Frisk Radio develop cloud-based, fully-integrated station management software

Frisk Radio is a rhythm-driven music station in the North East of England, who have re-invented the role of software in radio station management.

Instead of licencing a number of discreet components from a variety of suppliers, and trying to make them work together, Frisk designed their entire infrastructure in-house, from the ground up, by designing a single system to facilitate the management of every aspect of the station.

Despite only running a single station at present, the system has been designed with scalability in mind, so that can easily handle multiple stations, and multiple streams with split ad-breaks.

Radio Station Management From The Cloud

The system is known as Vudio – short for Virtual Studio - and runs entirely in the cloud, allowing all aspects of station management to be carried out from any location.

Frisk Radio’s Director, Stuart Landreth said:

“Our aim was, and always will be: to produce slick-sounding, content-rich radio, as cost-efficiently and time-efficiently as possible”.

When we looked at the costs of running a station, software licencing, studio equipment, and staffing costs were the largest expenses. To eliminate these as much as possible, we proposed a single, all-encompassing software solution, designed to be operated with as little intervention as possible.

It’s an interesting proposition; as well as being a radio company, we are also a tech solution company!”

A Turnkey Suite of Radio Station Management Features

Playout

• Zero equipment; playout of WAV and MP3s in the cloud with software-based dynamic processing (per stream)
• Stream delivered directly to encoder on same server.

Voice-Tracking

• Lightning-fast workflow; automated ducking and placement; real-time log recalculation.
• Presenters can utilise existing beds in the log, or pre-mix at point of recording.
• Show-prep content (e.g. weather, station reads, event reads) appears directly in the log.
• Cross-station presentation

Music Management

• Multi-categorisation of tracks
• Separation rules
• Clock hours
• Automatic calculation of cue/segue points with option of manual adjustment. BPM-aware and mix-point support.

Automated Mixblock Production

• Scheduler’s output can be run through automated beatmixing engine, to produce Mixblocks at any BPM, maintaining correct pitch.
• Mixblocks are delivered directly into the log, with integrated tracklists.

Pre-produced Show Management

• Plan pre-produced shows weeks ahead
• Duration restrictions
• Attribution by producer/presenter
• Integrated tracklist support.

Content Management for Web & App

• News/articles with categorisation.
• Automatic image optimisation/resizing
• “Now Playing” feed direct to app/website. Support for tracklists in pre-produced shows and mixblocks.

Events Management

• Public-facing calendar; Manage staff attendance at events.

Show Prep

• “Shoutout” generator
• Scripted station reads and event reads
• Weather integrations.