Who here uses iPads for their band live? Looking for Router Recommendations...

[Binkeys]

Popping in from the Keyboard Forum, which has pretty much died.

 

Is anyone here using networked iPads live on their gigs? I have a wedding band, and I'm looking to switch to iPads instead of printed sheet music, so that I don't have to spend so much time organizing music requests before gigs etc.

 

I've spent some time researching this, and have found apps -- ForScore and Unreal Book - that will let me do what need, in terms of running the gig from a master iPad, and cueing the other band members iPads from mine.

 

I need some help though with router recommendations. I need a WiFi network I can count on for this to work, and since many venues either don't have or won't allow the band to use their network, I have to bring my own. However, this is something I know nothing about. So, I'm looking for recommendations. Ideally, I'd love to hear from people using this sort of setup for gigging, but advice from techs who understand the specs/features/requirements are helpful too.

 

I reached out to one of the app companies mentioned, and they couldn't recommend anything firsthand, other than telling me that an Apple Airport was working for them in their office.

 

Anyone have any helpful info to share? Thank you!

[Phil O'Keefe]

Wireless-N is definitely the standard at the moment, and dual band (2.4GHz / 5GHz) is the way to go for something like a router that you're going to be using in a variety of locations - there's less chance of interference issues causing a problem. I am currently using a FiOS router, but before that I had a Netgear N600 which worked very well for me. It had no problem sending the signal from my house out to the studio (separate building over 100' away), and through the house walls and the studio's heavy, concrete and steel-filled cinderblock walls.

[Binkeys]

Thanks much, Phil!

 

I greatly appreciate the help.

[Anderton]

Wow Phil, I didn't know you knew this kind of stuff. We could use a "networking for dummies" article. I figured out once how to get my Mac and Windows machines to talk to each other, but I have no idea how I did it...it was one of those "guess I'll try, oh, I dunno, something...HEY!! IT WORKS!!"

[MikeRivers]

As a picky point, you aren't really setting up a network, since there's no real server and client(s). The router serves as an access point and allows each of the devices connected to it to talk to one another to the extent that the applications allow.

 

PreSonus was one of the first to jump on to the WiFi remote control with their StudioLive mixers, and now and then test routers to see what works and what doesn't. Even though you probably aren't using a PreSonus mixer, you might want to take a look at the article on their web site about recommended routers (which also contains a link to an article about not-recommended routers). They haven't updated it in a while, but it's better than no recommendation at all. Everybody's setup is different, so what works for one user here might not work for someone else. I seem to remember that PreSonus had a video about WiFi applications in which they were using the Netgear router that Phil was using

 

Something that you should be aware of is that most phones and tablets assume that you want to get on the Internet when you connect to a WiFi router. I discovered a setting on my phone that I had to change in order to get it to connect to the router built into my TASCAM DR-44WL recorder. It had a feature that, when turned on (the factory default), would ignore any WiFi router that wasn't connected to the Internet. The idea, I guess, was to keep you from trying to connect to wireless print servers and the like. Since you'll just have your router sitting on stage and not connected to the 'net, check to see if there's a setting on the band members' tablets or phones that allows them to connect to a router that doesn't have Internet connectivity.

 

Sounds like you have a pretty neat application in mind. My only experience with this sort of thing is in remote control of a mixer, or in the case of the TASCAM, a recorder, from a phone or tablet linked to the device via WiFi. The TASCAM recorder has a flea powered WiFi router with no external antenna, and the connection drops out beyond about 35 feet in most places I've tried it, but I've used a mixer (an Allen & Heath) with the Netgear router that the person who owned the mixer had, and it covered the stage and audience area very reliably.

[Binkeys]

Wow, Mike. That's so helpful!

 

These are all going to be my iPads, which I'll bring to the gigs, and which will only be used for sheet music, so I *think* I'll only need to set this all up once. At least that's the plan. Once it's up and running, I should be able to add any new charts to a dropbox folder or equivalent and download them easily.

 

It's new ground for me, and I'm most concerned with the aspects I have no experience with, like setting up access points for iPads to talk to each other etc.

