DAD Disaster Recovery (DAD-DR), a cloud-based companion to ENCO’s DAD radio automation system, is now ready for deployment, providing stations with the ability to take over program ad ad playout on a moment’s notice.
Providing a fully-featured clone of the broadcaster’s on-premises DAD deployment, DAD-DR stays in continual synchronization with changes made on the local DAD system to ensure that backup content is up to date and that all scheduled ad spots will run.
DAD-DR will make its world exhibition debut at IBC2019 in stand 8.A59.
“Disasters that threaten broadcasters’ on-air operations aren’t limited to natural occurrences such as weather-related events, but also include power outages, targeted cyber-attacks, computer viruses, and even equipment failure,” said ENCO President Ken Frommert. “Having a complete, up-to-date disaster recovery solution is essential for keeping stations on the air and protecting their advertising revenues. We have already deployed cloud-based fault tolerance for some stations on a customized, individual basis, and with radio enterprises increasingly confident in using the cloud for backup and disaster recovery, the time is right for us to offer it to all of our customers as a packaged solution.”
DAD-DR works with ENCO’s browser-based mobile control interface, WebDAD, allowing users to remotely update playlists, add new content, voice track shows, and perform library maintenance – even if the station is completely out of commission. The transition from the station’s main DAD system to the cloud backup can be automated or controlled from a web browser, ensuring customers are able to switch over to DAD-DR even if they can’t get to the studio in person.
“This may end up being the most common usage of DAD-DR,” said Frommert. “While actual ‘disasters’ may have the greatest risk of business impact, they are fortunately relatively few and far between. In contrast, stations frequently update their systems, software or infrastructure, and having DAD-DR at the ready helps them avoid any downtime. Plus, with DAD-DR, broadcasters have a constantly updated, offsite backup of all of their valuable assets.”
The subscription-based DAD-DR service will be hosted on ENCO partner StreamGuys’ broadcast-grade cloud infrastructure.
DAD-DR is available immediately.
