In recent years I have developed a regular ritual before watching football games.
It has nothing to do with superstitions or ancient tradition.
This is a farewell ceremony, because there is nothing more annoying for a football fan than spoilers.
My TV is "smart" and broadcasts on delay.
That's why, just before kick-off, I make sure to silence apps on my phone that jump on goal updates, inform friends not to send messages that reveal the result, disconnect from social networks, stay away from the cell phone and also turn it so that the screen is not visible.
This is the only way to watch football today without fear of spoilers.
And yet, there is always a moment when sudden shouts are heard from the neighboring houses.
"What happened?", I wonder and look at the TV in panic, because nothing is happening in the game right now.
But half a minute later - a goal.
The current World Cup is the nightmares of football fans, because the ratings are high and smart TVs that rely on high-speed Internet have become very common.
Everyone watches in a different way, apps or converters, diverse content providers and countless devices, when no one is synchronized with the other.
The differences are exaggerated.
For example, I have three televisions at home, each connected differently and with a different operating system - Android and also Apple, yes or Cellcom - and the delay between them sometimes reaches half a minute or more.
It is not fixed, and it is impossible to know who will precede who.
All of them are always behind compared to an old-fashioned analog converter connected through the wall.
In fact, since technology has improved, the chance to watch football in real time has been eliminated.
why is it happening?
Here is an explanation in simple words.
The broadcast from the field goes via satellites to the broadcasting network, and from there to the service provider who streams it via the Internet to apps and smart TVs.
Streaming contains a huge amount of data, and the data needs to be compressed and encoded.
Gigabytes are cut into megabytes, which are encoded into multiple formats to fit different internet connections.
There are more adjustments and security protocols that the files go through before they are streamed into our homes.
And the more physically distant we are from the source - the longer it will take for the video to arrive.
Wait, it's not over.
The devices with which we watch constantly check the quality of the Internet, and accordingly choose which stream format to pump to them (high speed will allow the transfer of more data for a smooth transmission, low speed requires the transfer of a little data and the result is pixelated with interruptions in the transmission).
The aforementioned cumbersome process produces a difference of 20 to 120 seconds in an Internet broadcast compared to a normal TV broadcast. And even though technological solutions are always being worked on to reduce the gap - it seems that the problem is only getting worse. So when you scream with joy about a goal, consider your neighbors.
nirw@israelhayom.co.il
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