Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Augmented Crowd Sound Gears Up for New Sports Seasons

12/01/2021

Augmented Crowd Sound Gears Up for New Sports Seasons Fledgling audio-industry sector ponders relevance in a post-COVID landscape By Dan Daley, Audio Editor

Tuesday, January 12, 2021 - 10:48 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

Last year, enhanced-crowd-sound systems helped make sports during COVID seem almost normal. This year, they're poised to do the same - and, perhaps, more.

Having provided the NBA's 2020 season what was widely regarded as a highly authentic-sounding augmented crowd-sound experience, Firehouse Productions is reprising that role for basketball in the 2021 season, which began in December, and is doing the same for the NHL's new season, scheduled to tip off on Jan. 13.

Last year, both leagues played their seasons in so-called bubbles: the NBA in a multi-court venue in Orlando and the NHL in two venues, in Ottawa and Winnipeg. This year, their games will be played in the teams' home venues, and that has brought about a change in deployment and operation of Firehouse Productions' crowd-sound systems. Instead of three or four operators working a pair of iPads and two Launchpads, a crowd-sound mixer at each venue will be working solo on two Launchpad system controllers.

This year, all NBA teams are pumping the crowd audio through the venue PA systems, with some acquiring -through either purchase or rental - additional PA boxes focused on the arena's courts, to energize the athletes. Among other changes this season is that use and operation of augmented crowd sounds are being left to individual teams' discretion, versus being under the control of the league last season.

Working remotely at Fox Studios' Los Angeles facility, Sonofans mixers handle augmented crowd sound for a USC game at United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The NHL, which last year used a crowd-sound system developed by EA Sports and other partners, will use the same Launchpad-based controller as the NBA, with audio sources coming from Firehouse Productions' own vault of venue- and team-specific recordings. That sound will be played through the hockey arenas' existing PA systems, which will not use additional PA components to augment the venue sound.

Both leagues have mandated that the virtualized crowd sound be played as part of game-broadcast audio.

According to Firehouse Productions VP Mark Dittmar, about half of NBA teams have augmented their PA systems with court-facing speakers, in some cases with high-end concert-level systems.

You're trying to get the sound up to around 105 dB from 150 ft. away, he says, so you need a pretty powerful system. The NHL crowd sound will be played just from the arena's existing center-cluster PA systems facing out onto the stands from below the scoreboards.

He adds that the main challenge this season is less about applying its crowd-sound solution to an entirely new sport - hockey - than about readying the system for both leagues' playing in a combined 60-plus arenas and curating the appropriate sounds for each of them in a highly compressed time span.

We had three months to put together the systems for the NBA [bubble] last year; we had more like two weeks to get ready for everyone playing at home this year, he says. We had to train more mixers and provide technical support for them, too. And we had to develop more content, because the teams wanted more team-specific content, like chants and songs, and the sound design for the NBA and NHL is very different. The teams want to be able to try different things with the crowd sounds, so we're giving them options.

Streamlining the System Unlike Firehouse Productions, which existed before COVID-19, Los Angeles-based Sonofans was largely a product of the pandemic, founded by Fred Vogler, a multiple-Grammy Award-winning audio engineer and mixer who had been working as principal sound designer and FOH mixer for the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall, among other roles. For him, fanless sports presented an opportunity, one that he quickly leveraged into producing the virtualized crowd sound for much of the MLB's postseason, including the World Series, and for most of Fox Sports' main NFL games during the past season, as well as some collegiate football, professional bowling, and the Mike Tyson-Roy Jones Jr. eight-round exhibition match in late November at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Sonofans' crowd-sound platform uses Ableton Live as the software engine; Akai triggering pads let two-person audio teams access team-, league- and venue-specific content from Apple Mac Mini computers and an array of hard drives. Vogler has also found ways to streamline the platform and make it more productive and efficient as it enters its second set of sports seasons. That includes adding pedals to the triggering pads, essentially letting a single operator have an additional hand or two to keep the audio tightly responsive to the action on the field or court.

