From the Field to Your Screen: ZEGOCLOUD’s Ultra-Low Latency Sports Live Streaming Solution

The highly anticipated Olympic Games in Paris are rapidly approaching, capturing the attention of audiences worldwide. As viewers eagerly tuned in recently to witness Spain’s thrilling victory via live online streaming, it became evident that live streaming will play a crucial role in delivering the excitement of the games across continents.

With the convenience of staying at home and no distance limitations, online sports and e-sports viewing is now widespread. Through its extensive experience in providing audio-visual services for live streaming top-level international competitions, ZEGOCLOUD has launched its Sports Live Streaming Solution. This solution offers users a high-quality audio and video experience that closely replicates the captivating “on-site” atmosphere, while also innovating new viewing formats to make the overall viewing journey even more immersive and enjoyable. It has been used in several sports and esports live streaming scenarios.

Captivating the Audience With the Seamless Delivery of Excitement

The closer the live streaming experience to the on-site experience, the greater the user satisfaction. To this end, ZEGOCLOUD Sports Live Streaming Solution is built on the core capabilities of its self-developed ultra-low latency live streaming product (referred to as L3) — ultra-low stuttering, ultra-low latency, and ultra-high video quality — to recreate the “on-site” feeling that users crave.

Ultra-Low Stuttering

Conditions in sports or esports can change rapidly, and any streaming interruptions could mean viewers miss critical moments like scoring plays or kill shots. Users have an extremely low tolerance for such issues.

ZEGOCLOUD’s ultra-low latency live streaming product utilizes its self-developed AVERTP transmission protocol and audience-adaptive video quality strategies to protect users from missing those electrifying highlights. The stuttering rate is kept below 1%, no matter how rapidly the action unfolds.

Ultra-Low Latency

One of the most appealing aspects of the live sports stream is the unpredictability of the outcome. Imagine watching a tense football match on your mobile, with the score tied 1–1 in the final moments. While the players frantically scramble in the penalty box, a news alert suddenly pops up on your phone: “Player A scores the winning header, Team B beats Team C.” Yet the live video on your screen continues to show the ongoing action in the box, creating a disconnect between the real-time visuals and the breaking news update.

In essence, the live video feed on your phone lags behind the actual events, and the suspenseful climax of the match is “spoiled” by the premature result notification, instantly diminishing the excitement of the live viewing experience.

To address this issue, ZEGOCLOUD’s live streaming solution for sports events keeps the latency under 1000ms, ensuring a strong synchronization between the live action and the viewer’s experience.

• Powered by a global MSDN (Massive Serial Data Network) spanning 212 countries and over 500 nodes, with intelligent and flexible scheduling of the optimal transmission paths.
• Time to first frame is less than 300ms, allowing faster stream startup and switching between feeds.
• Super-low latency live streaming under 1000ms, and interactive live commentary under 400ms, allowing viewers to stay in sync with the real-time dynamics of the match.

Ultra-High Quality Video

On the sports field, the situation changes rapidly every second, with dynamic and fast-moving action. This type of content requires a video streaming solution with strong capabilities to capture and deliver the footage — higher resolution and higher frame rates.

Most live streaming solutions struggle to achieve end-to-end high resolution and high frame rate capture and transmission. However, ZEGOCLOUD’s live streaming solution is capable of providing end-to-end 4K 60fps HDR capabilities, ensuring exceptional image quality while also minimizing the bitrate to reduce the network requirements for viewers.

• Optimized end-to-end data processing pipeline, supporting 4K 60fps to deliver rich details and smooth, fluid motion on the playing field.
• Compatible with multiple HDR standards, faithfully reproducing the true colors and lighting of the live action.
• Delivering higher-quality video at the same bitrate, overcoming network bandwidth limitations for viewers.

Innovative Viewing Experiences — More Options for Users

While watching “live” sporting events, users may not only want to passively receive a single live stream, but also desire more active options, such as selecting their preferred guest commentators or sharing highlights in real-time with friends.

1. Guest Cloud Commentary

The live stream provider can set up a “cloud live stream studio” using the ZEGOCLOUD solution, thus allowing guest commentators to contribute remotely without the need to be physically present in a traditional studio.

2. Host Cloud Co-Viewing

Some users prefer listening to unique commentators with distinct styles, and desire stronger interaction and feedback with the anchor. Consequently, the cloud co-viewing format can satisfy these users’ needs.

The above two viewing modes can create a triple-win scenario:

• For the platform: Savings on physical studio setup costs, and the ability to invite more guest commentators/anchors to better cater to user preferences and attract more viewers.
• For guest commentators/anchors: Convenience of contributing remotely from any location, reaching global audiences with their professional analysis.
• For users: More choices to select their preferred guest commentators/hosts.

3. Watch Together

Users in different locations can join a “cloud VIP box” to watch the game synchronously, engaging in real-time video/voice calls to discuss the events together.

• Real-time synchronized viewing experience, strictly synchronized with friends’ gameplay progress, no spoilers, shared highlights of the event;
• Low latency of 200ms for interactive live chat, allowing global friends to communicate in real time.

More Advantages of ZEGOCLOUD Sports Live Streaming Solution

Proven Stability: Supports millions of concurrent connections on the MSDN network;

Copyright Security: Encrypted media streams to effectively prevent unauthorized live streaming;

Content Compliance: It reviews user interactions and the anchor’s audio/video content to ensure business compliance.

Cost-effective: By combining different products, select the most cost-optimal streaming sources for various scenarios (e.g., friends’ viewing, main event live streaming) while ensuring a great viewing experience for the audience.

The extensive experience gained from serving top-tier sports live streaming has been distilled into ZEGOCLOUD’s comprehensive sports event solution. This solution has helped major sports and esports events deliver a true win-win outcome — delighting the audience with an engaging and immersive live experience, while also meeting the business goals of the streaming platform.