TRANSMISSION

Streaming Latency Calculator

Calculate total glass-to-glass latency for live streaming workflows, from SRT contribution to HLS delivery across Wide Area Networks.

Useful for planning interactive talk-back or remote-production paths. Use measured stage values where possible and verify the real end-to-end result.

Load Workflow Preset
Sensor readout, frame syncs, vision mixer delay. (Typically 2-4 frames).
ms
H.264/HEVC encoding time. (Hardware: ~50ms, OBS/vMix x264: ~150-300ms depending on preset and b-frames).
ms
RTMP TCP buffering or SRT RTT latency + buffer to reach the ingest server.
ms
ABR generation and CDN edge caching. (Segment size drastically affects HLS delays).
ms
Web player holding chunks to prevent buffering. (Standard HLS usually holds 3 chunks of 2-6 sec each).
ms
Total Glass-to-Glass Latency
12.336 s
This is consistent with standard RTMP to YouTube Live or Twitch standard latency.
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What is the Streaming Latency Calculator?

Calculates total 'glass-to-glass' cumulative latency across a capture-encode-transmit-decode chain for live broadcast and interactive streaming protocols like RTMP, SRT, and WebRTC.

This worksheet adds entered or assumed stage delays. It cannot observe the real glass-to-glass path or account for unlisted queues, adaptive buffering, route changes, or player behaviour.

Real-World Use Cases

Used to explain the delay differences between sub-second SRT links and high-latency HLS public distributions. Critical for planning interactive talk-back or real-time remote production.

Use the sum to compare architectures, then replace assumed values with measurements and verify the complete viewer path.

Technical Methodology

Adds the entered processing and buffering delays into a single planning timeline. Use the audio buffer calculation for known sample buffers, then measure the complete A/V path before applying an alignment offset.

Use measurements from the actual camera, encoder, network, platform, decoder, and display where available, then verify the complete path with a recorded timing reference.