Latency

Latency refers to a short period of delay (usually measured in milliseconds) between when an audio signal enters a system and when it emerges. Potential contributors to latency in an audio system include analog-to-digital conversion, buffering, digital signal processing, transmission time, digital-to-analog conversion and the speed of sound in the transmission medium. Latency can be a critical performance metric in professional audio including sound reinforcement systems, foldback systems (especially those using in-ear monitors) live radio and television. Excessive audio latency has the potential to degrade call quality in telecommunications applications. Low latency audio in computers is important for interactivity. Telephone calls In all systems, latency can be said to consist of three elements: codec delay, playout delay and network delay. Latency in telephone calls is sometimes referred to as delay; the telecommunications industry also uses the term quality of experience (QoE). Voice quality is measured according to the ITU model; measurable quality of a call degrades rapidly where the mouth-to-ear delay latency exceeds 200 milliseconds. The mean opinion score (MOS) is also comparable in a near-linear fashion with the ITU's quality scale - defined in standards G.107, G.108 and G.109 - with a quality factor R ranging from 0 to 100. An MOS of 4 ('Good') would have an R score of 80 or above; to achieve 100R requires an MOS exceeding 4.5.