Slashdot Mirror
Digitally Filtering Out the Drone of the World Cup
qubezz writes "World Cup soccer fans may think a hornet's nest has infiltrated their TVs. However the buzz that is the background soundtrack of the South African-hosted games comes from tens of thousands of plastic horns called vuvuzelas, that are South Africa's version of ringing cowbells or throwing rats. It looks like the horns won't be banned anytime soon though. A savvy German hacker, 'Tube,' discovered that the horn sound can be effectively filtered out by applying a couple of digital notch filters to the audio at the frequencies the horn produces (another summary in English). Now it looks like even broadcasters like the the BBC and others are considering using such filters on their broadcasts."
My TV already has a digital filter. Its called the off switch.
1. Cricket bat.
2. Hearing Aid.
3. Petrol funnel.
4. Water sprayer. (force trumpet side down into water)
5. Drinking funnel. Nuff said.
6. 4G mobile communication
7. Walking stick,
8. Light saber. (Just insert a torch) as seen on Starwars...
9. Jousting Stick (simply insert one into another.)
10. And of coarse... supporting any team/thing you like...
there is no spoon. or fork. there is a butter knife, and it's dull.
No, you're not. Not minding the sound is perfectly fine, but I've seen a lot of comments around the Internet insinuating that if you hate the sound of vuvuzelas, then you're a colonial racist who hates South African culture. As opposed to, say, someone who hates sounds that are really fucking annoying.
Still, if the BBC and others are going to start filtering them, we get the best of both worlds. Nothing has to be banned, no ugly racial tensions are stirred, and we can watch the World Cup without being driven halfway to insanity. Count me pleased.
Dislike the Electoral College? Lobby your state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Because it is something foreign, and probably also because it is African, they're all upset.
Bull shit.
People are upset because the noise is extremely distracting, conveys nothing about the fans' excitement with the game, and according to a South African audiologist who was on the news yesterday, the sound is well past the threshold for causing hearing damage.
It would be one thing if the sound changed to reflect the excitement of the crowd during the game, but it doesn't. It's just a constant loud wall of sound at basically the same level from the start of the game to the end.
It's similar in level and monotony to running jet engines at full throttle on test stands in the stadium, throughout the entire game. It doesn't add, it detracts.
What you are saying is that traditions have to be respected, no matter how stupid or disruptive they are.
I propose an alternative. All other countries should create a tradition of randomly setting explosive charges off in their stadiums whenever the South African team is there.
It's our tradition, and you have to respect it.
Putting moderation advice in your
Me and my friend made a Puredata patch (http://puredata.info) to filter the vuvuzela sound. You have the ability to choose the sound also, making it more dynamic.
check it at http://joaomartins.entropiadesign.org/2010/06/15/vuvuzela-filter-a-puredata-approach/
When the World Cup started, I thought of playing around with notch filters to remove the noise, but the whole thing just reeked of effort. The human brain is actually pretty good at filtering out noise if you give it a chance. Just watch the games and don't worry about the vuvuzelas and before long you won't even notice them. I don't. It's a lot like what happens when you live next to a highway.
The BBC themselves has an article up (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8738604.stm) about the ineffectiveness of this filter, the issues filtering out the noise of vuluzelas could cause for the coverage in general, and the rest of their own good reasons for NOT using this shim.
The role of the writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say. -Anais Nin
Chatroulette and sports broadcasters all trying to filter out the horn on the same day?
I wrote up a blog post about using Sound eXchange (sox) to filter the sound here: http://www.russellbeattie.com/blog/linux-command-line-streaming-vuvuzela-filter , but the short version is this:
rec -d vol .5 equalizer 233 .1o -48 equalizer 466 .03o -48 equalizer 932 .02o -48 equalizer 1864 .2o -24 | play -d
or from a response to my post here: http://www.yusufk.za.net/?p=520
rec -d | play -d vol 0.9 bandreject 116.56 3.4q bandreject 233.12 3.4q bandreject 466.24 3.4q bandreject 932.48 3.4q bandreject 1864 3.4q
After testing, I feel the parameters could be tweaked a bit more - but these definitely make a difference.
