Nexus Broadcast Launches Nexus Go Live: Radio Hosts Go Live From a Phone

TEXARKANA, Texas — Nexus Broadcast today introduced Nexus Go Live, software that lets a radio station's hosts go live on the air from a phone, from anywhere. A host signs in, connects the mic, and taps Go live after this song: the record plays out, the station is theirs, and one more tap hands it back to the automation.

Live, local voices are what separate a radio station from a playlist, but putting a host on the air from outside the studio has usually meant remote codecs, a technician on the other end and a phone call to make sure someone back at the station pressed the right button. Most small stations have neither the equipment nor the staff, so the remote never happens. Nexus Go Live replaces all of that with an app.

“A host should be able to do a show from the ballgame, the county fair or the kitchen table without a truck full of gear,” said Leo Ashcraft, founder of Nexus Broadcast. “And they should sound like they're sitting in the studio when they do it.”

Studio sound, not a phone call

Nexus Go Live is not a phone line. A phone call squeezes a voice down to a narrow, tinny band; Go Live sends the host's mic as full-bandwidth, 48 kHz audio at up to 128 kbps. The phone's own call processing, the echo cancelling, noise gating and automatic volume that make a voice sound like a phone, is switched off, so what reaches the air is the voice itself. If the connection drops a packet, the audio is repaired on the fly instead of breaking up.

Nobody has to be at the studio

There is no board operator to book and no engineer standing by. The host runs everything from the phone: takes the station live, opens and closes the mics, sets how far the music dips under the voice, and hands back to the automation. The studio can be empty. Go Live runs unattended on the studio PC alongside the automation system.

What hosts get

• An Android app, or the same screen in a web browser on a computer.
• Go live after this song, Go live now when it can't wait, and Back to automation when the segment is done.
• A large ON AIR banner, a beep when they're on, and another at ten seconds to go.
• A level meter showing their voice exactly as the station receives it, with a line to aim for.

What the station controls

• Every host signs in with their own username and password, as a Host who runs the show or Mic only for a guest or co-host.
• Up to four voices on the air at once, mixed automatically, and the host can mute or open any of them.
• Disabling an account, or changing its password, signs that person out everywhere at once.
• If someone does happen to be at the studio, a status window there shows everyone connected, with a meter and clip light for each.

No accidents on the air

Every mic starts muted, and going live mutes everyone until they choose to talk. The screen only reports a mic as muted once it really is muted on the air, not just when the button was pressed. When a host hands the station back to the music, the mic stays as they left it so they can talk over the intro, and the screen flashes MIC STILL OPEN until they close it. The music dips under the host's voice while a mic is open, by an amount the host chooses, and comes back up on its own.

“The worst thing in live radio is the mic you forgot was open,” Ashcraft said. “We built Go Live so that can't sneak up on you.”

Works with the station's automation

Nexus Go Live takes the station live and hands it back through the automation system's own remote control, so nothing in the music library or the log changes. It can work with most automation systems that can be controlled over the network; RadioDJ is supported out of the box, and others are added as stations bring them. Nexus Broadcast sets it up, and nothing at the studio needs a person to run it.

Nexus Go Live is already in use on the air, putting hosts on live from their phones, away from the studio. Stations can learn more and ask about it at nexusbroadcast.com/software/go-live.

About Nexus Broadcast

Nexus Broadcast is a broadcast engineering and FCC filing firm serving AM, FM, LPFM, FM translator and TV stations across the United States. Founded by Leo Ashcraft, it pairs decades of station, consulting and FCC experience with its own RF Workbench and RF Navigator engineering software, and offers station software, websites, apps, stream hosting, monthly engineering plans and free FCC tools at nexusbroadcast.com.

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