Low Latency Streaming: Improve Video Latency & Live Stream With no Delay!
In order to deliver a top-notch experience in live videos, there needs to be a focus on low-latency streaming to enhance the experience for all your viewers. Keeping your video latency low in your live streams is one In order to deliver a top-notch experience in live videos, there needs to be a focus on low latency video streaming to enhance the experience for all your viewers.
Keeping your video latency low in your live streams is one of the main ways to keep your audience tuned in throughout your program in real-time.
If you are a gamer – or have a child who is – you may already be familiar with the concept of latency. Regardless of how good gamers are, if it takes a long time for their computers to communicate with the servers in play and receive data describing what’s happening at any given moment in the game, they could be blindsided by an opponent with lower network latency and wind up in a virtual Valhalla.
Network latency has always been a challenge in live television production. One memorable example came from comedian Super Dave Osborne (played by the late Bob Einstein), who parodied the awkward delays caused by satellite transmissions. His bit humorously illustrated how even a brief communication lag can throw off the rhythm of a live exchange — a challenge that still affects modern low-latency streaming workflows today.
What is Video latency?
Video latency is the delay between a captured video frame and when the frame is displayed across the network. This is the case when live streaming, whether it be video calling, delivering video from a remote studio at home, or live production on set. When delivering video in real-time, you want the delay of your live stream to be small enough that it is unnoticeable to the viewers watching the event from any platform on any device.
When live streaming, you want to deliver the lowest possible latency. For broadcasting and live video production, low-latency video streaming is essential. There are many cases when latency is involved.
The comedy sketch works because it exaggerates the lag time –or latency—TV viewers have come to expect when a correspondent in a faraway land is interviewed by the talent in the studio.
Like an online gamer frustrated by a delayed response during fast-paced gameplay, broadcasters experience a similar breakdown in communication when latency prevents real-time interaction between the studio and field correspondents
That delay isn’t caused solely by the roughly half-second round trip it takes for a video signal to travel 23,000 miles up to a geostationary satellite and back. Additional latency comes from signal processing, routing, and the various earth station hops that occur between the remote correspondent and the studio.
Similarly, anyone who contributes video by streaming a signal via the internet must contend with latency—the same sort of lag, which results from multiple slight delays introduced into the stream by the computers and routers that handle streaming IP packets and direct them to their final destination.
Further delay is introduced before the video is even streamed during the encoding phase, when large video files are compressed and at the receiver when that IP packet stream is decoded.
What is low latency streaming?
Low-latency streaming is a measurement of the time an image is captured to the point a viewer experiences it on their device or screen. The total time difference between the source and viewer is described as glass-to-glass. Low-latency streaming is a glass-to-glass delay of five seconds or less.
Low-latency video streaming allows viewers to experience content with minimal delay between live capture and playback, creating a more immediate, interactive experience. In a typical live broadcast workflow, latency is introduced at multiple stages: video encoding, network transmission, buffering, and playback. Each of these steps adds delay, but with the right tools and configurations, the total glass-to-glass latency can be reduced to under a second.
However, without proper optimization, video streaming latency can range anywhere from 30 to 120 seconds — or even higher — depending on the platform, network conditions, and delivery protocol used. This level of delay can be especially problematic for live sports, news, or interactive events, where real-time response is critical. Reducing latency across the pipeline is essential for delivering a seamless and engaging ultra-low-latency streaming experience.
Is low latency good for live streaming?
Low latency streaming is good for broadcasting and live streaming. It mostly depends on the procedures a captured image must go through and the use case of the live stream. Maybe the live stream has high-quality video, wireless remote production, live audience interaction, thousands of viewers, or a cloud-based production that adds more value to your live stream as it is distributed and displayed across multiple devices and many different screens.
You’ve probably seen live news reports where the anchor asks a question, but the field reporter takes a second or two to respond — creating awkward pauses and talking over each other. That’s a clear example of latency disrupting natural conversation. These kinds of scenarios can disrupt the viewing expirence.
In these use cases, low latency live streaming is very important. Most professional broadcasts and live streams take advantage of cloud-based technology to deliver the highest quality live stream possible. Even for amateur youtube live streaming, audience interaction has become very common today which requires low latency to avoid buffering.
When breaking into real-time streaming, there are many features that can be done to add value to your When breaking into real-time streaming, there are many features that can be done to add value to your live video stream as a whole to keep viewers and users always coming back to view more. If you ever decide you want to grow your audience to interact in real-time or you are a professional in live video production of real-time content, your main focus is to have the proper setup and remote production equipment to process and deliver video across a low-latency streaming network.
