Does anybody know anything about the RetroPa's Pianola Roll Player
designed and built by Peter Spies? It appears that he just wanted to
build an apparatus that would play piano rolls in real time rather
than doing archival roll scanning.

Unlike any other system that I am aware of it reads Duo-Art snake
bites and uses them to add expression onto the real time playback.
Here is a YouTube link: https://youtu.be/vxehwq9lPGQ 

For the last year or so I have been very interested in doing something
similar by mounting an infra-red optical roll sensor on an old roll box.
With a system such as this I would be able to play any MIDI-operated
instrument or just listen to rolls via a high quality MIDI interface.

Peter Spies has obviously built a very sophisticated system way beyond
anything that I would be able to do. I have a whole bunch of questions
I would like to ask Peter but I'm unable to find a contact for him or
find any more information.

Phil Dayson
Vancouver, B.C., Canada