FOX prepared to add virtual fans and crowd noise to NFL broadcasts

[xxjumperxx]

So I have read this over the last couple of days and wanted to maybe get a discussion going if you think this would make the broadcast more interesting?

I have watched the german Bundesliga over the weekend without fans and it just seems weird... no fans, no crowd noises.
Takes away the atmosphere and makes the game almost seem a bit dull.

Of course the noise would only be in the broadcast and not in an empty stadium.

I quote:

It’s pretty much a done deal. I think whoever’s gonna be at that control is going to have to be very good at their job and be realistic with how a crowd would react depending on what just happened on the field. It’s really important. And then on top of that, they’re looking at putting virtual fans in the stands, so when you look at a wide shot, it looks like the stadium is jam-packed, and in fact, it’ll be empty.

So this is pretty much a done deal.

What do you think?
Yay or Nay?

Source: https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/nfl-fox-crowd-noise-covid-19-coronavirus

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[vycl87]

I'm not sure how much this kind of virtual stuff can reflect the truth.
Instead of sound shows, there are hologram applications that are tried and successful in some stadiums. Can the ones that are in the fan image be designed? Or I'm not sure if it can be presented as a continuous show throughout the match.

For example;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOPyalS1Hsw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5hQpRbHERg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQKl4LMu99c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGU51hQSJP8

[ene1980]

I have watched the german Bundesliga over the weekend without fans and it just seems weird... no fans, no crowd noises.
Takes away the atmosphere and makes the game almost seem a bit dull.

Of course the noise would only be in the broadcast and not in an empty stadium.

It is not that weird to play in an empty stadium but if you add noise with the use of speakers then it will be pretty weird. I hate to say this, but i never expected we would see fake reactions but now the broadcasters wanted to add the crowd noise to add the flavor.  I would like to hear the real conversation of the players rather than some fake reactions and with an empty stadium you could clearly hear what the players talk and a good commentary will sort the problem.

[TalkStar]

I have watched the german Bundesliga over the weekend without fans and it just seems weird... no fans, no crowd noises.
Takes away the atmosphere and makes the game almost seem a bit dull.

Completely agree with you,,,As a soccer fan its really boring to watch matches without crowd and noises. Honestly i always prefer to watch my favorite team matches on TV with all my family members and sometimes in stadium with my colleagues. In current pandemic situation most peoples are spending their time on home and sports is the best option of recreation. I don't think any football fan ever think that they will have to watch matches with zero audience in the gallery but reality proves everything wrong due to covid - 19.  

 
Of course the noise would only be in the broadcast and not in an empty stadium.

At least better than nothing. Though its artificial but will definitely give the taste of crowd and fans noises slightly.

[Lakai01]

It is not that weird to play in an empty stadium but if you add noise with the use of speakers then it will be pretty weird.
-snip-

Of course, the sounds would not be heard in the stadium but would only be played during the TV broadcast You can roughly compare this to the clapping and laughing you hear on shows like BigBangTheory.

I must honestly admit that I missed a lot of atmosphere at the games on the weekend, watching the games is not really that exciting when there's no atmosphere in the stadium. So I don't think the step of the artificially created atmosphere is good, if one prefers a silent stadium you could switch off  the volume anyways.

[Sadlife]

This strategy is much more viable than transmitting the virus through large crowds. For now, they need to implement strict procedures in order to not worsen the infected by limiting the people going to sports event for both players and spectators safety.

[tokeweed]

Hah!  Just posted about something like this at the EPL thread.  Can the virtual people be controlled via app by people who bought 'virtual tickets'..?  I think it's something they should be looking into.

[xxjumperxx]

Hah!  Just posted about something like this at the EPL thread.  Can the virtual people be controlled via app by people who bought 'virtual tickets'..?  I think it's something they should be looking into.

Now thats one interesting concept right there!
That would make people be partf of the game in some way.
Nice idea!

[pakhitheboss]

I have watched the german Bundesliga over the weekend without fans and it just seems weird... no fans, no crowd noises.
Takes away the atmosphere and makes the game almost seem a bit dull.

Of course the noise would only be in the broadcast and not in an empty stadium.

It is not that weird to play in an empty stadium but if you add noise with the use of speakers then it will be pretty weird. I hate to say this, but i never expected we would see fake reactions but now the broadcasters wanted to add the crowd noise to add the flavor.  I would like to hear the real conversation of the players rather than some fake reactions and with an empty stadium you could clearly hear what the players talk and a good commentary will sort the problem.

