Thread by @Mykuhl

Here's a thought about how matches behind closed doors might be able to have more atmosphere.

This is a little involved, so I'm going to turn it into a thread.

This would work for @SuperRugbyNZ or @NZWarriors but also for other countries with good internet infrastructure. 1/n

Some of the issues with coverage from closed stadiums can't be solved easily. I wrote about some of the difficulties here:

firstpost.com/health/coronav…

But some can be solved, or at least mitigated.

One of those is getting a crowd response to celebrate things. 2/n

The basic idea is this: put a cellphone (or similar) on each seat. Have it connected to a device in the home of the ticket holder.

The sound of the people watching the game is transmitted from homes to the stadium.

That allows connection for the fans and also the players. 3/n

This is technically difficult, but not impossible.

Clarity isn't the main concern, just volume. So running a 64kpbs stream would be sufficient quality.

A 1Gbps connection to the stadium would theoretically allow about 20,000 devices at full capacity.

12,000 is more realistic.

12,000 is not a full stadium, but it is sufficient to create an atmosphere.

There are some issues:

Firstly lag.

TV broadcasts tend to be a few seconds behind. Connecting that many devices would cause a latency bottleneck too, so there would probably be an extras delay.

5/n

This can be a problem for players.

I went to a Dodgers baseball match in LA that was on at the same time as the Lakers were playing the Western Conference final.

The baseball crowd were mostly watching ther basketball on devices. They all cheered Kobe hitting a big shot

6/n

At the same time as the crowd cheered, a Dodgers player was struck out, and had to walk back with his home crowd cheering.

Inappropriate cheering isn't cool.

There is not an easy solution to this. I think that lagged atmosphere is better than no atmosphere.

7/n

There's also the potential for delay and feedback.

This can be solved by using good feedback elimination on the stadium mics.

If the lag was consistent (unlikely) then delayed phase reversing noise cancelling techniques could be used too. But that is unlikely to be needed.
8/n

The final issue would be cost.

Basic cellphones with few features are cheap. These would only really need wifi and a speaker.

They might take a bit of setting up, and the stadium wifi might (almost certainly would) need improvement. But that's a necessary upgrade anyway.

9/n

They would need people to set them up each match. That would be the biggest cost.

But all the people who would normally be ticket collectors, food and merchandise sales etc are being paid by the government wage subsidy anyway, get them to do it.
10/11

It's not a perfect solution. But it's better than having no fan engagement and no atmosphere at all, and one that a mobile company like @vodafoneNZ could probably use to get extra value from their sponsorship.

11/11