Sky Sports consider CGI fans for Premier League games behind closed doors

Broadcasters are pondering using CGI to camouflage the rows of empty seats in eerily quiet stadiums if the Premier League does go ahead with matches behind closed doors

Posted Friday, May 01, 2020 by Dailystar.co.uk

The Premier League are considering using CGI - computer generated imagery - in order to make stadiums look full of fans as they look to relaunch the 2019-20 behind closed doors.

Amid the coronavirus lockdown, the prospect of playing matches in front of empty stadiums will bring with it huge logistical challenges on its own.

But with no crowd comes a sterile atmosphere, which can leaves television viewers feel as though they are watching a training game.

So in an attempt to ensure that closed-door matches aren’t a complete turn-off for viewers, broadcasters are pondering using CGI to seat virtual fans in stadiums, thus camouflaging the rows of empty seats in eerily quiet stadiums.

CGI could be used to make stadiums appear full of supporters

“Even if a club doesn’t sell all of its seats in the Premier League, if you have one stand that’s particularly empty that results in much lower feedback from the viewer,” a senior Sky source told The i.

“Even when the noise is there, one empty stand really impacts people’s enjoyment of the spectacle. When you add the two in – i.e. the ground is totally empty and totally silent, then it really is an odd experience.

“People seeing banks of empty seats and people hearing no noise and no audio effects, for more than a novelty value of one match, there’s a serious concern over what that would do for people’s enjoyment of the matches and their desire to see the sport played behind closed doors.

“People have found closed door matches at international level a bit of a novelty in the past but if you have to watch that multiple times over many months then that will probably devalue the product, which runs the risk of harming of the Premier League’s brand and arguably the broadcasters too.

“It’s not actually that hard to put in CGI moving graphics, even on the side of live action. The challenge is to do it at the scale that’s now required.

"Can you make Old Trafford look full when you’re moving the camera between all of the angles that cameras have to move between?

“CGI is easy to do if you have one fixed camera and you’re doing it in one-fixed zone. But think of 24 cameras essentially giving you a 360 degree view.

"That’s a lot of tech. The tech exists but the challenge of running it at the latency that’s required has never been done before."

Some clubs have also looked at 'piping' crowd sounds into stadiums over the tannoy to replicate the atmosphere of Premier League matches.