High Latency vs Low Latency
High latency can have a negative impact on any live video broadcast due to the stream delay. Viewers who tune into a live stream want to feel connected and be in the present in real-time. High latency hurts the viewer’s experience, and it can disconnect them from the stream completely.
When there is a delay in the delivery of content or video that is constantly loading, it takes away from the experience viewers look for in a live stream. Lower latency and avoiding delays bring so much value and credibility to your broadcasting by delivering the content in real-time, giving the viewers exactly what they need to be engaged and connected to the live event.
For most actions taken over the internet, like browsing webpages, high latency will not have such an effect on the experience and mainly relies on bandwidth. Yet, there is a big difference when it comes to video, streaming, broadcasting, or when real-time comes into play, which requires high amounts of data to be processed and delivered over a network. Here are different cases where low-latency live streaming is very important for your viewers:
- Live remote productions
- Cloud-based live production
- Live sports broadcasting and streaming
- Live remote collaborations
- Remote Commentary
- Live video distribution or multistreaming to multiple platforms
- Real-time chat or audience participation
- Online gaming
For Video over IP, users viewing live video over the public internet may be able to notice even the smallest amount of delay. In online gaming, the same case can apply and high latency can cause lags and delays.
What causes video latency
Video latency in live streaming is typically caused by a combination of buffering in network devices, signal travel distance, and network congestion. Routers, gateways, and switches introduce small delays as they process and forward data packets. These delays add up, especially when TCP-based protocols are used, which prioritize reliability over speed.
Latency also increases when live signals must travel long distances — for example, from a remote camera to a central control room — due to the number of network hops involved. In high-traffic environments like news events or large public gatherings, network congestion can lead to IP packet loss, forcing retransmissions and causing latency to drift.
Minimizing these factors is key to achieving low-latency streaming, especially in live production environments where real-time response is critical.
1. Image Capture
Capturing live video begins at the source — whether from a smartphone camera or a professional-grade broadcast system. This initial step introduces a small amount of latency, primarily due to sensor readout speed, frame rate, and internal processing within the camera hardware.
At a standard 30 frames per second (fps), each frame takes approximately 33 milliseconds to capture. However, depending on the capture device, additional latency may be introduced through onboard image processing, transcoding, or HDMI/SDI output delays. In a full production environment, live video mixers and camera control systems may also contribute to end-to-end latency at this early stage.
Typical Latency Range: 5 ms to 700 ms
2. Live Video Encoding
Once the image is captured, it must be encoded into a compressed format suitable for transmission over the internet. This step is critical in the low-latency live streaming pipeline, as encoding impacts both stream quality and responsiveness.
Hardware encoders typically deliver faster performance and lower latency than software-based solutions, especially when optimized for real-time protocols like SRT, RTMP, or WebRTC. High-performance encoders can compress live video into high-quality formats with as little as 1–50 ms of latency, enabling reliable, low-latency delivery across platforms.
Choosing the right encoder — whether embedded in devices like TVU One or part of a cloud-based production platform — is essential for maintaining low-latency video workflows without sacrificing visual fidelity.
Typical Latency Range: 1 ms to 50 ms
3. Live Video Transmission
Once the video is encoded, it is ready to be transmitted over the internet. At this stage, video transmission latency can be affected by several factors, including video bitrate, network bandwidth, and encoder configuration.
While reducing the bitrate may lower latency in bandwidth-constrained scenarios, it’s not a guaranteed solution. Factors such as GOP (Group of Pictures) structure, encoding speed, and protocol overhead play an equally important role in determining how quickly the video can be delivered from source to destination.
Typical Latency Range: 5 ms to 750 ms
4. Buffering
Buffering is used to smooth out inconsistencies in data arrival caused by fluctuating internet conditions. However, in low-latency live streaming, buffering must be kept to a minimum to preserve real-time responsiveness.
Too small a buffer may lead to dropped frames or stutter due to jitter and packet loss, while excessive buffering introduces noticeable delay. Advanced adaptive streaming platforms and error correction protocols (like ARQ or FEC) help maintain a stable experience even in low-buffer, high-performance workflows.
Typical Latency Range: Hundreds of milliseconds to several seconds
5. Transcoding
To ensure a seamless experience across devices and network conditions, the video must be transcoded into multiple resolutions and bitrates — a process known as adaptive bitrate streaming (ABR).
