy discs and renamed the system Disklavier.

Despite its high cost and that its controller was the size of a small refrigerator, Disklavier had some success, although it was only available built in a new piano. PianoDisc soon introduced a competing system that could be added to any piano, including used pianos, with a control box to about the size of an Oxford College dictionary. While it was smaller and less expensive, it was also less reliable.

By the mid 1980’s QRS, the company that had produced millions of paper player rolls since they started in 1900, introduced the Pianomation Player System. This superior technology enabled the Pianomation system to operate with a control box small enough to be completely hidden under the piano. It featured advanced, durable solenoids that allowed softer, quieter operation. It could play from a CD player, VCR, PC, or Floppy Drive.

Removing the ‘black box’ made Pianomation system cost thousands of dollars less and gave consumers the option of picking their technology with out concern of obsolescence. Even a twenty-year-old Pianomation system can be  seamlessly upgraded from floppy disc to compact disc or MP3.