Fan cheering is an important part of all kinds of sports events, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more events of this type take place in empty stands. The MLB baseball league organizers decided to solve this problem by creating an artificial crowd controlled by iPads in the stadiums.

Even though the stands during MLB matches still shine empty, there are still shouts, chants and other sounds characteristic for this type of events. All thanks to a system developed especially for the needs of this league, using fragments of recordings of crowds of fans (some were borrowed from MLB: The Show, some were recorded especially for this project) and a set of thirty iPads with a special application installed to control them.

The employees responsible for this new and unusual element of match setting compare controlling an artificial crowd via iPad to conducting an orchestra. Using this application, they constantly adjust the sounds coming from the stands to the situation on the pitch, mixing different samples of recordings (from the usual rustle of conversations, going through various types of chanting, buzzing, cheering and shouts of joy, to the sounds and chants characteristic for each team) and control their volume to obtain the most realistic results.

Source: Sports Illustrated