We’re not showing the 1.5-minute video so you can watch Barcelona’s 4 away goals against Mallorca almost 3 weeks ago (13/6). But so you can finally see a full stadium! In fact, all the stadiums in the Spanish league are equally packed, which obviously proves that the covid-19 nightmare is going, it’s over….
Not exactly. The fans are virtual. You’ll say, “Well, the same thing happens at Karaiskakis.” In Spain (perhaps due to taste and also because of Spanish football’s position in the international division of labor…) they wouldn’t deign to cover part of the stands with painted canvas. They did something better – the only thing available for now – which, however, shows the way forward. The entire league (the Spanish equivalent of the “SL1”) signed a deal with the Norwegian tech company Vizrt. Vizrt specializes in producing digital representations and/or image processing related to football. It specializes in blending football video games with real matches.
The task of creating virtual spectators and, in any case, “filling the stands” was probably the first of its kind for Vizrt. Contrary to the idea you might form that “something has been spread across the stands,” all graphic processing is done via computers on the image captured by the cameras, before that image goes on air.
At that particular historical moment Vizrt created and installed this software only on the feed from the main stadium camera (the one positioned above the “VIP” stands). That’s why, either right at the beginning or at the 0:21 mark, when the shots come from different cameras, the stands appear exactly as they are: empty. The “full” image of them is flat and static, but well matched to the camera movements… In addition, crowd noise is added, basically a general hubbub that turns into celebrations whenever a goal is scored. That part is the work of another company, pure gaming outfit EA Sports FIFA, which has an excellent archive of real stadium sounds…
You may consider the result a first draft – it is! But it’s on the right track: through high-tech graphics. No burlap, no cardboard, no dolls! With these graphics, of course, only one thing can happen: they evolve, become more complex and more convincing.
The die-hard fans reacted in Spain in the way you’d expect: by making fun of it (on anti-social media…). Totally understandable – nothing can replace a live crowd. So far, that is… But for whom? La Liga apologized, saying it had no intention of mocking anyone; in these tough times it simply wanted to provide a stadium crowd experience for the sake of the TV viewers.
Exactly. For the sake of the viewers. After the sour ban imposed by the health-terrorism, the fans and supporters are now being checked to see if they can accept watching their teams exclusively on a screen, from a distance. The answer is a blunt and anti-heroic “yes”. You can also take it as blackmail; but spectacle and capitalism are not charity funds, keep that in mind… If the bet is won (and all signs show it will), a path of augmented reality will open for football as well.
After all, the Spanish channels give their viewers a choice: they can watch the matches with the stadiums “naked,” if they can bear it; or with the electronic tricks of Vizrt. (There will be a count there too…)
Would the fans, both those with season tickets and the occasional ones in the stands, even consider a strict, disciplined, permanent TV-viewing strike, turning their backs on the television broadcast in order to reject the virtuality of their representation and demand the exclusivity of live presence in the stadiums?
They probably haven’t thought of him… The surprise is so intense and these tricks are so new…
(Oh that old covid-19! What is that rascal up to… Eh?)