I was recently doing some music tech consultancy work which presented me with an interesting conundrum. Picture this: my client has a control room running a G5 Mac, with tie lines down a stairs to a live room containing the most beautiful vintage grand piano. The challenge was to be able to record ones-self on the piano, without a tape op, and without having to make constant trips up & down the stairs.At first, I thought the best solution was good-old PowerKeys, which I have written about on other occasions. But my client didn’t have an iPhone, and besides, it wouldn’t necessarily give the control or feedback required in this case.

What my client did have though, was a MacBook. So I got to thinking about the possibility of remote controlling the G5 from the MacBook over WiFi. This is very possible with Apple Remote Desktop and it starts at only $200. That went down really well then…

Another possibility was to use the new “Back to my Mac” service available for Leopard and Snow Leopard. Sadly, my client’s G5 was on Tiger, and he didn’t want to upgrade.

So, we needed a solution which worked on older operating systems, was simple to use, and preferably was cheap/free. I had downloaded the TeamViewer app to my iPhone out of pure curiosity, and decided to try it out as a possible solution. I just loaded up the app on the G5, and within about a minute, I was controlling it from my iPhone. So, I loaded it on the MacBook, and five minutes later, we were downstairs recording the piano remotely. It really was that simple.

There are other remote management solutions out there, such as LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, and Apple’s aforementioned products, but TeamViewer won out for pure simplicity, compatibility, and price. It works, on pretty much anything (including Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone/Touch), and it’s free. It’s also surprisingly responsive for a remote management system.

So next time you’re sitting behind your drums, at the piano, or even just over at the sweet spot behind the mic, but away from the keyboard, grab your iPhone/netbook or whatever, load up TeamViewer, and start taking control!