HESP: Comparing Zapping Times

With the introduction of digital television, zapping between different channels becomes noticeable. Where zapping between channels on an analogue television took only a few milliseconds, switching between digital channels could add up to a few seconds. Zapping times have been improved over time, but popular streaming protocols like HLS & DASH still introduce intrusive and noticeable delays between switching channels. First results of HESP however, show promising results.

We compared zapping times between HESP and the different CMAF-CTE configurations used in the earlier tests. The time measured was the time between clicking the “zap” button and the first frame showing up on the screen, referred to as Time to First Frame (TTFF). The setup from the first latency comparison test was used in order to make the measurements.

Time to First Frame : Measuring the zapping time

Based on these results, we can see zapping times for HESP streams are significantly lower compared to the CMAF-CTE setup, reaching values below 100ms on average. Compared even to current digital TV broadcast the zapping with HESP feels instantaneous.

Want to know more about THEO Technologies' High Efficiency Streaming Protocol (HESP)? Check out our whitepaper here.