Modern cloud-based live production platforms, such as TVU Producer, support real-time transcoding and transrating in the cloud. This allows the same live video to be streamed in different formats optimized for mobile networks, desktops, and connected TVs — all while maintaining the integrity of an ultra-low latency live stream.
Typical Latency Range: 1 to 10 seconds
6. Transmission to the Viewer’s Device
The final step in the live streaming pipeline is delivering the video to the viewer, which involves choosing the appropriate delivery protocol. Each protocol balances trade-offs between latency, scalability, and compatibility.
- Non-HTTP protocols like RTSP, RTMP, and SRT are capable of achieving ultra-low latency (sub-second) by minimizing buffering and using direct transport mechanisms (TCP/UDP). These are ideal for closed-loop, low-latency environments such as contribution feeds or interactive production.
- HTTP-based protocols like HLS, MPEG-DASH, and LL-HLS (Low-Latency HLS) are built to scale globally via Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). While standard HLS typically introduces 6–10 seconds of delay, modern implementations like LL-HLS and CMAF-DASH bring latency down to 2–4 seconds, while maintaining compatibility with HTML5 players and mobile devices.
For large-scale, public-facing live streams, HTTP protocols remain the best choice due to their scalability, device support, and CDN integration — even if they come with a slight latency trade-off.
Latency Ranges:
- Non-HTTP Protocols (RTMP, SRT, RTSP): 5 ms to 500 ms
- Modern HTTP Protocols (LL-HLS, CMAF): 2 to 4 seconds
- Standard HTTP Protocols (HLS, DASH): 6 to 10 seconds7. Decoding for Device Display
Decompressing live streaming video can be as low as the duration of each frame (1/30th per second). Although it usually values around 3 times the frame duration. Ultimately, this is dependent on the capabilities of the viewers’ device.
Time Range for Decoding: 33ms to hundreds of milliseconds
Low Latency Live Streaming through Cellular Networks
When it comes to live streaming via a cellular network, the biggest factor affecting latency is the type of connection in use. For instance, in the United States, the raw latency introduced by an LTE network is about 250 milliseconds (ms) —at least for connections between most cities and many towns.
With the widespread rollout and maturation of 5G wireless networks, low-latency connectivity is now more achievable than ever, even in mobile and remote live production environments. 5G’s high bandwidth and ultra-low latency capabilities make it well-suited for live video applications that demand real-time responsiveness. However, latency performance can still vary depending on network congestion, infrastructure quality, and regional coverage. In areas with limited 5G capacity or during peak usage, connections may temporarily fall back to LTE, resulting in increased latency. That’s why it’s essential to use adaptive transmission technologies that can maintain stream stability across fluctuating conditions. An Example of live streaming solutions that offer this include the TVU One IRL Backpack and TVU Anywhere mobile app.
In more rural, remote areas where the availability of an LTE network is limited or non-existent, other wireless connections, such as a dedicated satellite uplink like Inmarsat’s BGAN network, maybe the only practical solution to live stream video. In such cases, roundtrip network latency will be in the range of 900ms.
Still, other networks used to contribute streaming video, such as Wi-Fi networks, Gigabit Ethernet and 10GbE have their own latency characteristics.
How can I improve video latency when live streaming?
If you are contributing your live stream via a cellular network, which is quite common in newsgathering, there isn’t a lot you can do to lower or improve your latency. As the phrase goes, it is what it is.
However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t steps you can take to manage the effect of network latency on your live stream.
In order to reduce video latency, high-quality hardware with cloud-based solutions are necessary. Although there are numerous ways to ensure low-latency streaming is achieved. That is to say that your video latency is below 5 seconds to reach a level for low-latency live streaming.
Improve video latency with high-end live streaming hardware
From a hardware point of view, when using a wireless IP transmitter like the TVU One, the first step is to dial in the latency you expect from your wireless network connection. For instance, if you are live streaming via an LTE wireless network, dial in 0.8 seconds. This should accommodate the 250ms of raw LTE connection latency as well as the latency introduced by encoding and decoding.
Next, before going live to contribute your shot, conduct a test transmission to confirm you selected the appropriate latency for your network connection. If not, dial in more and repeat the test until you’ve nailed the right latency.
TVU One and the company’s other products, such as the TVU Remote Production System (RPS), were designed to treat latency as a production value, not a technical limitation. As such, once the test to verify the correct network latency value has successfully been conducted, TVU’s streaming solutions lock it in to ensure latency never drifts.
