Major League Baseball will turn to Big Tech companies like Apple and Google to help with their shortened season that is slated to resume on July 23.
On Monday, MLB provided a preview of what games will look and sound like during the pandemic, with features like artificial crowd noise and an improved playback system for fans watching from home.
As part of the league’s Covid-19 health and safety protocols, the MLB said it would ban traditional shared video stations in clubs. The league leveraged its 2016 partnership with Apple to expand the iPad program. He will now distribute 15 iPads to each team for players and staff to dissect performances, scouting reports, and additional team content.
Google will also be involved, with the 30 teams using Google Cloud to run MLB’s statistical tracking system, Statcast, and provide digital infrastructure for everything from team websites to online ticket sales.
MLB partnered with Google in March to be the league’s official cloud partner. Jason Gaedtke, MLB chief technology officer, said Monday that the league selected Goggle for “strength in large-scale data processing, analytics, and specifically machine learning.”
With its Google-powered Statcast 3D platform, MLB said broadcasts can recreate game footage in a variety of virtual perspectives. Concepts such as showing a player’s home run trails, shooting angles from a receiver and referee perspective, and how the game is affected by weather conditions will now be available to national and regional broadcast partners.
Updated playback system
Before Covid-19 delayed the current season, the MLB completed its first significant technology update, a review of the league’s repeat operation. It is the first update since the league launched its expanded instant replay system in 2014, according to Chris Marinak, executive vice president of strategy technology and innovation at MLB.
Canadian telecommunications company Mitel helped the league with its new breeding center located in New Jersey. The system can receive 48 video channels and take 24 isolation cameras from across the field, Marinak said.
Additionally, the league placed 4K cameras to overlook the fields. The cameras are generally used to observe the location of a base corridor and “other wide-angle things that may not be available during transmission,” Marinak said.
The MLB said the technology updates will help images reach the referees faster to reduce the time spent reviewing plays. It will also help team personnel at the ballpark help the manager decide whether or not to challenge a call.
And with new camera angles added, the MLB reduced the time a team can decide to dispute a call from 30 seconds to 20 seconds for the 2020 season.
Artificial noise from Sony crowds
Another critical partner for the return of MLB will be Sony.
Ballparks will have 12 4K cameras and will feature Sony’s Hawk-Eye tracking system, which MLB says will help it better track player positioning and movement and “everything that happens on the field, with no blind spots,” according to Gaedtke.
Sony, which renewed its MLB deal last December, will also provide teams with artificial crowd noise. Clubs should use some form of fake sound designed to emulate regular contests with spectators, as games will take place in empty stadiums.
Sony has made available 75 crowd sound samples from its MLB video game. The league will provide teams with an iPad full of samples that will be monitored by an audio technician during games.
Ryan Zander, vice president of MLB streaming products and services and new streaming technology, said the clubs will continue to provide traditional organists and meeting music at games as well.
“The idea is to allow clubs as much as possible of what is related to creating a realistic atmosphere,” Zander said, adding that the stations will capture the sound with natural microphones that are normally used for crowd noise. .
The MLB said its baseball operations department would handle any dispute over artificial sounds, but added that it does not anticipate any problems.
Virtual signage
The MLB will also use virtual ads this season to “make up for lost brand exposure” and “create a new inventory for our partnerships,” according to Marinak.
The league generally uses virtual signage at top-tier events like the MLB Postseason Games and All-Star Game, but not for regional regular-season games.
MLB will monitor announcements on national broadcasts and clubs will manage local announcement locations. But if a club decides to install physical ads for a particular game, the MLB may restrict virtual ads.
“What we have done this season is qualify a lot of technologies and come up with a plan and framework to make this technology available to all the clubs that want to take advantage of the program,” said Zander.
Zander added that there are guidelines for ad placement in efforts to “make the signage look as authentic as possible, not harmful to the viewer.” Announcements can be placed in areas that include seating sections, dirty ball territory, and the pitcher’s mound. Teams will be allowed to rotate virtual ads every half inning.
And with fans tuned in, some teams could take advantage of augmented reality experiences. The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies experimented with AR options in 2017, and Michael Harris, the vice president of marketing and new media for the Phillies, told CNBC that the team also had success with their AR bighead promotion this season. passed with pitcher Aaron Nola.
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