Pairing performance

Racing
1

Hello racers
As ATV user.
Smart trainer and HRM connecter via Bluetooth with ATV.

With new Zwift play setup device :

It will be requested to connect all equipments to Zwift app companion (due to ATV limitation with Bluetooth connection)

As racer we know impact on the delay to transmit power data into the game.
With an additional bridge (with companion apps) what is additional delay compare to the direct connection (with ATV) ?

Enjoy your race !

2

Do you experience a delay?

3

The effect of total latency is going to be hard to measure, but there are a few that we can guess about and try to manage.

  • Network latency between each device and the local area network. If using WiFi, this should be a few milliseconds for the device running Companion, and a few milliseconds for the Apple TV. This can be measured with a ping test from the device to the router. If the router is old and slow, or if there is poor WiFi signal, latency will be higher. If both devices are on wired Ethernet, latency could be under 1ms, so cabling both devices directly to a good quality switch will reduce latency a little and reduce the possibility of retransmission that can happen due to momentary drops in signal quality.
  • The amount of data being handled by the Companion app may affect performance, such as the frequency of transmission from the paired devices and how many devices are paired. The version of Bluetooth supported by the trainer will also affect Bluetooth latency. You want Bluetooth 5 if possible since it has lower latency and higher bandwidth than Bluetooth 4.
  • Processing latency on the device running Companion depends on the speed of the CPU in the device, and whether anything else is using the CPU. This is hard to measure but using a new high-performance device to run Companion will probably help. There may also be performance differences between iOS and Android for the Companion app, but I can’t guess which would be better.

Another thing to consider is that if your Companion device is not very fast, replacing it would probably cost more than a gaming PC which would eliminate Companion pairing and open other possibilities such as using a Wahoo trainer with Direct Connect (possibly even wired directly to the PC) and using Wahoo’s Race Mode.

EDIT - forgot to mention the performance of the Apple TV. If it’s not the latest model, the question is whether Zwift makes it busy enough that it affects network performance or handling the data coming from Companion. If it is the latest then there’s nothing you could do to improve it other than not using Apple TV. We know that the A15 is significantly faster than the previous ATV 4K CPU.

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