Apple, Google, and Sony are all playing a part in helping a new MLB season start tomorrow. Two Major League Baseball games are taking place on the opening night, and the experience will be rather different than usual.
Most notably, MLB games will take place in empty stadiums – which is one of two areas where iPads come into the picture …
CNBC reports that MLB will replicate the roar of the missing crowds in order to help the atmosphere. Most of that work is being done by Sony.
But selecting and playing the samples, to match the crowd noise to the action, will be done with iPads.
Sony, which renewed its deal with MLB last December, will also provide teams artificial crowd noise. Clubs are required to use some form of fake sounds designed to emulate regular contests with spectators, since games will be held in empty stadiums.
Sony has made available 75 samples of crowd sounds from its MLB video game.
Fans will also be able to use the MLB app to clap, cheer, and boo from home, and have that supplement the samples played in the stadiums.
iPads are also being used to provide live and recorded video feeds to coaches and other staff.
One of the ways that footage will be used is in deciding whether or not to challenge umpire calls based on instant replays. MLB stadiums have been fitted with additional 4K cameras to assist.
Google will be providing the MLB season with cloud services and machine learning to help with stats tracking and analysis.
MLB said the tech upgrades will help get footage to umpires faster to cut down on the time spent reviewing plays. It will also help the team to decide whether or not to challenge a call.
The first game will see defending World Series champion Washington Nationals play the New York Yankees at 7 pm ET, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants at 10 pm ET.
