THE story of how Prof Brian Copeland got together a team of 17 people to develop a steelpan innovation – the percussive harmonic instrument, or PHI – is an inspiring tale of how ordinary people can create history by simply refusing to give up.
After investing more than 20 years into their passion project, which has been fraught with challenges, including an infamous 2011 lawsuit, Copeland and his now significantly smaller team are hoping to launch PHI on the test market in June 2024, through their company Panadigm Innovations Ltd.
PHI is the most recent development in the pan, the only percussion instrument developed in the 20th century.
With the support of UWI, St Augustine, the current three-member team – Copeland, Jeevan Persad and Marcel Byron – are optimistic that by January next year, the decades of gruelling work they put into PHI will not have been in vain, as they intend to mass-manufacture the pan for local, regional, and international customers.
In an interview with Business Day, Copeland said despite low resources and the high overhead cost of moving the project forward, they will do what is necessary to eventually attract investors.
“We have to verify the market and we do that by doing a limited production. Because it is early, the cost is going to be high…We then look at that market and see if we are going to ramp up, stay level or roll it down…so we have an idea of how many we want to produce in a first batch.
“We are looking at high-grade parts…it’s a powerful engine we have in here. That early venture will tell us where the market is and the potential, so we can now go to an investor and tell them this is what we have....I think this is a very strong product and some investor will bite into it.”
What makes PHI different from the traditional pan or another Copeland invention, the G-pan? Copeland says it's PHI’s electrical engineering, which encapsulates the functions of an electronic keyboard.
“The PHI is completely electronic…the equivalent of the electronic keyboard. It’s really a synthesizer in pan form. Once you go electronic, you can do so many things.
“We do not view PHI as a pan but a completely new musical instrument motivated by the physical form of the traditional tenor pan and powered by digital technology.”
[caption id="attachment_1062270" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A musician plays the PHI -[/caption]
With many of its electronic components imported from Ukraine, Copeland said he is keeping his fingers crossed that the current Ukraine-Russia war does not interfere with their ambitious launch goal, as he believes this invention has the potential to revolutionise TTs steelpan industry.
The genesis of PHI
PHI was first unveiled to the public in 2007, but Copeland said the instrument had its genesis when Keith Maynard, then a Cariri employee, developed the first prototype of the electronic pan in the 80s. Maynard recommended a new technology at that time, MIDI (musical instrument digital interface), should be used on the pan.
There was a lull in development
