MLB used fleet of iPads to create fake crowd sounds during COVID-19
When Major League Baseball needed to solve the problem of silent stadiums during the COVID-19 pandemic, the league looked to the iPad.
Credit: MLB
To provide simulated crowd noises during the 2020 season, MLB used 30 iPads -- one for each team -- that were loaded with crowd reactions. But, as Sports Illustrated points out, getting the sound right is harder than it seems.
"You're a conductor of sorts. You're controlling a symphony," said Amelia Schimmel, Oakland A's ballpark entertainment executive producer.
While normal-sounding crowd noise is difficult to simulate, it's also crucial to keep players from performing in dead silence, and to keep the games familiar for fans watching at home.
According to SI, the dozens of sound noises loaded onto each iPad were originally made for PlayStation game "MLB: The Show." Each noise has three sound levels, and layering can create different effects. All a so-called "conductor" needs to do is scroll and tap to trigger specific reactions.
During the coronavirus health crisis, stadium crews needed to constantly adjust the background noise and reactions to plays. The senior director of productions for the Seattle Mariners, Ben Martens, gave one specific example to SI.
"There's that initial reaction of the ball hitting the bat," Martens said of a Mariners player making hard contact. But it isn't a full cheer yet, because the crowd wouldn't know how it would play out.
Different production teams prepared in different ways. The Milwaukee Brewers, for example, watched a few 2019 games with the crowd noises isolated to get a better sense of how fans reacted to actual plays and situations. The goal wasn't to conduct crowd noises that sounded ideal, it was to "make it sound real," said Schimmel.
Teams also had the opportunity to add their own custom sounds into the mix. The Oakland A's, for example, added a recording of super-fan The Banjo Man.
This isn't the first time that MLB has used iPads for a variety of tasks. The league first kicked off an iPad dugout program in 2016, before expanding it in 2020. Prior to 2015, iPads were actually banned in dugouts.
Credit: MLB
To provide simulated crowd noises during the 2020 season, MLB used 30 iPads -- one for each team -- that were loaded with crowd reactions. But, as Sports Illustrated points out, getting the sound right is harder than it seems.
"You're a conductor of sorts. You're controlling a symphony," said Amelia Schimmel, Oakland A's ballpark entertainment executive producer.
While normal-sounding crowd noise is difficult to simulate, it's also crucial to keep players from performing in dead silence, and to keep the games familiar for fans watching at home.
According to SI, the dozens of sound noises loaded onto each iPad were originally made for PlayStation game "MLB: The Show." Each noise has three sound levels, and layering can create different effects. All a so-called "conductor" needs to do is scroll and tap to trigger specific reactions.
During the coronavirus health crisis, stadium crews needed to constantly adjust the background noise and reactions to plays. The senior director of productions for the Seattle Mariners, Ben Martens, gave one specific example to SI.
"There's that initial reaction of the ball hitting the bat," Martens said of a Mariners player making hard contact. But it isn't a full cheer yet, because the crowd wouldn't know how it would play out.
Different production teams prepared in different ways. The Milwaukee Brewers, for example, watched a few 2019 games with the crowd noises isolated to get a better sense of how fans reacted to actual plays and situations. The goal wasn't to conduct crowd noises that sounded ideal, it was to "make it sound real," said Schimmel.
Teams also had the opportunity to add their own custom sounds into the mix. The Oakland A's, for example, added a recording of super-fan The Banjo Man.
This isn't the first time that MLB has used iPads for a variety of tasks. The league first kicked off an iPad dugout program in 2016, before expanding it in 2020. Prior to 2015, iPads were actually banned in dugouts.
Comments
Vince McMahan and the WWE are doing it right. They have literally hundreds of display screens set up around the ring, each with a fan in the picture. I don’t know if it’s Zoom or something else but you see this huge wall of actual fans reacting to what’s going on.
And remember, professional wrestling is the only true sport left in America. None of that fake football, basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis crap.
I expect that the rank order preference for most fans would be
BEST [real, in person, unscripted crowd noise] > [well done artificial crowd noise] > [sounds of the empty statium] > [poorly done fake crowd noise] WORST.
That's exactly why lots and lots of shows (from SNL to Seinfeld to game shows) are filmed before a live studio audience. And why "laugh tracks" have a terrible reputation--because they were often poorly done and detracted from the show.
In MLB's case, some stadiums early in the season did a bad job of this, The reaction sounds were slightly delayed or inappropriate/unrealistic. Some venues (such as a Dodgers that I watched all season long) got very good at this very quickly and it was easy to forget we weren't hearing real crowds. By the playoffs, everyone had gotten good at this and it was basically a non-issue.
And all this is just from the fans perspective. There is also the psychology of the players. It is a proven fact that player performance is affected by the presence or absence of fans (to some degree). It increases the tension and makes some actions more stressful and therefore more difficult. But it also impacts the production of adrenaline and other hormones that improve performance. Many players have said that having the crowd noise make it easier for them to "get up for the game" in a way that they don't in practice. Players do "feed off the crowd."
I did wonder how they got so good at this and what technology was involved. It makes sense that EA's MLB: The Show technology was part of the solution (they already had the AI to generate realistic sounds in the context of simulated games). But it's cool to learn that iPads were the interface that was used to add the human component. I agree with JinTech, let's see a "Making of the MLB crowds during a pandemic" documentary. On Apple TV+ perhaps.