Apple files for on-stage musical processing patent

sounds fantastic. There always seems to be someone not satisfied with the monitor mixes. Bye-bye to that problem. And Wi-fi too? I wonder if we'll ever see this.

Nice idea, but totally impracticable. First off, the latency would be off the charts slow. Musicians can't bear 50ms of latency. Firewire strains to keep up. USB 2.0 is even way too slow for even an amateur musician. So Wifi wouldn't cut it. 2nd issue is drop outs. Ever tried to stream itunes and got a drop out? Forget about it. One drop out would be worse than one bad note.

pjkahler is right...How can Apple possibly make this work? After all, computers will never be smaller than my office desk, modems can never surpass 14k, and DOS 3.2 rules supreme.

@pjkahler - I didn't get the impression that the audio signals would be carried over anything other than standard analog audio cables. As I read it, the wifi would only be for the remote control devices. This is such an obvious and yet incredibly innovative concept - I can't believe no one has tried to patent it before now. Basically, what Apple is proposing is a remotely controlled, multi-channel signal processor and audio distribution box. Anything but "impracticable", it would require no new technology and actually be quite simple to implement. Again, I'm amazed no one has thought of this before now. I wish I had - I'll just have to settle for more shares of Apple stock. I give it less than a few years before this is standard equipment for the performing musician. Every company who makes dsp units and mixers (e.g. Mackie, Roland, Behringer, Yamaha, etc.) is probably already scrambling to try to beat Apple to the market.

check out aviom. This stuff already exists and is in use.

I'm not really sure what of this is new, You can already mix your own mix via aviom over ethernet. There are ethernet snakes out and have been for some time from the stage to FOH.

Am I missing something?