Broadcasters are pushing their remote control capabilities to new heights as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt normal operations. While at first, the effects were as small as the reduction of staff and closing of individual studios for cleaning, currently, entire studio facilities are shutting down with all staff told to work remotely whenever possible.

Those who have made the partial or full transition to a modern Audio over IP studio infrastructure are particularly well-positioned to handle the rapid onset of the virus-related staffing restrictions. Many engineers have found that the remote control features they already use for troubleshooting are highly extensible and can be slightly modified for use by production staff.

Is free, open-source software a viable option for running your radio station? Fred Gleason, co-founder of Paravel Systems says it’s worth consideration. His Rivendell radio automation software is open-source, widely deployed, fully professional - and free to use. Paravel’s financial model is to charge for pre-configured hardware and for support, but both are optional. Fred talks to us about Rivendell open-source radio automation and call screening software.