Uefa has commissioned German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland to produce the crowd noise sound effects for this month’s Champions League and Europa League ‘Final 8’ tournaments.
With the remaining matches from this seasons Champions League and Europa League to be played behind closed doors, European football’s governing body has taken the decision to turn to Sky as its service provider for the artificial crowd noise.
When the German Bundesliga resumed after the Covid-19 suspension, Sky offered its viewers the option of playing recorded crowd noise during its coverage.
Alessandro Reitano, sports production director at Sky Deutschland, said that the broadcaster was honoured to be the service provider for the crowd noise option, which he described as “unique in this form”.
The sound is produced from sound recordings from previous matches of the clubs involved. Production will be split between on-site and from Sky’s facilities in Unterföhring on the outskirts of Munich. Sky will work in close cooperation with Uefa and the respective host broadcasters.
The Champions League quarter-final, semi-finals and final matches will all be played in Lisbon from August 12 to August 23, while the remaining round-of-16 matches will be played in the originally scheduled venues on August 7 and 8.
The Europa League quarter-final, semi-finals and final matches will all be played across four German cities (Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Gelsenkirchen) from August 10 to August 21. The remaining round-of-16 matches will be played in the original venues, taking place today, August 6, and yesterday.