-Russ
Me
No, so you can watch the entire game without a beehive buzzing in your ear. Come to think of it, this will probably resolve on it's own via the advertisers. When they figure out everyone is muting the game, and no one can hear their ads as a result, you can bet pressure will be applied on the stadiums to ban them. Although there may be thousands who go to the game to watch, there are millions made on commercials from the millions of viewers who catch the game on TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPVlAhK2j2o Watch that !
Call me when it works on Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
if the BBC and others are going to start filtering them, we get the best of both worlds
Except we don't. The players are unable to communicate on the pitch in any way, leading to the worst standard of play. As players cannot be warned when somebody is behind them, they just play safe and hoof the ball up the pitch just in case. The world's top players are being made to look like talentless hacks in dull low-scoring games. This may well go on to be the worst World Cup, and after this the Champions League finals may go on to eclipse the World Cup finals.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
An earlier poster wrote:
I've seen a lot of comments around the Internet insinuating that if you hate the sound of vuvuzelas, then you're a colonial racist who hates South African culture.
The funny thing is that the vuvuzelas are a recent introduction into South African culture. They are not only post-Colonial, they are post-Apartheid.
The maker of the horns admits that the prototype came from the USA... http://www.boogieblast.co.za/vuvuzela.htm
and this has been known in wider soccer circles for at least a year... http://www.footballiscominghome.net/the-hosts/the-vuvuzela/
and while the plastic horns have been around since the late 90s in South Africa... http://www.southafrica.info/2010/vuvuzela.htm
the current mass-producer only started up in 2001... http://www.vuvuzelas.com/about.html
Additionally, there's the blaringly obvious notion that the vuvuzela looks nothing like the kudu horn it allegedly comes from and looks everything like a cheap rip-off of the sort of long thin horns you see draped with flags playing fanfares when kings enter in films set in the middle ages, but I suppose it's expecting a lot for everyone to think critically. Last time I checked, kudu horns didn't have embouchures, either, which is what allows the plastic horn blowers to last all game.
As a South African, I wholeheartedly support anything that annoys the opposition.
Just don't expect "the opposition" to bring their shows to your country anytime soon. No FIFA, no Olympics, no big international events of any type. They're all gonna watch at these broadcasts, listen to the worldwide complaints, and mark "don't broadcast events from here" with an arrow pointing to South Africa on their maps of the world.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
It's not a tradition it's a fad. These stupid things only began to be made and sold in south africa around 2001. That's not tradition. That's a fad. They never stop. It's not just during the game.. they NEVER stop. It's dangerous to be around them without hearing protection. They've been measured at 127dB. That's louder than a rock concert.
And would I want to see a ban on fan traditions in my country? Um.. yeah. Yeah, that would be a good idea. FIFA really SHOULD start cracking down on fans acting like self-indulgent assholes and feeling entitled to act that way because, holy shit it's FOOTBALL and obnoxious hooliganism is part of the TRADITION dontchaknow.
At what point should they step in? How about when fan behaviour actually starts HARMING OTHER FANS.. which these horns do.
frankly I'd be overjoyed if this world cup turns out to have received abysmally poor viewership due to these things. Maybe then they'll act.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
I can't imagine them banning vuvus would have much of an impact on the game -- for example, the crowd noise itself would be almost equally effective at preventing the players from communicating
Actually, it is much worse than normal crowd noise - they have already shown that a vuduzela can generate 125dB from 1m. 40,000 of those things can most definitely cause a level of hearing damage that normal cheering cannot.
I was in one of the louder indoor arenas (the HP Pavilion in San Jose) when it got over 105dB in the NHL playoffs - that was enough to cause my eardrums to literally start clipping, and a bit of pain after a while. I couldn't imagine 125+ dB for almost 2 hours straight...
"Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country?"
Like a ban on thundersticks? Yes, yes I would. Those things are horrible.
Yeah, when the World Cup was in Germany in 2006, you didn't see anyone try to hinder the traditions of violent neo-nazi hooliganism at soccer events. No way. We wouldn't want to ban things that fans like to do, even if they harm others and detract from the game.
