Assuming that you're using a Varian spectrometer and are able to log in remotely using SSH, you can just type "showstat" (or "/vnmr/bin/showstat"). Issuing this command will give you the required information (acq. status, remaining time, lock level, temperature regulation, etcetera).

Alternatively, if you don't want people to log in on the spectrometer from a remote location (e.g., home) you could use a cron-job to dump the "showstat" information to a webserver. In that way people can just look at this weblocation to follow what the spectrometer is doing. If you're interested I can ask how that was done exactly in our lab.

Have you tried VNC or NX NoMachine remote access protocols?