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 ...
13/11/2026
The UIM E1 Series wraps its third season this week with the Bombay Sapphire E1 Miami GP, Nov. 11-14, on Biscayne Bay at the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island...
13/11/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
13/11/2026
Singer-songwriter Benson Boone will headline entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic between the Utah Mammoth and Colorado Avalanche at Rice-Eccles St...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone, a 7th order ambisonic microphone array that captures spatial audio for immersive video prod...
13/11/2026
SMPTE has announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infrastructure and communications technology for the Solutions Hub at t...
13/11/2026
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) has announced the theme and program focus for the 2027 HPA Tech Retreat, which takes place Feb. 14-18, 2027, in La ...
13/11/2026
Football Manager 27 Touch is available on Apple Arcade starting today. The game ...
13/11/2026
MotoGP has announced a two-year media rights agreement with ESPN covering the Un...
13/11/2026
Apple Sports, the free iPhone app, has added the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to its lineup of supported sports, in time for Saturday's UFC 334. The...
13/11/2026
The NBA and Fanatics Studios, the joint venture between Fanatics and entertainme...
13/11/2026
ESPN held its annual EDGE Innovation Conference last night and offered up an ove...
13/11/2026
Regional sports network gives Ithaca College, SUNY Cortland students a platform to thrive
One of the biggest games in Division III college football will be pla...
13/11/2026
Studer-inspired 500-series PWM compressor unveiled
The HLabs range already includes a couple of Studer-inspired offerings in the form of the PRE169 and EQ16...
13/11/2026
Download Now!
To view the white paper, please enter the following details:
--
First Name* First Name
Company*
Country* Please select your countryA...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Blue Lucy, the workflow orchestration and integration platform for broadcasters, rights owners and localisation companies, today announced an integration with c...
13/11/2026
Krotos announces Black Friday offers on Studio Pro and Studio Max
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
First-year annual plans start at US$195.99...
13/11/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Ambisonic Microphone
Brie Clayton November 12, 2026
0 Comments
New 7th order ambisonic microphone with 108 MEMS...
13/11/2026
Meet the Berklee Student Setting Planetary Motion to Music With his compositional platform SoniKosmos, Javier Roqueni aims to make the universe the ultimate i...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , er...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Share
{alert(Link copied)}).catch(err => {console.error(Failed to copy: , err)}) data-platform=copy_link data-action= class=font-ui-heading py-2 text-sm tex...
13/11/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud company, today announced a partnership with Golden Times Media Technology (stock code 920021.BJ), a Beijing-based media and tech...
13/11/2026
CGI (TSX: GIB.A) (NYSE: GIB), one of the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world, together with its Malaysian partner, Cedar ...
13/11/2026
SMPTE, the home for media professionals, technologists and engineers, today announced that The Studio B&H and Riedel Communications will provide the video infra...
13/11/2026
iWedia, a global leader in connected TV software solutions, will present its software-first approach to DRAM optimization at Android TV APAC Summit 2026 in Bang...
13/11/2026
Beginning today, November 13, Apple HomeView is available for purchase at Apple Store locations, on the Apple Store online, and in the Apple Store app in select...
13/11/2026
From pediatric research to smart hospitals, AI is helping care teams spend less time on routine tasks and more time with patients.
Health systems and startups...
12/11/2026
Industry leaders examine how Dynamic Media Facility, Media eXchange Layer, and c...
12/11/2026
The junior Tar Heel is embracing the technical and creative challenges of live production while emerging as a leader and mentor in the control room...
12/11/2026
Gracenote, Nielsen's content intelligence business, has released its fifth a...
12/11/2026
RTL Deutschland will bring the NHL to free-to-air TV in Germany starting Nov. 30...
12/11/2026
Clear-Com supported On Air 2026, a 24-hour student-led broadcast connecting 45 u...
12/11/2026
uniqFEED has opened a Remote Operations Center (ROC) in Madrid, Spain. It is already operational, delivering virtual advertising for LaLiga matches. The ROC is ...
12/11/2026
Disney, ESPN and the NBA will present Dunk the Halls, the third real-time animated NBA game using Sony's Beyond Sports data visualization technology, on Chr...
12/11/2026
Van Wagner has launched Van Wagner RELAY, a digital platform for official athlet...
12/11/2026
Deal brings together two of the industry's most established graphics brands and significantly expands Vizrt's footprint in U.S. sports and regional broa...
12/11/2026
Euro TV Production GmbH of Austria has upgraded its outside broadcast vehicle with Lawo technology. The mc 36 Classic console in service since 2019 was replaced...
12/11/2026
Tagboard has launched Spark Resize, an AI-assisted tool now in beta that takes an existing graphic and produces a new version for a different aspect ratio or sc...
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 