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
I admire FIFA's decision, they valued the host nation's fans over the international fans.
Let's not go pretending that this is some little guy sticking it to The Man kind of thing.
I know that quaint ethnic traditions are pure and good and "homogenization" is evil, but when you hold an international sporting event, there's the expectation that the players should be able to play the goddamn sport without interference from the fans. It's up there with "providing a stadium", you're just kind of expected to do that.
And yes, if the fan traditions of my country are disruptive to the game, I would very much like FIFA to ban them.
sic transit gloria mundi
I wonder how long before half of what one sees and hears in supposedly "live" TV has been digitally massaged in some manner.
You could take out ugly buildings to make a scene more aesthetically pleasing, notch out one particular persons voice, or remove an 'annoying' five seconds of tape.
This subtle dichotomy between actual real life and tv "real life" could widen to the point of audiences being fed the "Leave it to Beaver" version of the real. We're generally already pissed off enough that our lives don't match the fake TV shows but this could bring a whole new level of cognitive dissonance, since these are supposedly "live" evens.
The horns are there, in the stadium. They may be annoying but they are part of the event. I guess if it turns cloudy, perhaps they can photoshop in some blue sky...
Regards.
"Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country?"
Only the fucking stupid and purely assholish ones.
This qualifies.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
The american viewership will be abysmal because the coverage is not even at the standard of american football 40 years ago. What they need is more angles, more cameras, flying cameras, cameras on players, gyroscopic camera in the ball, cameras on the fans, cameras on the refs, cameras on hot babes, cameras cameras cameras... and someone that is good at producing to throw it all together live, so the thing flows and isn't confusing.
Sure, the way they shoot your football now it's like you're actually there... in the nose bleeds on one side if the field or the other. That shit is boring. I simply don't understand how there's all that money your football games, world cup... it's so much bigger than american football most Americans aren't aware... and they can't seem to understand that only Hollywood and it's decendants are any good at television, and in particular, sports coverage... I guess my point is, when you're that rich, you don't chince on the part that will make you richer... you buy the best, and instead, the foreign football games are produced by Mr. Magoo.
Btw, not sure why they haven't been notching these frequencies out... I mean, I can't believe the first engineer (or any of the engineers since) at the first broadcast of these obnoxious and meaningless noisemakers didn't just dial them in and drop them out... seems like it'd almost be a reflex to do that, so I call WTF on inexperienced foreign broadcasters.
The Admin and the Engineer
The horns really annoy me too, and I agree with everything you said about safety and fan behavior. But there's no denying that bee-swarm hum is part of the South African football experience. It may be a recent phenomenon, but it's a point of pride for their fans and part of their identity. Right or wrong, native Africans see it as their stamp on post-apartheid Association Football.
The comparison to hooligans isn't fair. There's no intent to hurt people or ruin the game for others, even if that's the outcome. Hooligans brutally assault innocent people without provocation, destroy property, throw body fluids, and threaten/humiliate players and officials. Even worse, it's not just out of control drunks, their actions are often organized and planned.
I didn't expect anyone on Slashdot to trot out the old and tired "real football" line. Soccer is the real football. You know, the sport that is played with the feet and with a ball? You must have been thinking of handegg instead, that American sport where players play with the hands and an egg, instead of a ball?
http://pix.motivatedphotos.com/2009/2/2/633692057194761860-handegg.jpg
I'll consider bullfighting to be a sport when the first undefeated bull retires.
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
Americans call a game "football" where physical foot contact with the ball, by both sides, throughout the entire game, adds up to maybe 2 seconds.
Between this and being the last major country to eschew the metric system, it's like you *want* the world to mock you ;-P
Yep I saw it, they played like a team of highly skilled individuals instead of the well oiled team they normally are and played a close game against a team they should have smashed, wonder what could have interferred with there ability to communicate and play as a team huh?
So yeah I certainly saw the Brzil game, the question is did you???
You don't have to worry about the camera angles, the 0-0 games are MORE than enough to keep me from watching.
