WooSox, AI-Media & Backbone: Breaking Language Barriers at Korean Night with LEXI Voice
The Challenge
The Worcester Red Sox (WooSox) are known for cultivating a strong community presence and building unique fan experiences at Polar Park. Each year, the team hosts “Korean Night” to celebrate Worcester’s vibrant Korean community.
But until now, many Korean-speaking fans couldn’t fully experience the game’s excitement. Stadium announcements, player introductions, and live commentary were delivered only in English – leaving a portion of the audience excluded from the action.
Traditional solutions, such as hiring live interpreters, would have been costly, logistically complex, and difficult to scale beyond a one-off event. The WooSox needed a way to:
- Include every fan – Deliver in-language commentary so Korean-speaking fans could connect with the game in real time.
- Enhance fan experience – Create a seamless, culturally relevant experience that deepened community ties.
- Future-proof innovation – Implement a model that could expand to other languages and theme nights without expensive new infrastructure.
“The WooSox clearly indicated that they always wanted their Korean community to feel fully included at Polar Park. This year, we found them the solution.”
The Solution
To solve this, the WooSox partnered with AI-Media and Backbone Broadcast to launch an AI-powered live voice translation experience for Korean Night at Polar Park.
How it worked:
- LEXI Voice – AI-Media’s real-time voice translation platform transformed live game commentary and announcements into natural-sounding Korean, with ultra-low latency to keep translations perfectly in sync with the action.
- Encoder Pro (HD492) – Managed the live audio feed, transmitting content for instant processing by LEXI Voice.
- Backbone SoundSystem Live™ Platform – Delivered the translated Korean commentary directly to fans’ smartphones via the cloud. Fans in the stands and at home simply downloaded the app, selected Korean, and listened live – no extra hardware required. By delivering the experience over existing Wi-Fi/5G with our ultra-low latency bonded streaming technology, we eliminated the need for costly under-seat hardware and made it possible for every seat to become a premium, personalized listening experience.
🎥 See how WooSox fans experienced live Korean commentary at Polar Park with LEXI Voice and Backbone Broadcast in action:
“Our SoundSystem Live platform was built to deliver broadcast-quality audio without the burden of new hardware. On Korean Night, fans simply opened their phones, selected Korean, and instantly felt included – that’s the power of a cloud-native solution.”
Implementation highlights:
- AI-Media managed the solution end-to-end as a fully managed service, reducing the technical lift for the WooSox staff.
- Backbone’s cloud-native platform enabled smooth, multi-location distribution and ensured accessibility both inside Polar Park and remotely.
- Fans were able to experience player intros, stadium announcements, and live game commentary in their own language – creating a powerful connection between the WooSox and their community.
The Results
The initiative, launched at Korean Night on August 22, 2025, delivered immediate and measurable impact:
- Fan engagement: Korean-speaking fans could finally enjoy the game in their own language, creating an inclusive and immersive experience. Early reactions highlighted the “wow factor” of hearing the ballpark experience in Korean.
- Operational efficiency: No interpreters or onsite translation crews were needed – reducing cost and complexity while ensuring broadcast-quality delivery.
- Scalability proven: The model is ready to be replicated for other cultural nights and scaled across multiple languages. LEXI Voice already supports dozens of languages, and Backbone’s mobile-first delivery can reach fans anywhere.
Positive feedback:
“For the first time, I could follow every play in my own language – it made me feel part of the WooSox family.”
“This project proves how AI-driven voice translation can make sports more inclusive, scalable, and cost-efficient. We’re showing the industry what’s possible when AI innovation meets real-world fan needs.”
What’s Next
Building on the success of Korean Night, the WooSox, AI-Media, and SoundSystem Live see a broader opportunity:
- Expanding beyond one-off events – Offering Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages for regular game nights and cultural heritage celebrations.
- League-wide adoption – Extending the solution to other baseball clubs, using Backbone’s syndication tools to manage multilingual content across markets.
- Accessibility at scale – Pioneering inclusive live sports where no fan is left out, regardless of language.
Conclusion
By combining AI-Media’s LEXI Voice with the Backbone SoundSystem Live™ Platform, the WooSox delivered a first-of-its-kind fan experience: a live baseball game seamlessly translated into Korean, available both in-venue and remotely.
This initiative not only celebrated Worcester’s Korean community but also set a new benchmark for how sports teams can use AI-powered translation to broaden reach, strengthen community ties, and unlock new commercial opportunities.