External videos
video icon Virtual audience during a Ellen DeGeneres Show, YouTube video

A virtual audience is the use of videoconferencing as a substitute for an in-person studio audience or spectators during a television program or sporting event. A virtual audience allows users to attend a television taping or other event virtually by viewing it via livestreaming, and having audio and video of themselves streamed via webcam to screens at the studio or event site.

The practice emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, due to lockdowns and restrictions on gatherings preventing in-person attendance in the studio or venue.

Implementation

Virtual audiences are often implemented using existing videoconferencing platforms such as Microsoft Teams[1] or Zoom,[2] or with proprietary platforms, such as one developed by technology company The Famous Group,[3][4] and an internal system designed by the BBC.[5][6]

Members of a virtual audience witness the event or the recording of a program via livestreaming.[7][5] In turn, the audio and video feeds from their webcams can be aggregated by the production staff and incorporated into the program or event, such as the audio mix,[6] and presenting the video from feeds inside the studio or venue as either a mosaic on video walls,[7] or on individual screens.[8]

Notable examples

Virtual audiences became prominent on many non-scripted television programs after their return to production, including reality competitions,[7] game shows,[9] and talk shows.[8] A virtual audience used for the British game and variety show Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway was designed to allow for two-way interaction with the hosts and the show, handling up to 2,000 participants.[3]

Some shows used a mixture of both in-person and virtual audiences; Let's Make a Deal maintained a smaller number of in-person audience members as contestants, but added a virtual audience whose members could also participate in the show.[10] Similarly, The Ellen DeGeneres Show placed virtual audience members on individual screens replacing seats in its audience area, which were later mixed with limited in-person audience members.[8] The Masked Singer used a mixture of stock footage and limited in-person audience members to preserve the illusion of a full audience, but did employ a virtual audience for a "fan vote" feature used as part of the judging process.[11]

Virtual audiences were sometimes used during sports and sports-related events, particularly when they were held behind closed doors. During the 2020 NFL Draft, a virtual "Inner Circle" of fans from each team was displayed on a television behind Commissioner Roger Goodell (who presented the draft as a virtual event from his home) during the first and second rounds; participants were chosen by each team, and video feeds from each fan were fed using a WebRTC client and a cloud server.[4] The NBA Bubble featured virtual spectators, sponsored and powered by Microsoft Teams, displayed on screens along its courts. Special guests such as NBA alumni were also present in the lobbies, with the ability to interact between them during the halftime break.[1][12]

The professional wrestling promotion WWE introduced a closed studio known as the "ThunderDome", which featured a large-scale virtual audience displayed on multiple tiers of screens formed into a curved "grandstand". The ThunderDome stage was used at multiple venues in Florida, and replaced a smaller-scale studio at its WWE Performance Center training facility in Orlando. It was used for WWE's main weekly programs and almost all pay-per-view events from August 2020 through June 2021, before WWE returned to hosting in-person touring events.[13][14][15][16] WWE's third brand, NXT, moved from Full Sail University to the Performance Center in October 2020, adopting a new stage design that similarly incorporated a virtual audience, along with limited in-person attendees.[17][18][19] NXT would later reinstate a full-capacity studio audience in June 2021.[20][21]

Reception

The use of an audio-only virtual audience during the 74th British Academy Film Awards faced mixed reception; Deadline Hollywood noted that it "certainly added more atmosphere than BAFTA would’ve gotten from a silent Royal Albert Hall", but that some viewers and journalists questioned whether the show was actually using a canned laugh track and crowd noise.[6][22]

Multiple writers have described virtual audiences as being dystopian; some writers drew comparisons to "Fifteen Million Merits"—an episode of the British sci-fi anthology Black Mirror where an in-universe talent show is depicted as having an audience of 3D avatars on a screen.[23][12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Medina, Mark (July 24, 2020). "NBA to feature 'virtual fans' at arenas for season restart". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
  2. ↑ Wagmeister, Elizabeth (2020-11-18). "The (Talk) Show Must Go on: How Daytime TV Has Safely Continued Production Amid the Pandemic". Variety. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  3. 1 2 Bickerton, Jake. "Saturday Night Takeaway gets Virtual Interactive Audience". Broadcast. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  4. 1 2 Dachman, Jason (14 September 2020). "The Famous Group Blazes Virtual-Fan Trail With New WWE, US Open Integrations". Sports Video Group. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  5. 1 2 "Case study: The BBC Virtual Audience and CEDAR – IABM". theiabm.org. 18 August 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  6. 1 2 3 Kanter, Tom Grater,Jake; Grater, Tom; Kanter, Jake (2021-04-12). "Virtual BAFTAs Get Thumbs Up From Industry Despite Audience Noise Confusion; TV Ratings Not So Pretty". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-08-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. 1 2 3 Gonzalez, Sandra (20 October 2020). "TV shows dealing with live audience restrictions deserve applause". CNN. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  8. 1 2 3 Del Rosario, Alexandra (2020-10-29). "'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' Welcomes Back Limited, Masked Live Studio Audience". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  9. ↑ Mitovich, Matt Webb (2020-10-20). "Let's Make a Deal: Socially Distanced Set Features Mostly Virtual Audience". TVLine. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  10. ↑ White, Peter (2020-10-20). "'Let's Make A Deal' Returns To The Studio With Redesigned Set & Preps First CBS Primetime Specials". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  11. ↑ Peter White (September 21, 2020). "The Masked Singer: Fox's Rob Wade On How The Mystery Singing Competition Got Back On Stage". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
  12. 1 2 "Surreal experience of being an NBA virtual fan shows why technology is nothing without humanity behind it". CBSSports.com. 31 August 2020. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
  13. ↑ Barrasso, Justin (17 August 2020). "WWE Turning Orlando's Amway Center into 'WWE ThunderDome'". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  14. ↑ Otterson, Joe (2020-08-17). "WWE to Establish 'ThunderDome' Residency in Orlando's Amway Center". Variety. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
  15. ↑ "Contender Profile: WWE Production Designer Jason Robinson on Creating Big Fan Experiences During Pandemic". Below the Line. 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2021-07-21.
  16. ↑ Dachman, Jason (July 16, 2021). "WWE Returns to the Road With 25-City Tour, Adds AR Steadicam and High-Res LED Screen". Sports Video Group. Retrieved 2021-07-21.
  17. ↑ "FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY SHUTS DOWN, NXT TAPINGS HEADING TO WWE PC | PWInsider.com". www.pwinsider.com. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  18. ↑ Pollock, John (2020-10-02). "NXT moving to the Performance Center beginning with TakeOver". POST Wrestling. Retrieved 2020-11-02.
  19. ↑ Barrasso, Justin (4 October 2020). "NXT Unveiling the Capitol Wrestling Center at Sunday's TakeOver 31". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
  20. ↑ Thomas, Jeremy (April 7, 2021). "Note On Audience Changes at NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver". 411mania. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
  21. ↑ Dias, Luke (June 13, 2021). "WWE Achieves Record High CWC Attendance for NXT TakeOver: In Your House". EssentiallySports. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  22. ↑ Power, Ed (2021-04-11). "Baftas 2021 review: canned laughter fails to save this cheerfully flaky ceremony". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  23. ↑ Brown, Kat (2020-09-30). "Black Mirror meets Britain's Got Talent: the dystopian nightmare of TV's virtual audiences". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
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