Broadcast
When elite sports resumed without spectators, broadcasters and major leagues weighed the value of adding back artificial crowds. While US sports have gone full Disney with animated packed houses, Europe’s broadcasters have been more conservative in blurring the boundary between fact and fake. Now we know that fans could be excluded for the entire 2020-21 season, the goal is to increase the community feel and connection between clubs and broadcasters on the one side with their fanbase and particularly paying subscribers.
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Virtual fan experiments have gravitated from rudimentary cardboard cut outs in the stands to pitch side LEDs displaying thousands of fans on Zoom link, pioneered by a Danish league match in May.
The concept has become more sophisticated. The NBA and NFL, for example, are using Microsoft Teams to live stream fans using webcams and smartphones onto giant video boards at the venue. The NBA settled on a bank of 320 virtual spectators on 17-foot video boards located behind the teams’ benches and at the ends of the court, as being the best visual experience – neither too big nor too small.
Fans are also encouraged to ‘cheer’ by clicking on a logo of their team on the NBA app, an action represented by graphics on screens at the sport’s Covid biosphere in Orlando – incidentally part of the Disney World resort.
Since the NFL’s return in September select games are being accompanied by a Fan Mosaic of 30 home club fans displayed on stadiums screens and broadcast. These fans see a dual-screen display of the live game next to a gallery view of fellow fans. Each fan video feed is isolated and mixed into the Fan Mosaic display.
The WWE has gone further. Up to a thousand virtual fans are dropped into a giant matrix and displayed on screens that forms the entire backdrop to the wrestling bout.
“Perhaps more than any other sport, wrestling depends on that back and forth interaction with the audience. Without that you miss out on the whole dynamic,” says Tom Shelburne, Director of Sales & Business Development, Pixotope - part of The Future Group, whose technology processes and synchronizes the individual video-conferenced feeds.
Beginning in July, Fox Sports’ MLB broadcasts have carpeted stadia like Wrigley Fields in CG crowds. The technology unites camera tracking technology from Sports Media Technologies (SMT), virtual graphics designed by Silver Spoon and realtime graphics processing from Pixotope based on Unreal Engine 3D. The result allows thousands of fans to be dynamically created, controlled and synched with the live pictures with between 2 and 8 frames delay.
“Fox acknowledge this is not real but what they’re doing is giving the viewer a much better experience,” says Shelburne. “We can add 42,000 unique individuals. We can change the colour of their clothing, make them sit, stand, jump, cheer, do high fives or wave. We can alter the density of the audience. Even the shadow of the sun during the live game is taken into account to light the CG crowd.”
Reaction has been mixed. Much of the response on Twitter is consistent with this from @RomeVanLara2: ‘This is so stupid. Same with fake noise. Are we incapable of dealing with reality of empty stadiums?’
Others are more appreciate of the effort. “If Fox Sports didn’t see a positive outcome to it they would have stopped after the first couple of games,” says Shelburne. “Instead, they carried it over to the NFL [Fox is adding the same tech to its NFL broadcasts] and into their entertainment division as well. So, they are seeing a real value to this.
“We’ve seen our competitors try to deliver this virtual fan experience and it comes across like Wii characters. Anyone can deliver a virtual experience but not everyone can make it photoreal. If you move the camera around the field and the crowd is misaligned even slightly, the illusion falls apart.”
Fox is also hoping the augmented reality can open new in-game advertising opportunities. “We’ve not gone live yet, but we have tested how sports can make a return on investment,” says Shelburne, who admits that the technology is expensive. “For example, we can make everyone wear a red jersey and white hat in Coke branding or have them flip a card over to spell out a branded message. We could have a Coke bottle virtually pop out of a jumbrotron and have soda flowing over the stadium.”
Elsewhere, NFL sponsor Budlight has created a special Showtime cam which puts the spotlight on fans from the Fan Mosaic and fan tweets on LED screens installed at each end zone after a touchdown.
Similar intimate relationships between the game and its advertisers (especially alcohol) are still kept at arms’ length in Europe and is one reason why cricket, football and rugby remain shorn of the CG razamatazz – for now.
“The UK market is quite entrenched in what it’s used to seeing and doesn’t respond well to what they perceive as more gimmicky simulations,” says Nick Moody, Executive Producer, Sunset+Vine. “US sports tend to be a lot more driven by data and graphics and therefore busier on screen. Audiences there are more willing to accept virtual fans into their production than we are culturally in the UK. It’s expensive to do it well and I’m not sure it really gives us much of an enhanced experience.”
Before ‘Project Restart’ the Premier League were presented with a number of options by the broadcasters to shake up presentation. These included micing up the referees (as in rugby union), 360-degree replays, subs being interviewed during match play and a new tactical camera feed.
“Not many came to fruition for various reasons,” says Moody. “We’ve managed to get an extra camera in the tunnel for EPL matches but micing up the captains at coin toss didn’t really give us anything. Nor did having the managers record a short pre-match piece to iPhone on the coach journey. Ultimately, as is evident by the regular positive virus tests among EPL players and staff, it’s about keeping everyone safe. Adding too much infrastructure risks undermining that.”
That’s also the reason why BT Sport’s trailed introduction of a flagship 8K live service on its Ultimate tier has been delayed. “We are confident we can do it,” says Jamie Hindhaugh, Chief Operating Officer. “There will be more 8K event coming soon.”
The broadcaster’s creative response to Covid included installing ‘Fan Parks’ as part of its behind-closed-doors live matchday presentation. Feeds of thirty-two fans (16 per club) are displayed in its studio for presenters and pundits to interact with live. Another initiative, Watch Together, allows fans to watch, see and chat with friends in a split screen view during the match via the BT Sport app (similarly, Sky Sports offers Fanzone). It has also taken audio stems of manager and player chat from the live feed to build into highlights reels.
“I think our audiences tend to expect more authentic and natural environments,” says Hindhaugh.
Faced with scepticism in some quarters, audio simulation has proved the most enduring success. “It’s counter intuitive but there’s no doubt the game looks better with enhanced audio,” says Moody. “The production team have a set of effects (sourced from EA Sport’s FIFA video game) for events like a near miss or goal and another set of archive audio atmosphere’s specific to each ground, each team and even historic games between each club. These effects are mixed live.”
Given the choice of enhanced audio or ‘purist’ sound, 70-80% of BT Sport viewers are choosing the former. “I was wary about enhanced sound but it’s been a clear success,” says Hindhaugh. “When you’re watching at home you tend not to always focus on the TV. That sound helps signpost when to look up.
“We are always looking for ways to bring fans closer to the game and be part of the conversation. The longer fans aren’t allowed back to grounds, the more important it is for us to give them options to enjoy as rich a connection as possible.”
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