Twelve Lucky Grapes 

Happy New Year! – ¡Próspero Año Nuevo!

Countdown to the new year

From the ball drop in New York’s Times Square and the chimes of London’s Big Ben, to fireworks lighting up Rio de Janeiro’s night skies over Copacabana Beach and Sydney’s spectacular display from the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, each country has its own traditions to mark the start of the new year.

In Spain, the custom is to eat twelve grapes for good fortune, one on each strike of the clock bell at midnight.

According to tradition, everyone who eats twelve grapes as the bells chime 12 times will have a lucky and prosperous year. “Las Campanadas” dates back to the early 1900s when Spanish vine-growers celebrated a good harvest. The practice has spread to other Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America with the added benefit of enjoying warm balmy midnight temperatures.

TV gets in on the act

Since 1962, all major Spanish TV networks have broadcast the new year’s countdown live from Real Casa de Correos, the Royal House of the Post Office, in Puerta del Sol, Madrid. In 2020, more than 6 million people watched it live on La1, making it by far the single most-watched TV event in Spain.

Being in Sync

Broadcasting those chimes bang on time is a huge challenge. Video service providers need to find a way to overcome one of the biggest streaming headaches: how to minimize latency so it doesn’t kill the experience that makes live content so powerful.

If there is a crucial 30-40 second delay between traditional broadcast platforms and streaming services, out of synch streaming viewers face the prospect of hearing fireworks and cheers from all across town before seeing the countdown on screen for themselves.

Tivify leaves behind time lags

For the live streaming of “Las Campanadas” on La1 and TV3 on 31^st December 2021, Tivify teamed up with Synamedia to eliminate this problem by minimizing the latency across every element of the delivery chain, from the encoder through to the packager, CDN and player. As Synamedia’s VIVID Low Latency Streaming Workflow runs on the public cloud, it was extremely easy for Tivify to remotely set up, configure, test, and launch the channels in just a few hours.

Ring in the new

Thanks to low latency streaming, Tivify viewers enjoyed a perfectly synchronized start to the new year, welcoming in prosperity and good luck! Happy 2022 to all!

About Tivify

Tivify is a pioneering streaming TV service in Spain, offering free channels that can be enjoyed from any screen and different plans that include premium channels and advanced functionalities. Together with its advanced recommendation technology, users enjoy a state-of-the-art TV experience.

The platform is developed by Spanish technology company TV UP Media Telecom, with offices in Barcelona, Madrid and Santiago de Chile. The company has a team working to reinvent television. The founding team has more than 20 years of experience working in the development of Internet TV in large operators and successful startups. This experience has been transferred to Tivify’s culture – breaking traditional paradigms.