When MLB settled on its structure for coronavirus gameplay—in home stadiums but without fans—it knew it would need to provide a remedy for the unnatural quiet of empty ballparks.
The league found its answer in the form of 30 iPads, one for each team, loaded with various crowd reactions so that a little tapping and scrolling was all it took to play the proper noises. But an artificial crowd is as an art as much as it is a science. And it’s harder than it looks (or sounds).
“You’re a conductor of sorts,” says Oakland A’s executive producer for ballpark entertainment Amelia Schimmel.