Streaming at the Speed of Soccer: How Zapping Conquered Latency

Voices of Video

Dive into the technological revolution happening in Latin American streaming as Nacho Opazo, co-founder and CTO of Zapping, breaks down how they've built one of the region's most innovative virtual TV operators from the ground up.
What happens when a musician who's been coding since age 11 decides to reinvent television? You get a streaming service that's one minute ahead of competitors during soccer matches, delivers superior picture quality with 40% less bandwidth, and offers an interface that starts playing content immediately upon opening the app.
Unlike most streaming platforms that focus primarily on on-demand content, Zapping has carved out a successful niche by prioritizing live streaming - particularly news and sports - across Chile, Brazil, and soon Peru and Costa Rica. The secret to their success? Building every piece of their technology stack in-house, from encoding solutions to their own CDN (which Nacho claims is larger than Akamai in Chile).
Some of the most fascinating revelations involve Zapping's technical innovations: placing encoders directly in broadcaster headends to minimize latency, implementing HEVC to deliver better picture quality at lower bitrates, and creating AI systems that detect goals in soccer matches and automatically offer viewers replay options if they missed the action. All this while addressing the unique challenge that 80% of their viewers watch on smart TVs - many of which are several years old with suboptimal WiFi connectivity.
Whether you're a streaming professional looking for technical insights or simply curious about how streaming is evolving outside North America and Europe, this conversation offers a compelling look at how regional innovation is reshaping television for the streaming age. Listen in as Nacho explains why your neighbor might be screaming "GOAL!" before you see it - and how Zapping is fixing that problem.

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Fejezetek

1. Introduction to Zapping and Nacho Opaza (00:00:00)

2. Zapping's Service and Market Position (00:03:01)

3. Smart TVs and Connection Challenges (00:06:01)

4. Tackling Sports Latency and Quality (00:09:43)

5. HEVC Implementation and Encoding Evolution (00:14:25)

6. User Experience and AI Innovation (00:23:46)

7. Future Technologies and Challenges (00:31:56)

8. Nacho's Background and Closing Thoughts (00:42:41)