Live sound, on field audio, manufactured tracks. We have seen, and heard, or not heard them all as return to play without fans keeps evolving around the world.
Leave it to a 20 year old to come up with another growing option. HearMeCheer is an audio broadcast app that collects live fan noise and streams it into live sports television broadcasts. The audio comes from fans watching at home and aggregates the sounds into one audio stream, which is provided to broadcasters and to feeds in ballparks, stadiums, and arenas. The sound from fans is converted into crowd noise using low-latency algorithms.
It is the brainchild of Elias Andersen, the 20-year-old founder and Chief Executive Officer of Toronto-based ChampTrax, who developed HearMeCheer in March and April in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and its far-reaching impact on the sports world. Previously an Electrical Engineering major at the University of Toronto, Andersen decided to leave college this past January to devote his attention to ChampTrax full-time. While pitching Major League Baseball teams the young company’s sports analytics platform at spring training sites in Arizona this past March, the pivot to develop HearMeCheer happened while Andersen was on an airplane returning to Toronto as the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the sports world. The interest has been growing ever since, as pro sports look to find the best audio experience to impact both athletes and the audience watching on all devices around the world.
The platform was used on recent live ESPN broadcasts of Top Rank Boxing, and has also been successfully implemented in recent live sports telecasts in Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S, including the first live testing of HearMeCheer earlier this year with the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan. The New York Red Bulls announced this week they will now take a step and use the platform as they return to play in the coming weeks.
Like any new innovation developed to address a need or potential need, there always has to be a pivot or an alternative use, so the platform has options for live trivia games and predictive exercises where fans can be asked what will happen next. With a Facebook sign-in, fans can listen and watch with a group of friends in other homes, which opens up an opportunity for engagement with remote supporter groups for clubs that have followings out of market, or even for college alumni for when NCAA sports return.
Is HearMeCheer a must have? Not yet. Is it another growing option that addresses a no fans issue sports have right now? Yes. Can it have legs to morph into other applications for when fans return? It seems so. Regardless it is great to again to see disruption whether it is led by an innovator at 20 or 40 or go. He used his expertise to exploit a niche, pivot on an opportunity, and most importantly help address an issue. That’s what smart entrepreneurs do, so HearMeCheer is worth a high five or two, social distance accepted.
