Developing complete 'off site' backup plan...

[TomZ]

As is typical these days, I'm wanting to create an off site data backup along with an emergency studio....  I'm thinking the best place is at the transmitter site.

In this thought process, I'm wanting to extend the automation into this.... and now I'm wondering if it's practical to move the automation (computer) to the transmitter site and control it from the studio via vpn...

At this point my planning sheet is clean and ready for scribbles.

[richard.vanderveen]

now I'm wondering if it's practical to move the automation (computer) to the transmitter site and control it from the studio via vpn...

If you want to create a real backup, don't move it. Duplicate it...

[TomZ]

That's how I first envisioned it up to the AudioVault computer... and I got to wondering about how I could sync the new one to the original; but my default thought was more along the idea I proposed...

Again, I'm open to any idea....

[WNTIRadio]

You don't want to move the computer!!!!  Controlling it via VPN is risky at best.  If the internet goes belly up, your on-air staff is screwed.  That would be bad.

However, if you extend a VPN up to the TX site, you can have a backup on-air machine running the log.  All you need is an audio switcher to put it on the air on loss of audio from the studio.  As far as it's concerned with the VPN, it's just like it's another network address at the studio.  All the drives can be mapped etc.

[Sgeirk]

Learn fom my experience...as far as the onair machine goes: leave it be.

[chriscollins]

Tom,

If you get an AV license for the transmitter computer and you net access, you can port forward 4100 and use NFS to do file transfer.  I do that remotely.

[TomT]

Why would you need the back-up at the transmitter?  Let's look at some typical reasons:

1. You need to evacuate because of an accident near the studio for a couple hours (e.g. propane truck starts leaking just in front of the studio..

2. A storm or major utility failure means no power at the studio for several days (we had enough of these that we put in a geni--but we have a combined site);

3. A storm or a fire destroys or damages the studio;

4. GM puts his foot down, prohibits any more pizza deliveries; and the starving cockroaches lock-out the staff...

If you have internet available at the site the solution is simple.  Just get a reasonably good computer, cheap sound card, and load it up with your music play-list. Put Log-Me-In or Go-to-MYPC on it.  Connect an audio switch to the program line feed, controlled by the remote control.  There are a variety of free or very cheap automation programs available that will do a basic log --e.g. music-music-music-spot-spot-(here spot!)-ID-music.  This will get you on-air quickly. My ops manager has used Log-Me-In with his I-pad to cure simple problems on our automation. Not long ago the satellite missed a break return cue--leaving dead air.  He handed his I-phone to his fiance & talked her through the process of switching the satellite back on line--all while driving down the interstate.

So as long as this transmitter computer is on a UPS & running you can load up a simple back-up music program, start it running & switch this program on-air while you are running from the fire burning down your studios.

Now have a back-up location (e.g. PD's house) with a mike, USB mixer & internet connection & you can have your air staff congregate there while the emergency progresses. Have them cut voice segments, then dump them in with your remote PC program. (e.g.--just e-mail the MP3 to yourself, pull up the attachment, dump it into the log on the transmitter computer)

The thorny part is having an off-site auto-backup of the day's log and commercial copy.  Figure that out, and you can manually insert spots for a couple days (in case of studio destruction) until new studios are built.

Even if the studio burns down, if you get an automatic off-site "cloud" storage service for your traffic computer, (Carbonite anyone?), as soon as you can replace the traffic & billing software computer you can at least generate a printed log. Then hand it to a part-timer & send him to the transmitter site to manually build stop-sets.  PITA--but you are on the air and making money.

[stephend2]

I am doing a full backup of everything to the owner's home currently.  I am fortunate in that there is a wireless link to the owner's house and we see 20+ mbps between the studio and his home.  With that said, here is what we are doing:

We are using controlready for automation which has facilities for running multiple automation decks per machine, including file sync operations and just about anything else you can think of.

I have tasks running that sync changes between both air machines every 5 mins.  I have other tasks that send any changes in audio folders to the owner's house every 10 mins.

I have a nightly backup script that dumps the naturallog database to one of the air machines nightly, this then goes over to the other air machine and owner's home machine within minutes.

we have a 950mhz stl and t1 circuit to one transmitter site with automatic switching.

we have a data link on 902mhz to the other tx site which is less than a mile away from the studio.  have not built a backup link there yet, only failure has been ice on antennas, was able to go on 161 mhz rpu temporarily to stay on air.

using comrex bric-link over the t1 circuit, barix instreamer/exstreamer over wireless link.

a system that I am implementing before the end of the month is:  multiple ip audio encoders and decoders to bring critical feeds over to the owner's house into his console and give him a path back to the studio for both stations.  I'm also going to come up with a solution to transport contact closures in both directions to allow the owner to toggle his home studio on air as well as send over a few contact closures for some sports programming so he can run stuff live at home if need be, with a small delay of course.

In the end, we will be able to go on air from multiple locations, up to and including calling the tx site and patching the phone line on air.  I also have enough audio i/o and the necessary switching in place to almost immediately press either air machine into service for both stations should one fail, as these are both primarily satellite fed stations, this is fairly important.  I even went as far as using ethernet to rs232 adapters on all audio switchers and satellite controllers and using virtual com port drivers on the air machines so I can map the switchers to another machine on the network remotely. 

To top it off, both tx sites, studio and owner's home have backup generators.

It works pretty good for a small town locally owned pair of stations, anytime there's bad weather, we're usually the only one in town on the air and getting information out to the public.

[TomZ]

I really like everybody's ideas and I appreciate learning from Your experience'...

[Dale H. Cook]

I got to wondering about how I could sync the new one to the original

You need to WAN the transmitter Vault. Use a dedicated ethernet link between studios and transmitter (such as fractional T1 or VPN over the public internet) and let NFServer keep the files in sync. Add the transmitter Vault to the AVScheduler export list so it always has up-to-date logs.

I ran for many years with Vaults at two studio facilities 50 miles apart, connected by a WAN through a T1 Starlink. Most of the time the smaller facility was playing programming that originated in the larger facility and was fed to the smaller through the Starlink, but when the T1 went down the smaller facility's Vault was put online to feed that transmitter.