Live Broadcasting

This is what CastAway was built for. Going live from a remote location — a county fair, a press box, a cafe, your living room — with nothing but a laptop and a microphone.

Before You Go Live

1
Connect to your station — click Connect and verify you're hearing the station's audio in your headphones.
2
Put on headphones — this prevents your microphone from picking up the station audio and creating feedback.
3
Listen to the station — you'll hear what's on the air. Use this to time your live break.
4
Prepare your talking points — know what you're going to say before you click the button.

Going Live

When you're ready to talk:

1
Click the Go Live button. It turns plum purple with a distinctive glow.
2
The first time, your browser will ask for microphone permission. Click Allow.
3
You're on the air. Talk. Your voice goes directly to AutoCast and out to your listeners.
4
When you're done, click Go Live again. The button returns to normal. Your mic is off.

⚠️

When the Go Live button is plum purple and glowing, you are ON THE AIR. Everything your mic hears goes to your listeners. Be aware of background noise, conversations, and other sounds around you.

Microphone Gain

Before you go live, set your mic level in Settings. The gain slider (0-500%) lets you boost a quiet mic or tame a hot one, and the live VU preview meter shows your level in real time — all without putting anything on the air.

Behind the scenes, your browser applies echo cancellation, noise suppression, and automatic gain control to your mic signal. Your gain setting is then applied on top of that processing via the Web Audio API. So the browser cleans up the audio first, and your slider is the final trim.

💡

At a noisy county fair? The browser's noise suppression does a surprisingly good job of filtering out background chatter. But do a quick mic check in Settings before your first break — the VU meter doesn't lie.

Why You Don't Hear Yourself

CastAway has a clever audio architecture that prevents you from hearing your own voice echoed back with delay. The monitoring audio you hear in your headphones includes everything on the air — music, promos, the local announcer at the station — but not your own voice.

This is by design. If you heard your own voice coming back a fraction of a second later, it would be extremely disorienting and make it impossible to speak naturally. CastAway solves this at the audio engine level so you never have to think about it.

💡

If someone at the station goes live while you're connected, you will hear them. This allows natural two-way conversations between the local announcer and the remote broadcaster.

One-Person Operation

CastAway is designed for the reality of small-station remote broadcasting: you're probably alone. There may not be anyone sitting at AutoCast back at the station. That's fine.

AutoCast runs unattended — automation keeps the music playing
You control when you go live — no one at the station needs to "let you in"
The PIN you entered at connection time is your authorization
If your connection drops, AutoCast keeps playing — the station never goes silent

Typical Remote Broadcast Workflow

1
Arrive at the remote location. Set up your laptop and microphone.
2
Open CastAway in your browser. Click Connect.
3
Put on headphones. Verify you hear the station's audio.
4
Watch the player decks. When the current song is near its end, get ready.
5
Click Go Live. Talk. Introduce yourself, describe the scene, do your thing.
6
When you're done talking, click Go Live again to close your mic.
7
Automation picks up and plays the next item. Repeat as needed.
8
Use ButtonPad buttons to fire jingles, promos, or sweepers between your live breaks.