Before the Redesign
Upon taking on the Studio Supervisor role at Facebook New York, there were three spaces that were established as Facebook Media Central: The Empire Set, Studio City, and the FBMC Oculus Room.
Empire Set
The Empire Set, an open space set with no walls, a modest lighting grid and had a view down Broadway of the Empire State Building, which wasn't all that prevalent in any video shots.
The issues with the space were:
- Being that the set wasn't enclosed by walls, sound from the surrounding work areas would often interrupt the Live streams and create a rift amongst the talent and talent would often feel uncomfortable looking at the backs of Facebook employees, which made for bad Facebook Live experiences for both the talent and the viewers on Facebook
- On the flip side of this, more boisterous talent would often interrupt work being done in the surrounding work pod areas.
- Employees would often crowd around the set upon hearing that one of their favorite celebrities was doing a Facebook live and ask to take photos with the talent after the shoot making the talent feel uncomfortable.
- Lighting the set was difficult. Changing weather patterns made it hard to consistently light the set. Often, we'd have very little time for adjusting light levels.
Studio City
Studio City was the little studio that could, standing in a 16'x20' area. It was enclosed, so sound and lighting weren't issues during the Facebook Live shoots. The biggest issue that we found was that the existing set didn't cater to everyone in our vast array of partners including celebrities, musicians, authors, influencers, actors, athletes, and on-air talent.
FBMC Oculus
The original goal of this room was to showcase the Oculus Rift to incoming partners and clients. Unfortunately, the Oculus Rift and the room itself weren't at all used.