These are challenging times.
Sport has understandably been postponed as events with large crowds are discouraged if not outlawed.
Some have discussed continuing without spectators. This still risks transmission among the players and staff. However, perhaps it might be considered safe enough in a few months time.
Let’s say that behind-closed-doors sports are deemed safe but spectator crowds are not for some time. Here is my proposal:
Sports with Live Fan noise
Live music venues and support companies all around the world are struggling without any business.
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| Image “SCAPE” by Jaanism |
There is lots of high quality PA equipment and technical experience going unused. Why not divert these to stadiums and pipe in the crowd noise to generate an atmosphere?
Where will the noise come from? The sound can come from the fans at home. Most viewing devices have microphones built-in or have a port into which to plug one.
Teams can offer their fans the option to pay for a high-quality premium feed. Those with the premium live feed could have their feedback sounds piped back into the stadium and played on the loudspeakers.
Fans could start up their old chants, cheer when their team does well and contribute to the experience as they used to. People at home might cheer much louder if they know the players and their fellow fans will hear them!
As well as additional loudspeakers placed throughout the stadium, it might be possible to hook up the existing speaker system to give an ever fuller sound.
The away teams could be given a less powerful array of speakers than the home team in order to ensure there is ‘home’ advantage.
Sports clubs would get revenue from the premium feed as well as revenue from broadcasting the games on TV or on the internet using a secondary feed.
Games could be played in a staggered way so that those without much to could watch games on the secondary feed quite a lot of the time if they are bored.
Potential downsides
There are a few things to work through.
One is the latency and delay in the feed. The whole thing would only work if the visuals and audio coming back were reasonably in synch. Too much of a delay and it be bizarre for players and fans alike. Certainly singing songs won't be possible if everyone is a few seconds out of synch from others. Hopefully by prioritising a paid premium connection getting this feed the ‘feedback’ sound would be quick enough. Maybe singing wouldn't work but cheering could. The secondary feed could of course be allowed lag without any problem.
Another is that it might be strange for the players. They will be ‘playing for the cameras and not the crowd. But who cares? Lots of football (soccer) players run to the cameras to pose for those watching when they score anyway!
A third concern is that some people might during quiet moments shout obscenities. This can happen at regular televised games of course, and hopefully the system can be designed to filter out unexpected noises (like someone new coming into a quiet living room and shouting).
Huge upsides
People miss the Camaraderie, belonging and just the distraction of sporting events. We could all do with something a bit ‘normal’ in our disrupted lives.
Watching sports teams play is much better when there is crowd noise.
I think it would be worth trialling at least, when it is possible to do so.
It would be particularly good for tennis; the crowd noise can be muted leading up to the serve!
Stay safe everyone and keep helping one another get through this!
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