CH 921 and CH 922 : low latency test

[Jason+Golding]

CH 921 and 922 currently testing sky sports low latency. The delay appears to be less than the standard channels. 

[GD1 · Accepted solution]

@Jason+Golding  Good spot 🙂

[SKYLJM]

Very pleasing to hear this- low latency for sports would be a massive step in the right direction for streamed TV.

Has anyone managed to compare how much time it's saved?

I think my Stream was approx 30 seconds behind the satellite feed- il see if I can test this week and get an idea.

Can anyone from Sky confirm if the test channels are part of a link up with BT and Broadpeak to trial their advancements of Multicast Assisted Unicast Delivery (MAUD)? It sounds like there could be a link up and I know BT were working with multiple broadcasters. 

https://newsroom.bt.com/bt-group-and-broadpeak-partner-on-new-multicast-technology-to-enhance-live-v...

[SKYLJM]

Testing the low latency channels last night I would estimate anywhere between a 15-20 second improvement in speed of delivery - excellent step forward and here's hoping it can be further improved!

[Jason+Golding]

For me it's closer to 35 seconds 

[IWTD]

Im watching the football on TNT, the on screen clocks across the three games tonight are on average 27 seconds behind the clock on my FotMob app, when my team is playing I have to put do not disturb on the phone as the alerts for goals, subs, bookings etc are 5 seconds ahead of Sky Stream, I just had a quick look at the tennis on main event and using my phones stopwatch  the low latency 922 UHD UHD was 13 seconds ahead of 401 UHD.   

Does anyone know will this eventually just become the default for main event or will it get rolled out across all the Sky Sports channels be it simultaneously or gradually one by one. 

[Jason+Golding]

It's a test. Who knows 

[SKYLJM]

Impressive reduction in lag but what was your delay to begin with @Jason+Golding ?

 
I thought in general Sky Stream was about 30secinds behind satellite so to have a 35 second improvement would almost eliminate lag entirely for most people?

[SKYLJM]

@IWTD  It certainly hasn't had any issues when I've watched so hopefully it's a successful test and low latency becomes the norm.

The low latency channel at one point I checked was about 12 seconds behind my phone clock which would probably mean just a few seconds behind a satellite feed?

That would be an impressive improvement if so- I'll keep an eye over the weekend - hopefully the F1 will be on there.

[IWTD]

@SKYLJM @ I think the delay will still be effected by your own broadband and internal connections, I have Sky's gigafast and all three pucks are wired so in theory mine should be as close to optimum as it gets.

 To be honest as long as my phone isn't going off before it's happened on the tv I'll be more than happy. 

[gszab1]

I'm watching the UHD variant, really cool and stable, I have around 21-22 sec difference compared to the regular UHD channel, which really makes an impact. Hope it becomes permanent at some point and eventually gets expanded to other channels.

[IWTD]

Im getting over 20 seconds too on the football, its a great improvement, when I checked in the week I believe the tennis was on and it was 'only' 12/13 seconds then. 

[SKYLJM]

Exactly the same here- for F1 and Football today I was measuring around 25 seconds improvement in delivery- very good step!

[gszab1]

Although it's important to note that the low latency streams are more sensible to network fluctuations, so Sky can decide that they keep both variants in some form.

[gszab1]

Looks like it will be expanded to other Sky Sports channels later this year:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/04/sky-glass-and-sky-stream-os-v1-3-update-to-add-new-uk-...