Technology May Let Sports Fans Cheer From the Couch
Arenas may be empty when sports start up again, but we could still hear the roar of the crowd on TV when there's a touchdown. A tech company is working on a way to include live cheers from living rooms, and the sound would become part of the broadcast.
This could be really amazing if it works. And it could get a little awkward if things don't quite go according to plan.
A company called Champ Trax has a new project called Hear Me Cheer, and a Kansas City TV station describes it as a "free website portal that allows fans to enable a microphone on a phone or laptop while watching a live sports event. Champ Trax then aggregates all of the remote fan audio streams into a single sound for the broadcast." When there's a touchdown, there will be a roar.
Football stadiums usually hold eighty or ninety thousand people, and sometimes more. With this technology, there could potentially be millions of fans cheering at once. What if one of them decides to drop a word bomb? Or, what if the mic on the laptop picks up the voice of a mom who is about to change a baby's diaper and yells to pass the wipes? The pizza delivery guy could ring the doorbell. Or couples could fight over whose turn it is to take out the trash. Hopefully, all of the extras would be drowned out by the group noise.
ESPN used the crowd noise for a boxing event last week, and it was also part of the NFL draft in April. Champ Trax is in talks with several pro sports leagues and networks right now, and if it's picked up on a wider scale this could make sure sports keep the live fan element.
When the Cowboys or Texans score a touchdown, we want to react! This may be a way to keep doing it, even if we're not at the game.