NBC New York’s Air Cushion Studio Floors
Picture Parade #1…NBC New York’s Air Cushion Studio Floors
Most never knew that under each studio floor at 30 Rock, there are air cushions to prevent vibration from the subway that runs directly under the building.
When Rockefeller Plaza was built in 1933, there was an elevated train that ran down 6th Avenue. In later years, it was moved underground and that’s when the problems started. I don’t know much about the when and where this began, but I remember reading about this around 1963. I thought it was fascinating, but remember something about big coil springs in the floors too.
I think this drawing is from the early ’60s and shows how inflated rubber bags were used to suspend the studio floor from the sub floor. If you know more, please chime in! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Way better than the Vancouver Film Studio floors that have alligators under them!
Thanks Steve! That is a fantastic clarification. And it also renews my confusion. Exactly how does one suspend the walls and ceiling with springs?
I seen this done on springs, but never inflated bags.
Off topic, but…which CBS studio had issues with color cameras because of interference from trains? