NHL, NBA Resurrect Augmented Crowd Sound for Canadian Venues Some teams opt for empty seats as provinces mandate capacity limits By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, January 27, 2022 - 9:57 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Several Canadian NHL teams, including the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators, and the NBA's Toronto Raptors will be playing in front of no crowds or much smaller audiences at home for the foreseeable future. That has put the COVID-engendered audio category of augmented crowd sound back in play, at least in the Great White North.
The restrictions are based on province-mandated COVID policies. At the end of December, the Ontario government announced a limit on the number of people allowed in an arena: 1,000 or 50% of capacity, whichever is less. The Leafs and Raptors, owned by the same company, quickly responded, announcing that no fans would be admitted to any of its teams' venues.
This has prompted the resurrection of augmented-crowd-sound audio, innovative systems that were rushed into service by a number of companies after the onset of the pandemic but had been silent for most of 2021 as venues once again allowed fans into games.
The NHL's Toronto Maple Leafs are among the Canadian teams that will be playing in empty or capacity-limited venues.
Firehouse Productions, which was one of the first with such solutions in the market in 2020 and notably developed the crowd-sound systems used in the NBA's bubble in Orlando during that year's disrupted season, says it has shipped seven of its crowd-sound systems to Canadian professional sports teams, including the Maple Leafs and Raptors (the latter are allowed to play in their home arena this season, having spent the previous season in Florida) and the Montreal Canadiens. However, not all of those teams have deployed the systems for their game broadcasts.
Although the audience restrictions at games are based on local-government regulations, the request for crowd-sound systems came from the league, according to Firehouse Productions VP Mark Dittmar, who designed the system.
[The league] reached out to us about a month ago and said, We think this is coming,' and asked if we could put the systems together, he says. We worked on getting them up to the teams so that, if it happened, we weren't frantically overnighting things. And we did some training with various [operators] to get them back up to speed on it.
The Need for Speed The system, the same one Firehouse Productions developed for the NHL last season, is designed to be operated by a single user working a pair of Novation Launchpad controllers, whose individual touchpads activate prerecorded crowd sounds ranging in intensity from background murmurs to loud reactions to on-ice moments, such as scores and near-misses. The sound is played through each arena's installed PA system and picked up on-air through the broadcast's ambient and crowd microphones.
The NHL's system is distinct from the one the company devised for the NBA two years ago. That one had two mixers on the Launchpad devices as well as another mixer controlling the overall levels of games and a DJ playing music cues from an iPad at key moments.
We were using the template from the NBA but realized that hockey is a significantly faster game [than basketball] and the audience responds at a significantly faster pace, Dittmar explains. We had to do a lot of editing to get things to pop at the speed they needed to, as well as come up with new sounds with a lot of it.
The NHL crowd-sound system takes into account the very specific crowd dynamics of hockey, whose reactions he says tend to wax and wane en masse. The NBA system, on the other hand, has more nuances built in, such as effects like air balls and thundersticks, and call-and-response interplay between the stands and the DJ or the arena announcer. It also has the ability to hear the occasional individual voice, something the higher-decibel ambience of a hockey rink rarely allows.
Dittmar notes that the NHL system also doesn't have as much baseline-customization per team as the NBA's, partly due to its streamlined operation for the sport's speed. However, he adds, once the initial two weeks of system implementation and operator training are finished, teams can send requests for specific crowd sounds, such as chants and reactions, which Firehouse Productions' staff will develop into an audio file that can be emailed back to the system operator.
On average, [the NHL system] has to react faster, so we designed it for a single operator, he says. But we've taken all of our experience on this type of system and refined it even further. When they need it, it'll be ready.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
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, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/03/2026
How Chris Bolte Builds the Sound of PlayStation Games Chris Bolte '16 is a technical sound designer at Sucker Punch Productions, where he helps create the...
18/03/2026
Newly named chief product officer (CPO), Larissa G rner Meeus will return to Net Insight on May 4.
Larissa G rner Meeus will become CPO of Net Insight on May 4...
18/03/2026
SVG Europe's The Football Summit 2026 explored how the sports broadcasting i...
18/03/2026
The 2026 NAB Show kicks off one month from today and SVG is once again set to cover the show from every angle. SVG's SportsTech@NAB Show Blog is now live - ...
