Major league players will continue to hear the roar of the crowd even though the stands will be empty when the baseball season opens next week.
Following the example of two European soccer leagues, Major League Baseball will play the crowd noise of its official video game through stadium sound systems during games. The stadium’s sound engineers will have access to around 75 different effects and reactions, according to MLB, which has provided teams with sounds of crowds captured from MLB The Show.
San Diego Studios, a branch of Sony Interactive Entertainment, compiled noise during games over several seasons.
The clubs started using the sounds during the summer camp games and will be able to test them even more during the exhibition games.
“There was some reluctance when he first spoke about crowd noise in an empty stadium because he doesn’t want to do something that is distracting,” said Chris Marinak, who is MLB’s executive vice president of strategy, technology and innovation. “You hear it in a natural way with the game and on the field. The sounds match what is happening.”
The English Premier League and the Spanish League were the first to return to action with the sound of the video game crowd. The leagues enlisted EA Sports to provide massive effects that they designed for the FIFA video game franchise. Marinak said MLB spoke to various companies before deciding to go with Sony.
Baseball hopes that the crowd noises, along with the stadium announcers, music, and video in the stadium, will reproduce the in-game experience as closely as possible without true fans in the stadium. Some stadiums also offer fans the opportunity to purchase photo clippings to be placed in the stands.
Brewers infielder Eric Sogard said Thursday that the noise from the crowd helped intensify competition for some boys during games within the squad.
“You are still focused on the game, but that noise is very useful. I could say that the first scrimmages with pure silence were difficult for some guys,” he said. “You could hear the other kayak talking, and it was a little awkward.”
The sounds will also be audible on radio and television. The Korean baseball league channels crowd noise in stadiums, so they are not completely silent, but it is barely audible during games broadcast on ESPN.
Some fans and broadcasters are wary of the artificial noise from the crowd because it takes away the unique opportunity to hear player conversations during games this season. Alex Rodríguez noted during an ESPN conference call that the only time fans can hear that kind of interaction is if they go to spring training.
ESPN host Matt Vasgersian is hoping there may still be some sort of audio sweet spot to provide a little bit of everything.
“I think it still allows us to capture some of that and still make the visual experience feel like home,” he said. “I can’t wait to hear what we hear. No one involved in the baseball broadcast wants to compromise the strategy. We are not looking to get into the playbook, but we do want to hear things that we might not normally hear.”
The NBA has been in contact with 2K Sports about the possible use of its sound library when the league resumes play outside of Orlando, Florida.
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