We have been feeded with fake reactions crowd voice for a long time on popular tv shows. The only problem is that those shows were not broadcasted live, therefore the sound editing team were able to perfect it without any issues. On a live match it might get little harder for them. I am sure they might have been working on it to perfect it. There might be few hickups in the beginning but gradually they will improve.

[rhomelmabini]

I think that's a yay than having nothing on a dish.

Hah!  Just posted about something like this at the EPL thread.  Can the virtual people be controlled via app by people who bought 'virtual tickets'..?  I think it's something they should be looking into.

I think that needs a lot of preparation for the management, imagine every virtual people means one resource they should prepare and look how many fans are willing for that virtual tickets unless they require a quota to be sold so they can prepare as early as possible. Hoping not just the people but as well as the sound.

[20kevin20]

It is not that weird to play in an empty stadium but if you add noise with the use of speakers then it will be pretty weird. I hate to say this, but i never expected we would see fake reactions but now the broadcasters wanted to add the crowd noise to add the flavor.  I would like to hear the real conversation of the players rather than some fake reactions and with an empty stadium you could clearly hear what the players talk and a good commentary will sort the problem.

Players are used to hear crowd noise all the time in the middle of matches. I don't think they pay attention too much to it, but it's something they'll certainly feel is missing once they play alone, with nobody on the stadium besides the teams.

Think of how it'd be to go and see a FIFA match live and you'd be the only fan there, all the other seats being silent and empty. Would feel very weird, wouldn't it? That noise is specific to these matches

[Jating]

Why not though? There has been a lot of adjustments with this covid-19 that really messed up everything, including sports fans. But this is better than nothing, and we all know that this is fake, it will be very odd and different at the beginning, but I'm sure everyone will adjust and it can improved overtime.

Hah!  Just posted about something like this at the EPL thread.  Can the virtual people be controlled via app by people who bought 'virtual tickets'..?  I think it's something they should be looking into.

This could be one good idea if implemented properly. So let's see how it goes, we are shock by the virus itself, but people are so resilient that this whole virtual fans and crowd noise will be the "new norm" while we are still in the pandemic.

[ethereumhunter]

I think in this pandemic, we should be familiar with the event that might re-schedule. The event will not have an audience, fans, and there will be no noise as we have seen before. I think that is the way that they should do to prevent the spreading of the virus if the situations are not back to normal again. As long as people can be safe from the virus, I think the event can go on without any noise. At least we can watch the event from our home with our family.

[vycl87]

I think in this pandemic, we should be familiar with the event that might re-schedule. The event will not have an audience, fans, and there will be no noise as we have seen before. I think that is the way that they should do to prevent the spreading of the virus if the situations are not back to normal again. As long as people can be safe from the virus, I think the event can go on without any noise. At least we can watch the event from our home with our family.

I think that it is temporary to play without spectators. Even if the disease is not vaccinated, treatment methods will be revealed soon. When normalization begins, normalization will begin in sports competitions as in everything. At this point we have reached today, the first steps have already been taken in the name of normalization. We had nice matches in Bundesliga last weekend. I hope we will have a chance to watch more games with June.

[South Park]

So I have read this over the last couple of days and wanted to maybe get a discussion going if you think this would make the broadcast more interesting?

I have watched the german Bundesliga over the weekend without fans and it just seems weird... no fans, no crowd noises.
Takes away the atmosphere and makes the game almost seem a bit dull.

Of course the noise would only be in the broadcast and not in an empty stadium.

I quote:

It’s pretty much a done deal. I think whoever’s gonna be at that control is going to have to be very good at their job and be realistic with how a crowd would react depending on what just happened on the field. It’s really important. And then on top of that, they’re looking at putting virtual fans in the stands, so when you look at a wide shot, it looks like the stadium is jam-packed, and in fact, it’ll be empty.

So this is pretty much a done deal.

What do you think?
Yay or Nay?

Source: https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/nfl-fox-crowd-noise-covid-19-coronavirus

This is definitely a very interesting proposal, over the several decades that I have watched sports I have seen many matches without public in attendance and without a doubt the atmosphere is lost, but this is a very rare occurrence and doesn't last long, however we are facing the very real possibility that when we finally get sports back in action most of them are going to be without any public so I find this measure very interesting and I think it is a step in the right direction.

Hah!  Just posted about something like this at the EPL thread.  Can the virtual people be controlled via app by people who bought 'virtual tickets'..?  I think it's something they should be looking into.

That will be awesome but honestly it will be very difficult to pull off successfully.

[Juggy777]

So I have read this over the last couple of days and wanted to maybe get a discussion going if you think this would make the broadcast more interesting?

