diff --git a/RTCP/Cobalt/OutputProc/src/GPUProcIO.cc b/RTCP/Cobalt/OutputProc/src/GPUProcIO.cc
index 7cb62c7b0c8a38668807462e0ea969a174da67f4..39e92216519d88c54214d871584ce0670c4d6ea0 100644
--- a/RTCP/Cobalt/OutputProc/src/GPUProcIO.cc
+++ b/RTCP/Cobalt/OutputProc/src/GPUProcIO.cc
@@ -100,7 +100,12 @@ size_t getMaxRunTime(const Parset &parset)
 bool process(Stream &controlStream)
 {
   bool success(true);
+
+  // obtain the parset but don't wait forever. Note that we do not know whether
+  // we're running in real time mode or not.
+  alarm(3600);
   Parset parset(&controlStream);
+  alarm(0);
 
   string myHostName = myHostname(false);