There may not be fans allowed into stadiums but broadcasters are looking to bring the full experience to the lounge rooms of football lovers across the nation.
The Mirror reports that Sky Sports are one channel that are considering using crowd noise for games played behind closed doors.
But if you do not like that artificial experience, the same game can be viewed in its natural format on one of their complementary channels like Main Event.
The discussion of feeding in crowd noise to break up the monotony of hearing managers barking instructions from the touchline and general echoey sounds reverberating through the empty stadiums had come to the fore when German broadcasters decided to include it in their match feeds.
In the main the reception to the idea has been favourable with the NRL in Australia also following suite.
The premier Rugby League competition was the first sporting competition to resume in the country after the Covid-19 shutdown and Simon Fordham the head of broadcasting for the host channel explained how the process works.
“They’ve written a program where all the sounds go into a synthesiser and they have created a non-repetitive loop or a buzz track at a base level, which is what you hear during general play.
“As required there is an operator there who uses a foot pedal or a fader from an audio desk, that you would use to increase not only the volume of the crowd noise in the mix but also expand its intensity.
"As it goes up, more layers and files get added.
"It’s not just the same noise getting louder. It actually - the software that has been written - enables it to increase in intensity or density.
“Booing? Giving it to the referee? Yep, it's all possible.
“The audio operator has the ability to add jeers, boos or whistles if he believes the "home crowd" would have thought a forward pass had been thrown or the away side was offside.”
Fordham also explained that the volume of the cheers for the designated home team were piped in at a extra level to add that extra reality for the viewers at home.
Back in England and League bosses have set up a special working group to look at several proposals including half-time interviews, dressing room access and post-match interviews which will be discussed at Thursday’s Premier League meeting between the 20 clubs.
Clubs understand the need for TV Companies to produce content, but several managers have voiced concerns about dressing room access and also half-time interviews especially as they see the dressing room as sacred turf and the battle maybe be extremely difficult for the broadcasters to win.
Match commentators have been given the green light to be at the stadium along with touch-line interviewers but studio pundits will be based at a location off-site.
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