xSchedule - Sound lags lights by a few seconds - not sure where problem is

[Jerry-Rigs]

ARG! Judging is tonight.

The sound lags behind the lights by a several seconds.
I do not know where my problem(s) is and I am looking for advice on how to diagnose.

My xSchedule install is straight of out the box. No configuration/tuning.
Do I need to turn on "multi-threaded" or anything else?

At first I thought it was wifi lag
   ESP's had high sequence number errors -20% and bad RSSI numbers ~40%
   ESP would stop receiving multicast traffic
   I tuned the WAP setting on the router.
   I re-oriented ESP placement.

Now, it doesn't feel like wifi lag.
   ESP's have low sequence number errors ~1% and RSSI >90%
   I verified all wireless is multi-cast.
   I packed my wireless channels into 1 universe
   After tuning, lag time hasn't changed
   I can reconfigure wifi to wired if needed but I don't want to do that if I don't need to.

I don't think show computer is overloaded.

My layout:
Dedicated network based on ASUS RT-AC66U wireless router tuned for multi-cast
Show controller is old laptop (Intel Core2 Duo T6500 @ 2.1GHz with 4GB RAM running Windows 10 64bit
   RDP'ed (via wire) in show computer with show running:
      CPU is ~20%
      Ethernet is ~ 2.8 Mbs
      RAM in use ~2.9 GB
Show player is xSchedule 2020.29 64bit
2 x E682's
8 x ESPixelStick v2's.
- 3 ESP's are DMX bridges to LOR boxes.
- 2 ESP's are DMX bridges to generic DC controllers.
- 3 ESP's 3 ESP drive pixels directly.
6090 channels total

[Jerry-Rigs]

Someone elsewhere suggested changing my timing from 25ms to 50ms.
That worked.

I think my sequences have become to complex for my aging laptop.
Time to migrate to FPP on a Pi.

[JonB256]

I'll bet your comment:

ESP's have low sequence number errors ~1% and RSSI >90%

is now more like zero errors and >99%

I don't have any ESPPixelSticks, but a friend who had many could never get them to work well at 40fps

[Jerry-Rigs]

Before I tuned the WAP, I had RSSI in the 50%-70% range and sequence errors in the 20% range.
After I tuned the WAP, but before I changed the timing from 25ms to 50ms, the RSSI went into the 88-92% range with one ESP still at 70% and sequence errors in the .6% to 3.6% range.
Real numbers for all 8 ESP's after tuning:
rssi         88%      96%      94%      84%      70%      96%      66%      92%
seq errors      0.016   0.006   0.006   0.007   0.008   0.007   0.016   0.034

At this point, lights were still lagging sound by several seconds. It wasn't until I changed the timings that things came into sync.

It makes me think my computer is too slow to keep up so I will be looking at FPP on a Pi 3b I have.

It also makes me wonder show players work.
Do they send out frames as fast as they can and update the frames on the 25ms or 50ms timing mark?
Are they timer interrupt driven and send a frame only every 25ms or 50ms?
Can they determine they are behind?

[keithsw1111]

I posted a video on my YouTube channel today about how to address lag in xschedule. Also check you are not listening to a new fm car radio or Bluetooth. Both of which are known to lag audio.

[SNIPESCASTLE2]

I've heard blue tooth systems lag by several milliseconds, but several seconds sounds like other issues.
firewall maybe? some sort of network security filter?
Hope this helps !
Ben Smith