Configure Antivirus programs for best performance

Modified on Tue, 24 Sep at 12:50 PM

General advice

If you are running Antivirus, it's very important that you configure it well so it doesn't interfere with the regular operation of Broadcast Radio Products such as Myriad Playout, Myriad Logging, Myriad News etc.

We strongly recommend running Antivirus on your PC's even if they aren't always connected to the internet, as it helps prevent infection from viruses that can be transmitted by other methods such as over the local network, or via USB devices etc.

We recommend the following:

Run AV on all machines including servers.
Disable any Scheduled Scans on any OnAir computers - otherwise when it comes to do its periodic scan it could cause audio to stutter. Instead, manually run a full scan as part of your regular maintenance procedure when you can take the computer out of service
Exclude all folders that contain Myriad files - this will reduce the load on the computer as Myriad and Scoop opens hundreds of files per hour as they checks the Audiowall, play audio, works down the log/edit scripts etc. for example D:\Myriad
Exclude certain file extensions:
- bmp, cm3, ic3, inf, jm3, jpg, mdf, mp2, mp3, ldf, log, ls3, lst, ogg, opus, png, ppk, rec, wav, wma, mdb, OAC.
Some Antivirus packages don't allow exclusions (for instance some editions of AVG Free) and these MUST NOT BE USED.

Occasional pauses on Myriad v4 (or earlier):

If everything runs ok, but you get a regular pause once or twice a minute on Myriad v4 or earlier then you have possible forgotten to add OAC to the exclusion list.

Myriad v4 writes to a file with a .OAC extension next to the Station Database file every 20 or 30 seconds to say that it has On Air Control. It also checks it again periodically to check that it still has it.

As the antivirus scans this file it locks it and this can cause Myriad to pause until it’s finished scanning.

Tested products:

In the office we have tested Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Endpoint protection and do not have any performance issues.

We also recommend you avoid 'free' Antivirus packages as these often have limited feature sets as they obviously want you to upgrade to the paid for service.