
Calling the world cup goals 5 seconds before they happen on TV - benjojo12
https://blog.benjojo.co.uk/post/beating-the-broadcast-delay-world-cup
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timlod
This is about the latency involved with live broadcasts.

For a moment I thought someone tried predict goals based on gameplay
information, and be able to forecast goals with a certain confidence - but I
suppose the game moves too quickly and player performance is too inconsistent
for this to ever work.

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pmiller2
Yeah, 5 seconds is an eternity. Maybe it could work 1-2 seconds in advance,
but 5 is pretty unbelievable.

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ksec
If the TV / Cable Live broadcast is 5 seconds behind for betting purpose. Why
cant IPTv / internet streaming be the same 5 seconds behind as well. It seems
the whole World Cup broadcast is done without putting streaming as part of the
distribution.

Do TV station around the world gets the 5 seconds buffer delay as well? After
all it will have another processing time once they add their own languages
features and commentary into it.

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twoodfin
I’d always assumed the delay in live sports broadcasts was for production
purposes: It’s much easier to choose the best camera angle when you’re a few
seconds in the future.

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bluelemon
Nah, it' all done without 'looking ahead'. A typical match will be anywhere
from 20 to 35 cameras, and doing look-ahead at broadcast quality would add an
extra $200K just in infrastructure, and need another 40 production staff...
The tarmac for the extra OB trucks wouldn't be big enough in many cases!

~~~
lozf
Interestingly, the BBC have been working towards this for some "nearly-live"
events for a few years.

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/nearly-live-
production](https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/nearly-live-production)

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petercooper
The latency with stuff like iPlayer and other streaming is _huge_.

I'm in a Telegram channel with some friends and we casually discuss the
matches.. but sometimes there have been goals I've gone crazy about and others
are like "what goal?" then they see it 30 seconds-1 minute later.

I also tried listening to BBC Radio 5 commentary alongside matches shown on
ITV and had to pause the TV by about 20 seconds.

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executive
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtsiding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtsiding)

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ID1452319
Last night I heard my neighbour cheering before Trippier's free kick had even
hit the back of the net.

Either he works for a betting company or his TV provider was a second ahead of
mine!

~~~
babaeth
Did you hear him broke his TV on Mandzukic's goal?

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joezydeco
_It turns out there is a delay forced into the broadcast for the use of
betting companies and alike._

As they say, pics or GTFO.

 _The problem is that betting companies do not want people to rapidly place
/cancel bets just after a goal or otherwise major events._

So how does that stop someone from placing or cancelling bets from a mobile
device from inside the stadium? They could certainly evade any kind of
artificial delay, in fact they would benefit from it.

Wouldn't the betting agencies have the exact time of the goal down to the
millisecond and cancel any post-event action?

~~~
VBprogrammer
Not even as smart as that. What they do is apply a delay between taking the
bet and accepting it.

We don't have information at a millisecond level. Most sports data is supplied
by people watching the game in a room, or using a bespoke mobile app at the
event.

It's a wonder Hawkeye type data hasn't been integrated but as far as I know it
hasn't yet.

