Haivision says first-mile latency shapes live broadcast workflows
Haivision published a blog post emphasizing the critical role of low latency in the "first mile" of live broadcast contribution, from camera capture to the production facility. The article highlights that minimizing latency at this stage is essential for maintaining synchronization across multiple video sources and enabling real-time production responses, while also balancing high picture quality at low bitrates, citing Haivision's Makito encoders and Aviwest products as solutions.
Key Takeaways
- The first mile covers camera capture through transmission to a live production facility, on-premise or in the cloud.
- Haivision says one second of contribution delay can have an exponential impact on production delay.
- The post cites under 100 ms as the threshold humans perceive as immediate in response-time research.
- Makito encoders are described as delivering latency under 55 ms in some cases.
- Haivision says its Aviwest acquisition added PRO Series encoders and mobile transmitters for 4G and 5G contribution, including premium 4K UHD and multi-HD content.
Why It Matters
For live production, the article’s core point is simple: latency added at capture and contribution gets amplified as video moves through switching, graphics, playout, and distribution. Haivision ties that directly to synchronization across multiple feeds and to producer reaction time when switching streams. The broader ecosystem angle is that contribution hardware now has to balance low latency with picture quality and low bitrates, especially when running over standard internet or cellular networks. What to watch is whether vendors keep pushing encoder latency lower while preserving HEVC quality and support for 4G/5G contribution, since those are the concrete tradeoffs Haivision highlights.
Read full article at haivision.com