Scoring Points: Fake Fans and Artificial Crowd Noise: A New Staple?

Luckily, for all of us die hard fans, professional sports are starting to return in some shape or form. Yet, with this return has come the emergence of fake fans and artificial crowd noise.

What I mean by this if you have not been able to watch any games since the restart of the major sports seasons is that, MLB teams are pumping in fake crowd noise through their speakers and into the empty stadium. In some of those stadiums there are cardboard cutouts placed in the seats behind home plate and such of real fans of the team, to combat the effect of seeing an empty stadium on TV.

In the NBA, teams are pumping in fake crowd noise and banter just as the MLB. However, they are using artificial fans through the use of the video board and AI technology to show live video of fans from home and cool things like that.

Personally, I think that the fake fans and artificial crowd noise is working out really well for some teams and really bad for others.

For instance, the cardboard cutouts are kind of a cool thing to see and, if you want one for yourself, you can go online and apply and upload a picture of yourself and pay to see yourself as a cardboard cutout on TV.

The fake crowd noise actually works pretty well for all teams, just because it helps keep any dullness from coming up on the broadcast. It is definitely a little weird because you can for sure tell that it is fake noise coming through the speakers, but I have watched games with and without it and I can tell you that you definitely want to watch a game with fake crowd noise over one with no noise.

Where it gets really weird for me is the way the NBA digitally puts fans in seats. When I first saw it, it reminded me of an old NBA2K video game made in the 1990s where everything was pixelated and you could not make out any faces. I guess at the end of the day it’s better than looking at an empty stadium, but in my opinion the NBA could take a few notes from the MLB.

 

 

Check out more of Jake West’s Scoring Points by reading last week’s article: With football pushed back, what happens to basketball?. Also remember, in sports, points are scored by both sides, so send in your opinions on sports to info@fetchyournews.com and see them in our next Sunday Edition.