Improve video Latency in Live Streaming Production
From a production point of view, both the reporter in the field and the talent behind the desk in the studio should understand before going live how much latency is in play. Doing so will make it easier for them to finesse their live two-way conversation.
Latency can be especially challenging in multi-camera productions, but top-tier IRL backpacks like the TVU One enable multichannel, low-latency video streaming with perfect feed synchronization. This synchronization is maintained even under unexpected network conditions, thanks to TVU One‘s stable adaptive bitrate streaming. Choosing the right streaming solution is essential for ensuring both stream reliability and video quality meet your audience’s expectations.
Another critical production factor is ensuring that network latency is low enough to support real-time responsiveness. For example, when a remote camera operator is sending video over an IP network, they must be able to react to live instructions from the director — such as executing a pan, tilt, or zoom — before the moment on the field has passed. If latency is too high, these actions will lag behind the live event, leading to missed shots and a disjointed production flow. This is why ensuring you have a solution that can ensure low-latency video streaming is essential for broadcasters and content creators
Low Latency Video Streaming Requirements
Low-latency streaming is a key benchmark in professional television broadcasting. Most traditional broadcasts consider latency under 10 seconds to qualify as low latency. However, advanced solutions from providers like TVU Networks push the boundaries further, achieving ultra-low latency live streaming performance with end-to-end delays measured in milliseconds, often under 1 second.
For productions where real-time responsiveness is critical — such as live news, sports, or remote contribution — ultra-low latency streaming is essential. Achieving this level of performance requires a combination of optimized network infrastructure, adaptive bitrate protocols, and cloud-native production tools designed for low-latency video delivery.
The following checklist outlines best practices and technologies that can help you reach and maintain low-latency live streaming standards across your workflow.
Internet Connection
The most important way to reduce video latency is to have a powerful internet connection or use a 5G cellular network. For professional live production crews, cellular bonding over a 5G network with cloud-based technology is the best approach to transmitting live video over the internet.
5G cellular bonding solutions can help enhance video transmissions and distribution by bonding multiple networks together giving your increased bandwidth for a stable internet connection while assisting to reduce video latency. The bonus is you can be totally remote and transmit live video productions across the public internet making it much more affordable and effective for low latency streaming.
High-End Live Streaming Encoder
Using a quality live streaming encoder that can capture and encode efficiently will help achieve low-latency streaming. This can require high-end hardware on set to encode live video. One can also use an effective codec or decrease the frame rate of the video being encoded.
High-Quality Live Video Transmitter
A camera or video pack that has the ability to capture high-quality video and process it for low-latency video streaming. Video packs also known as IRL Backpacks like TVU One, are live video transmitters able to capture and encode live video to transmit over the public internet.
TVU One processes live video using its state-of-the-art ISX video/audio transmission algorithm, which is built directly into the device. This technology reduces data usage and latency while maximizing transmission reliability. It effectively combats packet loss, enabling ultra-low live stream latency — as low as 0.3 seconds, even in mobile environments.
HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) Protocol
Adaptive streaming protocols help reduce video latency. HLS protocol is the best for live video streaming platforms over the internet. Although the latency will be higher on one end, on the other end is the support for HTML5 video players and mobile devices. HLS protocol can provide a better streaming experience while maintaining a high level of reliability avoiding delays and lags.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Reducing latency typically requires minimizing the distance between the live video source and the viewer. While this can’t be done physically, it can be achieved virtually through the use of a Content Delivery Network (CDN). CDNs help reduce latency by caching and distributing content across geographically dispersed edge servers, enabling faster delivery to end users. Modern cloud-based live production platforms such as TVU Producer often integrate with CDNs, making them ideal for low-latency streaming to multiple platforms.
Start Live Streaming with No Delay!
If you’ve optimized your workflow for low-latency video streaming, you’re already one step ahead in delivering high-quality, real-time video. The final piece is execution — ensuring your network connection is stable, your IP transmission settings are properly configured, and your on-air talent is trained to handle minimal delay with ease.
With solutions like TVU One and TVU Producer, achieving ultra-low latency video streaming — even under challenging network conditions — is not just possible, it’s expected. When your live production runs smoothly and without noticeable lag, viewers stay engaged and your content stands out.
Don’t let latency get in the way of your broadcast. Choose a platform built for low-latency streaming, and go live with confidence.
