Steinway & Sons was trying to shift brand perception from a piano maker for top-tier artists to a lifestyle brand for consumers.
Spirio
Reimagining the player piano
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The Work
Steinway & Sons was trying to shift brand perception from a piano maker for top-tier artists to a lifestyle brand for consumers. In 2015, the company introduced Spirio, a highly-advanced reimagining of the player piano.
Spirio’s proprietary software is used to capture performances by some of the world’s best artists and bring these emotionally charged renditions into consumers’ living rooms with remarkable accuracy and nuance. Williams Forrest was engaged to design, develop, and maintain the app used to control this exceptional piano.
Primary Services
Strategy
Development
Testing
Delivery
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The Highlights
Pixel-perfect app development
WF architected and developed Spirio as a native iPad app solution with support for English, German, and Chinese.
Seamless playback
The Spirio app integrates with Steinway & Sons streaming music features that allow users to select and manage music for playback on the Spiro piano using NFC technology. Subsequent releases of the Spirio software also included synchronized video playback, as well as compatibility with AirPlay and Apple TV.
Robust usage & behavior tracking
WF created a complete app usage and user behavior tracking and analysis solution for the app that integrated with multiple Steinway & Sons enterprise endpoints.
A truly agile workflow
Throughout the development process, WF, managed technical bugs and upgrades in a rapidly iterative manner, staying true to agile methodology.
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The Reaction
"It’s uncanny, really: The exact same keys are pressed, the exact same trills are heard, the same dynamics are present. It’s a little magical—or “almost scary” as Lin puts it—as though you’re witnessing a prodigious ghost mimic her every move.
It’s not a ghost, of course. It’s technology."