I have watched the german Bundesliga over the weekend without fans and it just seems weird... no fans, no crowd noises.
Takes away the atmosphere and makes the game almost seem a bit dull.

Of course the noise would only be in the broadcast and not in an empty stadium.

I quote:

It’s pretty much a done deal. I think whoever’s gonna be at that control is going to have to be very good at their job and be realistic with how a crowd would react depending on what just happened on the field. It’s really important. And then on top of that, they’re looking at putting virtual fans in the stands, so when you look at a wide shot, it looks like the stadium is jam-packed, and in fact, it’ll be empty.

So this is pretty much a done deal.

What do you think?
Yay or Nay?

Source: https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/nfl-fox-crowd-noise-covid-19-coronavirus

This is definitely a very interesting proposal, over the several decades that I have watched sports I have seen many matches without public in attendance and without a doubt the atmosphere is lost, but this is a very rare occurrence and doesn't last long, however we are facing the very real possibility that when we finally get sports back in action most of them are going to be without any public so I find this measure very interesting and I think it is a step in the right direction.

@xxjumperxx I’ll second that as for the entire duration of the match it felt to me like my television was on mute mode, and furthermore it definitely felt weird to watch the match without the fans noise. Also I have one question what happens if the person controlling it is a fan of one team, and hates the other team won’t this mess up the experience of the fans who’re watching it from home?.

[dothebeats]

I'm pretty sure there exists a technology wherein they can make it look like the stadium is fully-packed and emulate the noises done by those same fans. Just to make the game a little bit homey and not deserted and desolated as it would turn out if they'd just show the players playing it out. Sure, it will not be the same as the original NFL games but at the least it gets the gears going by providing an atmosphere that fans at home are familiar with.

It's better than giving out tickets to fans and letting them contract the virus and possibly cause a chain reaction of disease transmission.

[Lakai01]

I'm pretty sure there exists a technology wherein they can make it look like the stadium is fully-packed and emulate the noises done by those same fans.

The technology certainly exists, yes. The comparison is a bit misleading, but if you look at how well the fans are animated at current FIFA games and how good the atmosphere is, I assume that this is also possible for TV broadcasts.

But the art is to create the right fan scenery at the right time (goal celebration, indignation with red cards, ...). This is relatively easy with computer games, but I imagine it to be much more difficult with TV broadcasts. So I don't assume - especially because of the short preparation time - that we will see something similar here, but "only" cheers etc.

[20kevin20]

I'm pretty sure there exists a technology wherein they can make it look like the stadium is fully-packed and emulate the noises done by those same fans. Just to make the game a little bit homey and not deserted and desolated as it would turn out if they'd just show the players playing it out. Sure, it will not be the same as the original NFL games but at the least it gets the gears going by providing an atmosphere that fans at home are familiar with.

It's better than giving out tickets to fans and letting them contract the virus and possibly cause a chain reaction of disease transmission.

I doubt they're going to add virtual fans for players to also see on the stadium so it's probably a quite easy job to do this using CGI. Place a little QR code or something (just an example - things may be even easier than that) on each seat and make them all turn into virtual fans when recorded live.

Fans watching those events don't spend that much of their time looking at spectators only. As soon as there is at least a partial feeling that the stadium is filled up, it's fine. But empty seats would make it odd and look like a rehearsal

[ene1980]

~snip
Of course, the sounds would not be heard in the stadium but would only be played during the TV broadcast You can roughly compare this to the clapping and laughing you hear on shows like BigBangTheory.

When i used to watch WWE they usually used to add fake reactions inside the stadium and they usually edit the audience from other shows if they had empty space in the arena. It would be weird if they add audience from the past matches and edit as well as old chanting  . Thinking about the situation is really odd, let me watch the match and then make a decision. In UFC it was a different experience without audience as you could hear every punch thrown.

if one prefers a silent stadium you could switch off  the volume anyways.

It would be great to hear the commentary but hopefully not the fake chanting .

~snip
Players are used to hear crowd noise all the time in the middle of matches. I don't think they pay attention too much to it, but it's something they'll certainly feel is missing once they play alone, with nobody on the stadium besides the teams.

Think of how it'd be to go and see a FIFA match live and you'd be the only fan there, all the other seats being silent and empty. Would feel very weird, wouldn't it? That noise is specific to these matches

Definitely the players will miss the crowd, think about all the over the top reactions and celebrations after scoring a goal and if there are no audience then it will look odd  .  I prefer sporting events without an audience than not having anything at all.