I have a Windows-based machine that cannot have anti-virus installed due to the performance impact that would have on the machine's role as the controller in a live radio studio mixing console. This setup is a commercially available system not one I am building myself.
I believe the question has value beyond the application in broadcast radio, for other domains that need deterministic real-time performance - or as close to that as possible.
I have found anti-virus software can use a significant amount of CPU-cycles/processing power particularly when updating virus definitions and then installing them. In fact I've observed machines lock-up/freeze for several seconds why the definitions are updated following their download.
The expected slow-down/freezing during anti-virus updates is unacceptable in a radio studio environment as it would result in unresponsiveness of the console, resulting in "dead air" - silence on air and a bewildered presenter. Ant-virus updates occur as soon as they are made available and its preferable to install them as soon as possible but this is unpredictable.
The machine needs to be connected the internet so that:
- Remoting: it can be controlled remotely using VNC for station management or some presenters working from home
- Streaming: it can stream the broadcast to an off-site internet radio streaming server for internet -based listeners
- FTP: it can accept files, e.g. pre-recorded radio shows, reports, music for automated playout or use in a live show. Also for logging presenter output, for download by station management for review
- Local Networking with other on-site studio machines and office machines that are connected to the internet
Presenters will not use a web-browser or email on this machine, they use another machine. So the need for internet is for essential management reasons.
So I propose to connect it to the internet, without anti-virus installed and Windows Updates to be scheduled manually at off-peak times, via another machine that filters traffic and scans it for viruses. How could this be done?