ROBUR on a Private Level
Transforming a soccer game into an experience for the blind and visually impaired!

Making it possible for the audience to soak up the stadium atmosphere and hear the magic of an exciting match put into words and passed on is what our colleague Stefan Birkenstock from PTS does on his days off on a voluntary basis so that over 100 visually impaired individuals tuning into the Borussia game in Mönchengladbach can follow along with their ears. Even though this requires a bit of improvisation and acquiring new skills during the corona pandemic.

In his daily life, Stefan Birkenstock is the CEO of welding specialist PTS in Düren and a ROBUR partner, who spends his free time co-hosting the show “Trio für 3 Punkte” (Trio for 3 Points) alongside two other presenters. The three soccer fans have run Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach’s inclusion program for many years now, making it possible for the visually impaired to experience soccer matches and “keep on the ball.”

The “Trio for Three Points” (Trio für 3 Punkte) is made up of Thomas Hörkens, Sidney Rahmel, and Stefan Birkenstock. During the Bundesliga club Borussia Mönchengladbach’s home games, they broadcast from Block 24 in the Borussia-Park soccer stadium and offer home fans as well as guests fans an action-packed stadium experience and give visually impaired soccer fans a detailed audible account of the game.

“Many of our listeners weren’t born totally blind or with a visual impairment. They love soccer and the atmosphere in the stadium, and we enable them to follow the game – more intensely and comprehensively than with a normal radio broadcast,” explains Stefan Birkenstock. They usually host the show using the equipment in the stadium. The three moderators share one microphone and each listener has their own small receiver. They can follow the events of the game directly and the stadium atmosphere indirectly.

This is completely differing during the corona pandemic. The games are played without any spectators, meaning the radio broadcast offers only a fraction of the excitement and is also not focused on the game. This prompted the three hosts to come up with a solution. Both for themselves and for their work, but also so their audience could be a part of Bundesliga action again. And that’s why they moved to hosting the show from home broadcast on the streaming platform Fohlenelf with the help of the Borussia Inclusion Officer. Up to 150 visually impaired people were able to follow the team’s games until the end of the 2019/2020 season, including qualifiers for the Champions League.

When spectators were allowed back in the stadium at the start of the new 2020/2021 season, the trio also moved back into the stadium and aired the show both “on site” and online, so that visually impaired spectators with compromised health could also continue to follow the players “close up.” Even when spectators had to be barred from the stadiums again, the three hosts were able to continue reporting from the stadium and offer a steadily growing fan base an online report of all Mönchengladbach’s home games, including the Champions League matches.

“We’ve learned a lot in the last months. Relaying the emotions of a game from the TV screen to the audience was a challenge. But it was a good lesson for moderating a game from an empty stadium. Let’s hope this phase will all soon be over. We miss the atmosphere of a jam-packed stadium as well as our “family” of listeners. We’d love to meet in person again and watch the games together again. But until that is possible, we’re just going to carry on – full speed ahead,” concludes Stefan Birkenstock.

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ROBUR on a Private Level Transforming a soccer game into an experience for the blind and visually impaired!

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ROBUR on a Private Level
Transforming a soccer game into an experience for the blind and visually impaired!