BBC turns down Wimbledon grunting with new technology

The talk this year at Wimbledon has centered around grunting, specifically from the female players. In Victoria Azarenka’s first round match, several spectators were clearly annoyed at her “warbling” that at times measured as loud as 95 decibels. They don’t call her the “Soviet Screamer” for nothing folks.

It got so bad that the All England Lawn and Tennis Club chief executive Ian Ritchie commented on it.

“I think there is an education problem with younger players. And certainly (in) my postbag … if you say ‘what do you get most letters about,’ I would say that grunting is high up,” he said.
“We are aware, whether you are watching it on TV or here, people don’t particularly like it,” Ritchie added. “We are one tournament in a global circuit. But we have made our views clear and we would like to see less of it.”

There seems to be no action from tennis’ governing body for grunting (as of yet), but as far as TV spectators in Britain are concerned, the BBC may have found a solution. Meet Wimbledon NextMix, a gadget that allows you to filter out the sound of players shrieks.

Available on the BBC Radioplayer over the internet it has a sliding scale which the tennis fan can use to alter the contrast between the commentators and the sounds coming from the court.

The launch of the product, which is free to download, comes just days after the head of Wimbledon said that female tennis players who grunt too loudly are putting off their opponents and spoiling the games for the spectators.

NetMix allows BBC Radio listeners to choose exactly what sounds they want to listen to and when.
Rupert Brun, the head of technology for the BBC’s audio and music department, said that they had come up with the new player after receiving lots of complaints from listeners about the sound balance when listening to sports matches on the radio.

While the initial use of this gadget will be for Wimbledon, it may work wonders for those husbands that want to watch porn with their wife in the other room. Instead of loud shrieks of orgasmic pleasure, your significant other will just think you’re watching a movie about a pizza delivery boy and one of his gracious bosomy customers.

BBC launches gadget silencing Wimbledon grunts [Sydney Morning Herald]

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