You’ve got the concept. Now let’s walk through how you actually set up and run a live remote broadcast using CastAway — from the initial setup at the station to putting yourself on the air from the remote location.
If you haven’t read Part 1 of this series, the short version is this: CastAway is TuneTracker’s web-based remote broadcasting tool. It connects your laptop to your station’s AutoCast system over Wi-Fi, gives you the full broadcast interface, and lets you put yourself on the air from anywhere — without an antenna, without a dedicated transmitter, and without anyone back at the station holding things together on your behalf.
Here’s how you actually do it.
CastAway works through TuneTracker Go!, a lightweight helper app that runs on your station’s Mac and creates the bridge between the CastAway web interface and AutoCast’s playback engine. TuneTracker Go! comes pre-installed with any TuneTracker System 7 installation, so if you’re already running System 7, it’s already there.
If you haven’t yet added CastAway to your system, activating it is a one-time purchase through TuneTracker Go!. It unlocks instantly — no license key entry, no email confirmation round-trip. One click and it’s enabled. CastAway works with any version of System 7, including System 7 Free, so you don’t need a paid System 7 license to use it.
On your station’s Mac, open TuneTracker Go! if it isn’t already running. TuneTracker Go! handles the connection between AutoCast and CastAway — it needs to be active for CastAway to reach the station. For most stations it makes sense to have TuneTracker Go! launch automatically at startup so it’s always available.
Within TuneTracker Go!, confirm that CastAway remote access is active. This allows incoming connections from your remote laptop. You’ll want to verify this is set before the day of the broadcast — not while you’re standing at the remote location trying to connect.
AutoCast needs to be active at the station before you can connect remotely. A program log for the broadcast day should be loaded and ready. Your remote broadcast will use this same log — you’ll see it, and be able to manage it, from the remote interface.
With the station side set, here’s the workflow when you arrive at your remote location.
CastAway needs an internet connection at the remote location. In most cases the venue — a dealership, a restaurant, a festival grounds with a vendor tent — will have Wi-Fi you can use. Confirm this in advance when possible. If venue Wi-Fi isn’t available or reliable, a mobile hotspot from your phone works fine. CastAway doesn’t require a fast connection — a standard 4G cellular signal is more than sufficient.
CastAway is web-based, so you access it through a browser on your laptop. Mac or PC — it works on either. Navigate to your station’s CastAway address (provided in TuneTracker Go! at the station). Enter your credentials, and the AutoCast interface loads in your browser window. What you see is a live mirror of what’s happening at the station.
Before going live, use CastAway’s built-in chat to check in with anyone at the station, or just confirm to yourself that the connection is solid. You can see the program log, the current on-air element, and the queue. If something looks off, you have time to sort it before the remote begins.
If no one is at the station, that’s fine — that’s one of the points of CastAway. You’re self-sufficient.
Your microphone or mixer connects to the laptop just as it would to any computer — via USB audio interface, or directly into a USB mic. CastAway carries your audio back to the station through the same web connection it uses for the interface. No separate audio routing hardware is needed.
Once you’re connected and your audio is set, the remote broadcast runs much like any live-assist session at the studio.
From the CastAway interface, you control when you go to mic. Break away from automation, open your microphone, and you’re on the air from the remote location. The station’s listeners hear you exactly as they would hear anyone broadcasting from the studio.
Between live segments, AutoCast handles spots, music, and station IDs from the station — playing from the existing program log just as it would during normal automation. You can see everything that’s queued, add elements, adjust timing, and be ready when your next break comes up. The full log management tools are available to you in the CastAway interface.
Use the built-in chat if you have staff at the station. If something needs a quick fix on that end — an audio level, a cart that’s not loading — you can communicate in real time without picking up a phone. During live segments, glance at the chat window; during automation breaks, it’s right there on screen.
When the remote broadcast wraps, returning to normal automation is straightforward — put AutoCast back in its standard mode from either the station or the CastAway interface, and the program log continues from wherever you are in the day. No special teardown procedure, no patching anything back together. Close your browser tab and you’re done on the remote end.
The steps above describe how CastAway works technically. How well your remote broadcast actually goes has as much to do with preparation as technology — knowing the location, testing your connection in advance, planning your content and interview subjects. That’s the subject of our next article in this series.
For more on the full CastAway feature set, visit the CastAway product page. And for everything about the TuneTracker system it connects to, download System 7 free — CastAway works with the free version and every paid tier.