Community Corner: Does artificial crowd noise improve the Bundesliga broadcasts?

The Bundesliga is back to finish out its season, but for fans who tuned in this past weekend, they heard something we haven’t heard in over two months: fans. The league debuted its enhanced audio broadcast that came with artificial crowd noise for the at-home viewer.

Players on the field and broadcasters could not hear the noise, as it was not piped in through the loudspeakers at the stadium. Still, for all of us watching on television, the artificial crowd noise dominated the chatter way more than the action on the field. For some, it provided a return to pre-coronavirus normalcy. For others, it was a distraction and the people would prefer that the real fans not be replaced by the artificial intelligence option. You can’t hear the players on the field or the communication between them and the coaches, something that playing in empty stadiums should allow you to undertake. Instead, we had crowd noise that attempted to follow the play on the field, but didn’t always do that correctly.

Today’s Community Corner asks you: does artificial crowd noise improve your viewing experience of the Bundesliga broadcasts in these pandemic times? Hit the poll and then hit the comments to add to the debate!