NBA Virtual Fans Provide Inside Look At Unique Experience

If you’ve watched any of the NBA’s seeding games inside the Orlando bubble over the last 11 days, you’ve noticed sections of virtual fans with their large heads and other cartoonishly distorted features cheering their teams on from home thanks to the league’s technology partnership with Microsoft MSFT Teams.

Each designated home team gets about 320 fans per game spread across 10 sections within the three arenas at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports inside Disney World. After speaking to two different virtual fans who have participated in four separate NBA games, I’ve gotten a better idea of what it’s like to watch the action from their perspective.

The 22 teams currently playing at the NBA restart get to select their virtual fans and then send them several emails with detailed rules and instructions. Each fan gets one seat and has to sign a waiver saying that you need to abide by a fan code of conduct, which includes not exhibiting offensive behavior. Additionally, virtual fans can’t have any signs or display commercial or inappropriate messages. They’re required to log in to Microsoft Teams via a league-provided login 45 minutes before the start of a game, ideally from a laptop or tablet, and remain until it’s over.

“It’s definitely strange because you’re not sure how much the players acknowledge you,” said Brooklyn Nets fan Doug Bearak, who’s virtually attended three games so far, “but our moderator for the section kept saying the players are loving everything we’re doing.”

Each section had some sort of moderator or group leader to help the fans gain the most from their virtual experience.

“It was a guy I recognized from being a hype man at games,” said Memphis Grizzlies fan Jonah Kaufman, who virtually attended the team’s win over Oklahoma City on Friday.

While there have been doubts if the NBA players can actually hear the virtual fans while playing on the court, the league says that they definitely can.

“Throughout the game, the players hear a soundscape mix of music, near real-time audio from fans on the virtual boards, previously recorded cheering from NBA arenas and enhanced sounds from additional mics around the venue,” said Sara Zuckert, the NBA’s head of next gen telecast.

The Grizzlies game started at 4 eastern and Kaufman logged on to Microsoft Teams at 3, nabbing a second row seat in his section. There were a few seconds where the action froze on his laptop, he said, but that fixed itself fairly quickly. For people with poor connections or people who aren’t at their computers, Bearak said that each game features fans in a queue on standby who can take their place if the situation arises.

“Sometimes seats aren’t filled, even when there are standby fans available,” Bearak said. “It’s obviously their first time doing this with Microsoft Teams but overall, it’s worked well. Though there have been glitches.”

The Nets tried to improve the ambiance by sending their online fans rally towels and popcorn with some fans bringing bobblehead dolls and even pets to their virtual seats. And while fans in each section can hear and see each other, Bearak said that those fans have been too loud and noisy at times to hear what’s going on at the games. Each virtual fan is supposed to be in what Microsoft Teams refers to as Together Mode, which enables half your screen to watch a game telecast that’s ahead of normal fans’ TV broadcasts and half the screen to see the fans in your section.

What Zuckert referred to as near real-time audio from fans is a problem Bearak has seen at his games, where fans’ reactions are delayed on screen even though their game feed is ahead. That’s caused Bearak to have to “pre-react” to shots or big moments, hoping that they go in.

“You don’t feel as synced,” he said.

During Brooklyn’s win over Washington on Aug. 2, members of Bearak’s section frequently couldn’t hear the game broadcast’s sound and there were some problems with picture quality. Some users may have issues with bandwidth, the league said, but it’s seen that there’s very low latency among the virtual fans.

“Sometimes there’s glitches in the platform where you had to log out to log back in,” Bearak said. “And if you log out, you lose your seat so you may end up in the waiting room.”

For something as new as this virtual fan concept, there had to have been some anticipated flaws and setbacks along the way for the NBA and Microsoft.

“We really didn’t know what to expect,” Zuckert said. “We came into this new scenario with so many aspects of the telecast changing, from the camera angle innovations to the different audio streams, so we knew this was one more element that would add to a very different look and feel of the game presentation. So far we are thrilled with the reactions to the virtual boards from both players and viewers. ”

Kaufman said it was a fun and unique experience to be with different Grizzlies fans in the virtual room and help his team crawl into the playoffs any way he can. And in Friday’s playoff-clinching win over Sacramento, Bearak’s virtual seat appeared on the YES Network broadcast and he even got a shout-out from game analyst Sarah Kustok.

“As awkward as it is, I do think it’s helpful to have this kind of atmosphere,” Bearak said. “I do think it’s a great idea and overall a great concept.”