We've been looking at how we can reduce the number of operators needed and other system requirements, to make it more cost-effective, he explains. How we can make one person be able to do more, as long as the randomizing feature in the software keeps it from sounding the same.

vCROWD Meets AI UK-based Salsa Sound - which began life as a developer of automated audio mixing and augmented field-sound effects for broadcasters and such sports teams as the Premier League's Manchester City - has extended its portfolio to include providing crowd sounds for U.S. sports teams and leagues -MLS and USL soccer, the NWSL (for which the company supplied crowd sound for CBS's Challenge Cup broadcasts) - as well as for the Big Ten Network's hockey, football, and men's and women's basketball. According to Rob Oldfield, co-founder/CEO, Salsa Soun
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2021/01/12/augmented-crowd-sound-gears-up-...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

15/04/2026

BBC World Service TV Selects Open Broadcast Systems IP Decoders for Global Distribution

Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BBC World Service has selected its IP ...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: LiveU Expands Collaboration with Sony to Include File-Based Workflow Integration

LiveU has announced an expansion of its collaboration with Sony Corporation, add...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: Ateme and NVIDIA Announce Immersive Video Workflow for Apple Vision Pro

Ateme has announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to support live Apple Immersive ...

15/04/2026

Professional Fighters League Renews Multi-Year Partnership with DAZN DACH

The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced a multi-year partnership renewal with DAZN DACH, covering Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, and...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: Canon Sets New Benchmark with CINE-SERVO 40-1200m Lens; New Remote Camera Controller Supports Up to 200 Cameras

Canon U.S.A. (NAB Booth C3825) today took the lid off of the CINE-SERVO 40-1200m...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: Panasonic and NEP Group to Demonstrate KAIROS and NEP Platform Integration

Panasonic Video and Audio Systems North America and NEP Group will demonstrate a...

15/04/2026

Exclusive Wasabi Report: AI Spending Is Surging, But ROI Tells a Different Story

For the fourth year running, independent analysts found businesses across all industries and verticals pay roughly the same amount in fees as they spend on stor...

15/04/2026

NBC Sports to Broadcast The Soccer Tournament Live on NBC, Peacock, and NBCSN, May 30-June 1

The Soccer Tournament (TST) has announced a media rights deal with NBC Sports to...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: JB&A Announces Exhibitors for Pre-NAB 2026 Technology Event

JB&A will host the Pre-NAB 2026 Technology Event on April 17-18 at Flamingo Las Vegas, ahead of NAB Show. The event features hands-on demonstrations and technic...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: Sennheiser Group to Exhibit with Spectera and AMBEO Updates

The Sennheiser Group will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth 4931, Central Hall), with demonstrations from Sennheiser, Neumann, and Merging across three areas: Rel...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: NAB Show 2026 to Feature Expanded AI, Sports, and Creator Economy Programming

NAB Show 2026 will take place April 18-22 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, wi...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: AI-Media Launches LEXI Text Encoder and LEXI Voice Encoder

AI-Media has announced the LEXI Text Encoder and LEXI Voice Encoder at NAB Show 2026, the company's first new encoder hardware release in more than a decade...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: Cartoni Debuts New Camera Support Products

Italian camera support manufacturer Cartoni will introduce several new products at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C6540, Central Hall), including the Master 30 OB fluid h...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: Lawo and swXtch.io Sign MOU to Explore groundSwXtch Integration

Lawo and swXtch.io have announced a memorandum of understanding at NAB Show 2026, under which Lawo will explore incorporating swXtch.io's groundSwXtch softw...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: CacheFly to Demonstrate New CDN Features

CacheFly will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth W3129, April 19-22, Las Vegas Convention Center), showcasing three new additions to its content delivery platform:...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026: Synamedia Launches GO Shorts for Mobile-First Short-Form Video

Synamedia has announced GO Shorts, a new module within its Synamedia Go OTT platform that uses AI to convert an operator's existing content library into a s...

15/04/2026

NAB 2026 Preview, Central Hall: Everything You Need To Know Heading Into the Show

The NAB Show kicks off on Saturday, and the SVG and SVG Europe editorial teams a...

15/04/2026

AJA Video Systems to Acquire Video Encoding Software Company Comprimato

AJA Video Systems has announced an agreement to acquire Comprimato, a live video encoding and processing software company. The deal will unite the two companies...

15/04/2026

NBA Playoffs 2026: Prime Vision, Prime Insights Offer New Data-Driven Experiences for NBA Fans

Prime Video Sports' NBA Playoffs coverage, which includes the entire SoFi NB...

15/04/2026

Top Live-Sound-System Manufacturers Team Up To Better Manage Stadium Noise

Just announced, the SDE standard provides a unified method and file format to ensure consistent and reliably comparable noise predictions Sports and entertainm...

