New Sound System Invented to Silence Soccer Hooligan Chants

Holland scientist, Sander van Wijngaarden, together with his colleagues at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research in Delft, made such invention for football stadiums in order to defuse abusive or racist chants in a football match. The major principal of the system employs slightly postponed echos, which make chants very difficult to synchronise, and thus neutralise the unwelcome message.

The volunteers were surrounded by loudspeakers that simulated the sound of a chanting crowd and were asked join in. However one speaker replayed the crowds chant with a short delay.

When the delay was greater than 200 milliseconds the volunteers found it too difficult to chant coherently. Increasing the delay, up to about 1 second, was even more effective. "It was very confusing," van Wijngaarden says.

Link via Racist soccer chanting neutralized with echoes & Hooligan chants silenced by delayed echoes

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