Project genesis
Remote commentary too often comes down to a taped-together rig: Comrex, Discord or Zoom patched into the console with gaffer tape. Video calls “clean up” the voice, cut the silences and add latency — exactly what a broadcast control room does not want. On the other side, proprietary solutions (vMix Call, Comrex…) impose surprise pricing and no control over the infrastructure.
ark.commentary is the third way. The commentator opens a link in their browser, plugs in a USB mic and talks; their audio reaches the control room at broadcast latency over WebRTC (embedded LiveKit). The studio tracks presence, EBU PPM levels, on-air state and talkback in real time. Released as fair-code (Sustainable Use License), it deploys on your own infrastructure in about thirty minutes — a docker compose file and a domain.
The project was born from a concrete need at the Institut Equestre National d'Avenches (IENA): commentating live-broadcast equestrian competitions remotely. The first client and the origin of the idea, IENA runs it in production today — the first control room deployed with ark.commentary.
