Japanese conglomerate Yamaha Corporation has teamed up with sports streaming service DAZN to launch For the Fans Project, a new initiative that will seek to enhance the at-home viewing experience for supporters unable to attend stadiums.
The project will focus on Yamaha’s remote cheering application, which launched in beta mode in May 2020. The ‘Remote Cheerer powered by SoundUD’ application allows users to send cheers and applause to the stadium by tapping a button on their smartphone while watching broadcasts.
Yamaha trialled the technology for the first time publicly last June and said at the time that it had received global interest in the application. So far, the system has been used in around 500 football, baseball and basketball games, with more than 100 million cheers having been delivered to venues.
A new talk room feature was added to the application in February, providing an interactive remote cheering experience that allows users to watch the action while listening to and interacting with other fans through live commentary, chats and other audio talk.
For the Fans Project will look to establish a new style of watching games through remote cheering and spread this style to provide more sports fans with new opportunities to experience cheering.
Starting this month, various talk room events will be held in collaboration with DAZN’s original content, such as ‘Yabecchi Stadium’ and the ‘Baseball Trend Research Institute’, along with other events that will bring fans together across various sports.
DAZN said it would continue to work with the sports community to “revitalise and establish a culture of remote support” amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Martyn Jones, executive vice-president of DAZN Japan, said: “We are very pleased to be able to collaborate with Yamaha Corporation’s great technology ‘Remote Cheerer’ to further provide fans with more excitement of live sports. The spread of the new coronavirus is still affecting many people and the sporting world is with no exceptions. We believe that fans’ passion and excitement make the sport as exciting as it is.
“’Remote Cheerer’ can bring the fans and the athletes closer without being at the stadium. We also believe this is a great development which will make sport’s first-hand excitement more available to a wider range of people, not just those affected by the coronavirus outbreak, but those who may have other reasons not to be able to go to the stadium easily. DAZN values diversity, equity and inclusion, and we hope that this project will bring the joy and excitement of sport closer to as many people as possible.”
Shinobu Kawase, managing executive officer of Yamaha Corporation, added: “Yamaha continues to take on the challenge of solving various social issues to enrich people’s lives with the technology and sensibilities it has cultivated from its roots in sound and music, and ‘Remote Cheerer’ is one such initiative.
“We are very pleased that DAZN Japan Investment GK shares our concept of universal design for the world of sports viewing, and that we can work together to promote a new style of viewing and remote cheering. It’s great to be able to work with DAZN, which has created a world where people can watch a variety of sports anytime, anywhere, and we hope that this project will encourage more people to use ‘Remote Cheerer’ to watch sports broadcasts.
“Through this project, we hope to deliver the power and excitement of sports to as many people as possible and contribute to the further development of the sports industry.”
Image: DAZN