15/04/2026

Spotify Podcast Awards Return to Celebrate Latin America's Most Influential Voices

From immersive storytelling to laugh-out-loud comedies, podcasts are booming in ...

15/04/2026

Spotify Expands Audiobook Features, and Printed Book Sales Go Live in the US and UK

Books have always moved with us, whether tucked in our bags or humming in our he...

15/04/2026

Spotify and NIVA Partner to Support Independent Venues Across the US

For many artists, independent venues are where music careers begin and fan communities take shape. Independent venue operators work hard every day to keep local...

15/04/2026

Spotify Editors Reveal Their Picks for Best Book of the Century (So Far)

From gripping thrillers to poignant memoirs, the 21st century has had no shortage of unforgettable books. To celebrate the standout storytelling of our modern e...

15/04/2026

SonicWorld introduce Telsie T

Vintage broadcast experts release second plug-in Telsie T is the second plug-in to be released by SonicWorld, a German audio company who specialise in servi...

15/04/2026

UAD Explore Free from Universal Audio

Includes eight free UAD plug-ins Universal Audio's latest bundle brings together a selection of their renowned plug-ins and virtual instruments, and is ...

15/04/2026

Maximum uptime for broadcasters: Rohde & Schwarz launches R&SBroadcastShield at NAB 2026

Maximum uptime for broadcasters: Rohde & Schwarz launches R&S BroadcastShield at...

15/04/2026

WIDOW: The Mission Software Defining Rotary Strike

Image courtesy of MD Helicopters...

15/04/2026

L3Harris Announces Billion Dollar Expansion to Boost Solid Rocket Motor Production in Orange County, Virginia

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, L3Harris VP Mark Farley, and state and local l...

15/04/2026

Advancing America's Space Defense: L3Harris Completes Critical Milestone on Way to Delivering GBOSS Capability to the Warfighter

U.S. Space Forces Ground-Based Optical Sensor System upgrade at the Maui Space S...

15/04/2026

Winter Olympics, Super Bowl Power NBCU-Versant to Gold Medal Performance in Nielsen's February Gauge Reports

NBCU-Versant notches 13.1% of TV viewing in February, its best since August 2024...

15/04/2026

Nielsen CMI shows New Zealand's over-65s are a growing, cashed-up and still-working audience brands can't ignore

New data reveals older Kiwis are financially resilient, loyal to local products,...

15/04/2026

aconnic launches ACCEED 4430 10 Gigabit system for high volume enterprise and business service aggregation

aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, announces the market launch of the ACCE...

15/04/2026

Autocue to Mark 2026 NAB Show Debut of its New PTZ Prompter

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Locality Deploys Nielsen's Media Data Engine

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Viant Announces Agreement to Acquire TVision

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Evergent introduces Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platfor...

Evergent introduces its Agentic Revenue Orchestration Platform, transforming how subscription businesses across direct-to-consumer streaming, pay-TV, telecommun...

15/04/2026

CentralCast Delivers Breakthrough Efficiencies to Public...

Harmonic's XOS Media Processor Delivers Exceptional Video Quality to More than Half of U.S. Public Media Viewership Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announce...

15/04/2026

DPA N Series Wireless System Unlocks Duplex Gap and Guard...

LONGMONT, COLORADO, APRIL 15, 2026 DPA Microphones N Series Digital Wireless System users in North America can now take full advantage of the system's exc...

15/04/2026

Cobalt Iron Launches Compass Tape Gateway Modernizing IBM...

Cobalt Iron, a leading provider of SaaS-based enterprise data protection, today announced the launch of Compass Tape Gateway (CTG), a transformative enhancemen...

15/04/2026

Disguise to Showcase Cutting-Edge Experience Tech for Sports, Broadcast and More at NAB 2026

Disguise to Showcase Cutting-Edge Experience Tech for Sports, Broadcast and More...

15/04/2026

Arooj Aftab Makes the Music She Wants to Hear

Arooj Aftab Makes the Music She Wants to Hear The singular artist explores the juxtaposition of grief and joy, dark and light, in her distinctive sound. Apri...

15/04/2026

Panasonic, NEP Partner on IP-Based Live Production

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

15/04/2026

Encompass Digital Media Powers Global Cloud Transformatio...

Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, is proud to announce its central role in the digital trans...