Sports Bar TVs Out of Sync

[Jling]

We currently have 21 ignite boxes in a sports bar. The lag between boxes is up to 8-10 seconds on the same channel. As you can imagine, patrons are not thrilled when part of the bar celebrates a touchdown or goal before the others even see the play. Old boxes had no issues. With ignite for about 1.5 months now. Business tech has been of no help.

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[57]

Are all the boxes the same make/model?  If not, then ask for the same make/model for all.  Some have different/faster processors and RAM which may play into this. If they are all identical, I don't have a solution for you.

[Pauly]

Buffering and delay is a big problem with iptv there may not be an easy solution.

An old family friend of mine actually used to install video distribution system for restaurants and bars where instead of having 20+ set top boxes, they have maybe 4 or 5 set top boxes kept somewhere out of sight, and then pump them into a video distribution system which feeds a coax to each tv, then they use the TV's tuner to tune a specific channel.

If Set Top Box 1 is tuned into the football game and Set Top Box 2 is tuned into the hockey game then they will tune whatever TV they want to a specific channel lets say 20, and the football game will be in sync on all the TVs that are tuned to that channel and the TVs tuned to another channel lets say 25 will show the hockey game, and so on.

It also helps if all the TVs used by the restaurant are similar or identical model, because some tv brands and models can have more lag than others.

[Jling]

Thanks for the reply, all the boxes are brand new out of the box. Same model

[Jling]

It’s crossed my mind to do this. Maybe it’s the solution.

[wayner92]

Why not get a matrix switch, with additional splitters if necessary.  Then connect via long HDMI cables or HDMI over ethernet.  That way you only need to have one source for each sport that you want to show so they will always be in sync.  

[Jling]

How would that work for a wall of 5 TVs? If we wanted a single game across all 5 or different games across all 5 would a matrix allow us to do that?

[wayner92]

Let's say you have an 8x8 HDMI matrix.  Let's call the inputs 1-8 and the outputs (aka TVs) A-H.

You could have an IgniteTV on input 1 go to outputs A,B,C,D,E.  or any combination thereof.  You could then have the IgniteTV box on Input2 go to outputs F,G,H. Or have the IgniteTV box on input 3 go to output H.

With a matrix you can have any input go to any output or any combination of outputs.  It likely helps to have an automation system like Control4 or Crestron to control it all.  

Or to make things cheaper and easier you could have a 4x4 matrix and then feed the outputs into a 1x4 splitter but in that case those 4 TVs on the splitter would have to have the same program.

Theses matrixes can sometimes also come with HDMI extenders so that the outputs will be ethernet cables that you run to the TV and then put the ethernet to HDMI converter on at the end.