18/03/2026
(L-R) The cast and crew of Dead Lover at The Ray Theater for its premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo by Robin Marshall/Shutterstock for Sundan...
18/03/2026
Yamaha C7 captured in Nashville
Wiltone Productions have announced the release of Music Row Piano, a deeply sampled Yamaha C7 piano library that's been ...
18/03/2026
Bass-enhancement plug-in upgraded
Along with a steady stream of new releases, Techivation have recently been revisiting some of the older plug-ins in their ...
18/03/2026
Mix-reference plug-in overhauled
iZotope's powerful mix-referencing plug-in has just reached its third major version, and now boasts a new capture proce...
18/03/2026
Latest EZKeys 2 expansion arrives
Toontrack's staggering collection of EZKeys 2 expansions has grown once again, and the latest instalment delivers a on...
18/03/2026
Jess Ho explores the politics of food in new SBS Audio podcast For The Culture
18 March, 2026
Media releases
New SBS Audio podcast For The Culture, hosted ...
18/03/2026
Future-ready broadcasts with ATSC 3.0 and enhanced services from Rohde & Schwarz...
18/03/2026
London Calling - When The Industry Convened to Help Streaming Find its MoJo In this blog, Laura Rognoni reflects on key discussions from the Connected TV World...
18/03/2026
SMPTE Unveils 2026 NAB Show Educational Presentations
Brie Clayton March 18, 2026
0 Comments
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, a...
18/03/2026
Auditel Ad Campaign Shot on Blackmagic PYXIS 12K
Brie Clayton March 18, 2026
0 Comments
LED wall virtual production blends 12K open gate acquisition w...
18/03/2026
Brainstorm transforms productivity and sustainability with Suite 7 at NAB Show 2...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/03/2026
SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, and engineers, today unveiled its educational presentations for the 2026 NAB Show. This year SMPTE will ...
18/03/2026
Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects, gaming, and more, today ann...
18/03/2026
Digital Alert Systems
Preview
2026 NAB Show
April 19 - 22
Booth C3452
At the 2026 NAB Show, Digital Alert Systems will showcase Version 6.0 of its DASDEC ...
18/03/2026
Setplex today announced that it will showcase its complete, fully integrated Zapflex platform for the first time at the 2026 NAB Show, introducing powerful new ...
18/03/2026
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT RELATES TO THE DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION THAT QUALIFIED OR MAY HAVE QUALIFIED AS INSIDE INFORMATION WITHIN THE MEANING OF ARTICLE 7(1) OF THE ...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking DP for Low Budget Dramedy - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Director of Photography for Low Budget Dramedy Fe...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking Gaffer for Low Budget Dramedy - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Gaffer for Low Budget Dramedy Feature Film- I...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking Location, Sound for Low Budget Dramedy - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Location/Sound for Low Budget Dramed...
18/03/2026
COW Jobs: Seeking Child Wrangler for Low Budget Film - Chicago
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
Seeking Child Wrangler for Low Budget Dramedy Fe...
18/03/2026
Calrec Redefines Broadcast Workflows at NAB 2026 with its Most Powerful Hardware...
18/03/2026
Oscar Nominated Two People Exchanging Saliva Posted with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton March 17, 2026
0 Comments
DaVinci Resolve Studio handle...
18/03/2026
Boston Conservatory Presents Celebrated Musical Satire Urinetown Performances for this Center Stage production will take place at Boston Conservatory Theater ...
18/03/2026
Charlie Puth Joins Switched on Pop at Berklee NYC The Berklee alum spoke with host and Berklee NYC professor Charlie Harding for a live taping, answering audi...
18/03/2026
X-Rite Pantone Demonstrates Advanced Color Management Solutions to Support Smart...
18/03/2026
Wednesday 18 March 2026
BAFTA winner James McAvoy to star in Sky Original serie...
18/03/2026
Wednesday 18 March 2026
Sky Sports and Zuffa Boxing announce multi-year agreement for the UK and Ireland
Sky Sports and Zuffa Boxing have announced a new mult...
18/03/2026
Wednesday 18 March 2026
Sky Unveils Poster and Trailer for Original Feature Fil...
NHL, NBA Resurrect Augmented Crowd Sound for Canadian Venues Some teams opt for empty seats as provinces mandate capacity limits By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