 

I will say that I've been using an iPad with ForScore for the past year and a half or so on gigs, and it's been a real game-changer for me. I do a lot of freelance work with different wedding bands and am constantly running into a situation where a leader calls a song on the gig that I may not know or haven't played in a very long time. Instead of trying to remember it as it's going down, or play through it by ear, I can quickly call up the chart and nail it.

 

It's also great for taking requests.

 

Thanks again!

[Phil O'Keefe]

As a picky point, you aren't really setting up a network, since there's no real server and client(s). The router serves as an access point and allows each of the devices connected to it to talk to one another to the extent that the applications allow.

 

 

Yup - excellent point Mike.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Wow, Mike. That's so helpful!

 

These are all going to be my iPads, which I'll bring to the gigs, and which will only be used for sheet music, so I *think* I'll only need to set this all up once. At least that's the plan.

 

As far as the wifi access and passwords, you're right. As long as you set the iPads to remember that particular wifi network, they should connect to it automatically as soon as they are within range of it and it's turned on. From there, it's all up to the software you're using to send the data to all the iPads.

 

 

 

[Danhedonia]

Adding a bit here.

 

iPads (and cellphones and notoriously iPhone 4's) don't have great antennae. You're much more likely to find the iPads to be the limiting technology here, in terms of transmission/reception of signal. Their antennae will be far less robust compared to any router you're likely to purchase. You want something that says "MiMo" on the box.

 

Practically, you'll need to have a plan B if you wind up somewhere lacking clean open lines between players. Can't imagine that in a wedding band setting, but Murphy's Law says it will happen.

 

You can learn about the settings as Mike has described -- that won't be too tough of a learning curve.

 

To get the iPads communicating with one another, you need a 3rd party app either via wifi or bluetooth. I have toyed with Roland's (?) WIST functionality, which uses bluetooth, and it worked, but I didn't do much. Perhaps you should explore this? It is designed to do what you wish to do (sync IOS devices in musical situations).

 

Bluetooth vs. Wifi might seem a no-brainer, but with the weak antennae it might be more of a toss up than you think, and the bluetooth would likely be easier.

[Binkeys]

Ok, updating as I do this, in case anyone here is interested.

 

So I've got an access point setup using the 6th-gen Apple Airport Extreme as well as four iPad Air units and am testing two apps for this purpose, Unreal Book and ForScore.

 

So far, both are working well in tests at home. I'm going to try them at a wedding on Sunday and see how it goes.

 

Good idea about having a backup plan. The plan B is that all of the iPads have the books/playlists loaded on them, and so, if needed, the pages can be "turned" and/or song titles entered manually by the band members.

 

With regard to Bluetooth vs. WiFi, I believe that the consensus among app developers is that, as of yet, Bluetooth is not reliable enough on iPads for these purposes, and so these both rely on WiFI instead. ForScore has great Bluetooth functionality for sending charts from one iPad to another, but still relies on WiFi to communicate. I haven't yet explored Unreal Book in that regard.

 

Thanks for all of the helpful comments!

 

 

[Phil O'Keefe]

Very smart to have the backup plan ready to go... please let us know how the gig goes and how the system works out for you. Good luck / break a leg!

[Danhedonia]

Very interested and thanks for sharing the results of your work.

[Binkeys]

OK, so I'm back from the gig. It was a six-hour wedding gig and the system performed flawlessly. It consists of four iPad Air units (I intend to add one more) and an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station. I set up the router on the stage in the ballroom and was able to use the iPads in the hall for the cocktails which about 150-250 feet away, as well as in the ballroom.

 

I used ForScore and it worked great. Flipping pages/calling up tunes on my iPad did the same for all the other musicians.

 

It was a great first outing.

 

There are some features that I'd like to see ForScore add, but the app worked great for me in my tests at home, and on the gig. At the end of the night, the iPads each had a decent amount of battery life (over 60% and some closer to 80%).

 

I need to do some thought-out PDF creating/indexing in Acrobat to maximize the possibilities of this setup, but I'm quite excited by it. It's very liberating to know that I can play any tune I've ever transcribed with the band on demand, even if I haven't looked at it in years, or I/they never learned it.

 

Thanks again for all who gave helpful tips/advice.