Our Next Meeting
All Are Welcome at SBE Meetings;
SBE Membership is not Required
Meeting Date: |
| March 9, 2021 at 6:30 PM |
Location:Virtual Meeting via Internet |
Directions:Due to COVID-19, our meeting will be virtually. We typically open the meeting 30 minutes prior to the scheduled meeting time to give everyone time to mingle and visit prior to the business meeting and presentation. |
Remote Hybrid Workflows & Cloud Disaster Recovery
Guest Speaker: Nathan Mumford
Our Tuesday, March 9, 2021 meeting will feature guest speaker Nathan Mumford of RCS. As discussed below, Nate will discuss Remote Hybrid Workflows and Cloud Disaster Recovery. He will also introduce local workflows and discuss the future of radio automation.
Broadcast Automation traces a rich, decades-long history through multiple, distinct generations. Early systems were analog and electro-mechanical systems focused on reducing staffing costs in smaller markets. Later generations of digital, hard-drive based systems improved production and audio quality while eliminating the high maintenance costs of tape-based systems. As explained below, yet another evolutionary generation is now upon us.
March marks the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in the United States that forced stations to grapple with new, largely unforeseen work-at-home challenges. Some facilities were evacuated for days and weeks by local health officials. Stations equipped with remote access and good disaster-recovery plans quickly adapted, remained competitive, and thus maintained ratings and advertising revenue. Others have a renewed appreciation for disaster plans. One lesson learned is that suitable recovery methods depend on the specific nature of each adversary. With COVID-19, physical infrastructure remains operational but is inaccessible by staff. In other scenarios, studio equipment can be rendered inoperative, requiring disaster plans to consider off-site or “cloud” backup production facilities. Nate will discuss topics that can enhance daily operations, be operated remotely, while also being capable of such backup duties.
Nate Mumford has been with RCS for nearly 5 years, supporting and demonstrating RCS software throughout the United States and won the RCS Support Technician of the year in 2016. He wrote and co-produced the RCS Academy Certification GSelector and Zetta programs. Previously, Nate worked as the Director of Digital Operations for Berkshire Broadcasting in Danbury, Connecticut and designed and programmed four stations from scratch for the company. His 15-year career included stations WBMX(FM) Boston, WCZX(FM) and WPDH(FM) in the Poughkeepsie, NY market, as well as WRKI(FM) and WDBY in the Danbury, CT market. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston.
We plan to begin the meeting promptly at 6:30 pm but plan to establish the Zoom session about 6:00 pm to facilitate an informal visit. Please use this link to generate a Zoom invitation customized to you.
Thanks to sponsors Paul Fitts and Owen Garland of Vertical Technology Services, LLC for their ongoing financial support of Chapter 37's recent Zoom sessions and other technical support costs.