NFL teams will continue pumping fake crowd noise into their stadiums on Sunday, but some of the rules governing that noise have been revised.
The league is now allowing stadiums to play fake crowd noise at levels up to 80 decibels, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network reports. The decibel level must be submitted to the league before the game and audio must be used evenly throughout the game, regardless of who’s on offense and who’s on defense.
Teams playing in empty stadiums or nearly empty stadiums are required to use the fake fan noise, but it’s optional for teams with at least 2,500 fans in attendance.
The networks use their own audio, so fake crowd noise that fans are hearing at home is not the same as the fake crowd noise that the players are hearing in the stadium.