Yamaha's Remote Cheerer app brings sports fans closer to their favourite teams, digitally

Football fans have reason to cheer. The Premier League, La Liga, and Italy’s Serie A have all announced that they will resume the 2019/20 season in the next couple of weeks, following in the footsteps of Germany’s Bundesliga, which returned to action on May 16. With shelter-in-place rules still in place in most countries around the world, meaning that no one is going to watch their favourite team play anytime soon.

However, Japanese hardware manufacturer Yamaha hopes that it can replicate the experience of full-house crowds for sporting events through its new app, Remote Cheerer. It lets fans tap on their smartphones to applaud their team, and also, boo the opponents. For the system to work, the app has to be linked with the stadium’s audio system so that athletes can have an immersive experience including pre-recorded soundbites and chants from their fans.



Field tests were conducted by Yamaha at Japan’s Shizuoka Stadium, a venue for J League matches. As a part of the experiment, 58 speakers were placed at different positions in the stadium and users of the teams that were a part of the simulated matchup were able to applaud and jeer the opposition from different stands, akin to the home and away sections at football matches.

Yamaha said that their personnel at the stadium were able to feel as if they were at a football match despite the size of the stadium and the mistimed chants. The Remote Cheerer app, Yamaha says, can also be used for other events such as esports, boxing, or reality television via livestream.