When I asked Sirius whether I could have a tour of Sirius Headquarters in NYC, I have to be honest that I was pretty much expecting a "thanks, but no thanks" response. Afterall, let's be honest, most bloggers really don't get the attention from corporations that say, USA Today would.
But it seems that the times are changing because rather than getting blown off, I immediately got a very open invite and the experience only got better from there.
As soon as I stepped out of the cab I looked up to realize that Sirius Satellite Radio is located in the McGraw-Hill Building, which is in a word... gorgeous. Upong I entering the building, the vastness of the lobby is really jaw dropping. Go through the security check, and it was off to the 36th Floor for the good stuff.
The first thing you notice upon walking through the doors is the huge satellite "control room" where there's an enormous screen showing the current status of the three geosyncronous satellites in orbit. To a satellite geek, you can just sit there and stare at this thing forever (I did). This is actually no longer the main control room (which has been moved to Jersey or something).
(I should probably explain to everyone right now that pretty much all the rooms at Sirius have glass walls. This creates a beautiful effect when you're there, but for photography... it poses a bit of a problem. So I apologize right away for the random glare, reflections, and other random goodness that comes with taking pictures of glass. Anyway, back to the photo tour....)
On the opposing wall, there's just hundreds upon hundreds of signatures on the walls from all the artists and guests who've been through these doors. It's really neat to read all the crazy stuff on these walls.
From there, it was off to the server room. Each one of these rack units represents each separate channel in broadcast by Sirius.
Here's Studio B (Studio A was in use when I was there, so no pics). They're all setup to produce live broadcasts pretty much whenever they want.
This is the NFL Radio studio, which as you can see, has a great view of Manhattan.
We walked by Shade 45's studio which had the curtains drawn so it wasn't all that interesting, but what I really found cool was that OutQ and Shade 45 are right next to each other. Apparently everyone gets along together just fine.
Here's technical room where much of the coordinating of broadcasts where the DISH Network simulcasts are handled.
I got the chance to sit in during a broadcast of the Jim Breuer show on Raw Dog, which was really fun. I didn't want to distract anyone so I turned off the camera's flash, so I apologize for the blurry shots. I wanted to get some shots of the software, equipment and you can almost see Jim Breuer in the background of the first shot. Either way, it was really awesome to be able to sit in on that.
One the really neat things is the varying sizes of the broadcast studios. Some were big, but mostly only because they needed to accommodate guests, but for many other stations you really don't need that much space at all. So Sirius efficiently utilizes the space with these broadcast booths, which I hear are quite comfortable despite their size. The first shot shows how close they are in proximity and the second shot (complete with reflection of myself) actually shows how it looks on the inside.
Here's one of the office sections:
And a product showcase upstairs amoungst the other office area:
And to finish the tour up I took some quick logo shots with the signature wall in the background:
Really, one of the most impressive things was the atmosphere at Sirius. Everyone was so friendly and nice, casually chatting with me as we walked around. It really was refreshing to see as I was expecting more of a busy atmosphere.
Quite an amazing experience to peer inside such an influential company. Thank you Sirius.
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