A few years ago, as I was lining things up for a studio move in our Buffalo market, I found that the options for broadcast phone systems had changed significantly since I had last purchased one. 

After looking at all the available choices and with some reservation about the general concepts involved, I settled on a Telos VXs virtual VoIP system.

I had an integrator do the facility move, and they set up the VXs system there without issue, using our Avaya VoIP system as the SIP server. It all worked like the proverbial hose, and my reservations about using a virtualized on-air phone system diminished.

A short time later, I needed to replace a phone system in our Denver market. Again, looking at the available choices, the VXs virtualized system was the best fit, and since the Denver studios were just down the corridor from my office, it presented me with a way to get a firsthand look at such a system.

[Related: “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the VLAN”]

We already had Telos VSet6 broadcast phone controllers, so all I needed hardware-wise was a server. I ordered up one from Dell, loaded Ubuntu and followed the instructions from Telos for spinning up a container and installing the VXs application. 

There were a few gotchas I had to work through, but it didn’t take long before I had it up and running, connected to our Avaya system as the virtual SIP server and working. It worked and sounded great, garnering praise from our afternoon talk host that very afternoon.

Since then, I have rolled out several other VXs virtualized systems across our company, and I plan to continue to go that route as our hardware-based systems wear out and reach end of life. 

The point of all this is not a product review of the Telos VXs system, although it’s a great choice that I would recommend. Rather it’s an example of the implementation of a new(er) and non-traditional technology in the broadcast environment. 

It represented for me a change in thinking, one that I am carrying forward in our facility planning.

Computers by another name

Since making that move, it has occurred to me that we already have a good number of virtualized components in our broadcast infrastructure. 

One example is our audio processors. All of our AM stations use Omnia.9 processors, and while those processors do have hardware, that hardware is used only for I/O and user control. Open the box and you’ll find a computer running software that’s doing all the heavy lifting. It’s an amazing processor.

Manufacturers are working on other virtualization, including PPM watermarking (available in several production audio processors even now), and there is a push underway to move EAS away from hardware and into the virtual environment. That makes all the sense in the world to me.

Major manufacturers offer virtualized mixing consoles that utilize the touch screen of your choice for operator controls. Sure, there is still some hardware — blades, nodes or whatever — to handle I/O, but even those devices are really computers with an OS running an application. 

In my company’s facilities, we still have traditional control surfaces with mechanical faders, pushbuttons, OLED screens and blinky lights, but even those are just user interfaces providing input to the application.

Shaking my Magic 8 Ball, the words “more virtualization” appear in the window. When you stop and think about it, the possibilities are just about endless for virtualization. 

I don’t think we’re going to see virtualized RF power amplifiers delivering many kilowatts to a transmission line, but everything right up to the PA hardware can be virtualized, and I predict we’ll see that kind of thing more and more.

Otherwise, what part of the broadcast infrastructure is not a candidate for virtualization? Our rack rooms have become server rooms and bear this out. We’re using less and less purpose-built hardware and relying more and more on computers and servers. 

Maybe it’s time for us all to stop worrying and love virtualization. I think it’s here to stay.

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