Get ready to hear the familiar noises of an MLB crowd this season, even in empty stadiums.
MLB plans to play fake crowd noise through its ballpark sound systems during games in the shortened 2020 season, according to the Associated Press. The source of those noises: sounds captured during games over several seasons for the “MLB The Show” video game series.
All told, stadium sound engineers will reportedly use a soundboard with around 75 different crowd reactions.
From the AP:
“There was some reticence when you first talk about crowd noise in an empty ballpark because you don’t want to do something that is distracting,” said Chris Marinak, who is MLB’s Executive Vice President for strategy, technology, and innovation.