from Greg Wyshynski of ESPN,

ESPN: How are games going to sound for the players inside the arena?

Mayer: From a game presentation standpoint, it's going to sound extremely similar, with music and whistles and public address announcers and pump-up videos. We're going to experiment with the crowd noise inside the arena. That's something we're going to do during the exhibition play. We've heard what it sounds like in here, but we want to actually hear if it's a distraction for the players. I heard a report that some of the baseball players, it sounds like, had reactions to [piped-in crowd noise]. So we're going to try it out. Let's see what level it needs to be at.

On the TV side, we're bringing in audio sweeteners. We've really worked hard at getting every possible sound at all of these different arenas. That's for the broadcast, but we would try to take [that sound] and bring it into the arena, too.

ESPN: You're using crowd noise from EA Sports?

Mayer: Yes, but we're also bringing in sounds from our past broadcasts. EA Sports has shared their library, and that's primarily what we're going to work with. They have sounds from every arena. They're all unique, and they're all very good. We're going to incorporate those into the broadcast. You're going to hear a crowd, even if there is no crowd.

We've always mixed the microphones on the rink with crowd noise coming from inside the arena, and now they're not. Some of those great sounds we love in hockey -- there's nothing to block them now. That's come up a few times, and we really think they'll be more significant in the broadcast. There's going to be heavy emphasis on the sounds of the skates and the checks. For our outdoor games, we pipe those sounds into the stadium more than we do in the arena. Now we're going to do that more in the arena to help keep up the energy.

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