Last night's (my time) Portugal vs Ivory Coast 0:0 game was one of the most exciting in this cup yet. Uruguay vs France 0:0 was tedious and as exciting as watching paint dry. The fact of being a scoreless draw is not determinative of the quality of the game.
Now I can understand not watching a football code you don't personally enjoy. I don't watch AFL, Rugby only very rarely and for me American football makes even golf look exciting. What I certainly wouldn't do is bother to read articles about games I don't like, let alone comment on them.
What's more, I figure, it's probably me, rather than those games themselves. After all millions of people get excited about the other codes. I guess that American football, for instance, requires an understanding of the strategy and tactics I simply don't possess. It might be a bit like a cross between chess and football for those who dig it. To me it's a series of erratic starts and stops, hardly any time is spent actually playing?! I get as much out of it as I would from a recital of Armenian poetry.
OTHO, anyone who fails to appreciate the beauty of a game like the scoreless draw between Portugal and the Ivory Coast is clearly a deranged philistine! ;)
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
yeah, i really can't see how multiple humans, armed, some mounted on horseback, against a single animal trapped in a big pen can be called "sport" by anyone. it's torture porn; nothing more than drawn-out slaughter.
do not read this line twice.
A guy on holiday in Spain, feels somewhat hungry, so goes into the village restaurant. Gets the menu and after some careful study, orders the paella. Quite tasty it was too, but there was an absolutely delicious smell coming from the next table, where one of the locals, Carlos, was eating.
He calls over the waiter, and in his best holiday Spanish asks: "Tell me, what is that dish there, the one that smells so fantastic."
The Waiter replies: Ah yes, that is made from certain rather delicate areas of prime freshly killed bull. It is then marinated in our secret sauce mix, and garnished with fresh herbs, and just a touch of garlic, with our special red wine dribbling.
"Sounds superb, may I have some please.?"
"For you sir, as a special favour. But we have none left today. Come back tomorrow, an hour or so after the bullfight finishes"
The guy arrives on cue, his meal is ready, piping hot and tastes out of this world.
He calls the waiter over again, tips him hugely, sends his compliments to the chef, but asks. "But tell me, why was my portion so much smaller than the one Carlos had yesterday"?"
The waiter shrugged and replied "Senor, sometimes the bull wins...".
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
American football is short bursts of incredibly intricate plays in which every player is doing something worth analysis, and it provides long pauses during which that analysis can be shown from every angle possible in a three-dimensional world. The game we are talking about here is on a different time scale, in which players don't have so many set plays (since it doesn't start from the more-or-less known configuration of two separate groups facing each other), so every player needs to be inventive and adapt as the play progresses. There are also very few times when a producer can be sure nothing interesting is going to happen, so replays need to be kept to a minimum, and following the continually changing strategies might be more difficult with frequent camera-angle changes.
Also, I suspect there is a single feed for the coverage (can someone confirm?) so a video producer needs to be extra confident before interrupting the feed to however many networks to show a replay that might overrun the play that makes the game. For most American football games, I think the coverage is bought by a single network, and the person selecting the camera angles and replays works for the same people as do the announcers, so they may have more freedom to try things out.
I would also be interested in seeing what the coverage in the U.S. actually looks like (including the half-time and full-time replays), and comparing it with BBC/ITV broadcasts. Maybe we are not talking about the same thing.
Then I saw the bullfight.
It was torture, plain and simple.
I'm glad I saw it to witness the reality of it and next time I'm there, I'll join the protest.
I don't give a shit about what people do in SA. What gets on my nuts is drunk Germans running around in Germany after a game, blowing into plastic horns. The traditional "driving around in your car while randomly hitting the horn" has the advantage of the idiots moving fast enough that they're out of earshot after a few seconds.
This has nothing to do with South Africa. It has everything to do with annoying pricks now having a new toy to annoy the crap out of me with. I wish you a great World Cup, really. You're not at fault for so many soccer fans being adult-sized noisy brats. But don't expect me to not complain when you give the not-so-little pests new weapons of mass annoyance.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)