Tonight, two pretty exciting football games were on TV - Georgia Tech vs. Clemson (college, on ESPN) and Pittsburgh vs. Tennessee (NFL, on NBC). Both of them close games (the NFL game is currently in overtime, the college game was won on a last-minute field goal after Clemson clawed their way back from a 21-0 deficit).
But only one of them seemed exciting - the college game. And in my opinion it’s because ESPN’s audio emphasizes the crowd noise. Many times during the NBC broadcast it sounded as if the players are going at it in a soundproofed room, while during the ESPN broadcast the crowd noise was omnipresent and, imho, added greatly to the appeal of the viewing experience. NBC has a bad habit of turning down the crowd noise whenever the color guy (Collingsworth?) talks, while at ESPN it seems that the announcers occasionally have to yell over the crowd.
I also noticed this when CBS had the NFC and NBC had the AFC - the CBS games seemed more exciting than the rather dull NBC broadcasts, and it was because CBS had more crowd noise (I used to wonder why AFC fans were so passionless until I realized it was the broadcast, not the fans).
Anyway, what’s your opinion? When watching games on the tube, do you prefer a fair amount of crowd noise or not? Do you even notice a difference (this could just be me, for all I know)?
Don’t know about the NFL and College Football (the one with the hands), but for proper (:)) football this is really true. I like to watch games on the BBc (even though I’m not British and don’t live there) beacouse they do a better job in giving you the ‘feel’ of the stadium.
There are many times that I would prefer to have nothing but crowd noise. I would love to have “stadium only” sound by using the SAP option, I could always go back to the announcers if an odd play happened.
I’ll take the crowd noise, please. I’d love to have the option to mute the announcers and just take the stadium noise. I remember when NBC did that experimental game with no announcers, I thought it was great.
A televised game should, as much as possible, replicate the experience of being there, and the crowd noise is part of that experience. If it’s a complicated play that the announcers need to explain, they can turn down the noise feed to be heard over it, but even then, it should still be in the background.
Let’s be fair, here: college fans make some serious noise. It may be possible that you’re noticing a difference not between networks, but between levels of play. College teams don’t just have cheerleaders, they also have huge bands, fight songs, dedicated spirit organizations, and hordes of crazed students and alumni screaming and singing and yelling and stomping and [SIZE=“4”]GO RED RAIDERS!!![/SIZE]
Ahem. Sorry. Anyway, college games are freakin’ nuts compared to the NFL.
There should always be crowd noise, but it can be annoying when the producer apparently can’t turn individual mics on or off, and you end up hearing one guy’s drunken screaming every minute or two. (Obviously more a baseball issue.)
Although from time to time this can be quite amusing. Especially in ballparks where there are generally very few fans (Florida, I’m looking at you…) and particularly creative hecklers.
No kidding! Sometimes I wonder if “that guy” just happens to know he’s near a crowd mic, and is putting on an act for the home audience. A couple weeks ago I was listening to the Seattle Mariners/Oakland A’s game on the radio, and I desperately wanted to teleport myself to Oakland so I could find and throttle the guy who kept making this yelpy, “oo-OO oo-OO” noise through the whole effin’ game.
(I can’t think of a better way to transcribe the noise he was making. It’s a sound I’ve heard in the music of a number of hip-hop songs. The “oo-OO” is all one sound, with the “OO” part pitched higher than the “oo” part.)
In ANY televised sporting Event. I find the crowd noise to be MUCH more preferable than the commentary. Why do I have to listen to two blokes discussing the match with each other? (or less common a woman and a bloke)
However, this leads to annoyances in professional games. They regularly tell us that “the Vikings have the loudest fans in the NFL!” but it’s simply because they pipe in the noise so much. We have to be loud just to hear ourselves over the speakers. I’m pretty certain that those things go to 11.
I’d take naturally loud over artificially loud any day and twice on Sundays, though.
A dirty secret of the NFL is that most crowds just aren’t that loud anymore. When you price out the blue collar fans, you get old people who want to sit and watch the game.
Ever notice when they dub in generic crowd noise? It can be quite obvious, usually just after an obscene chant has just started. You hear “The referee’s a wan…” and suddenly there’s a whole new crowd roaring polite approval. Magic!
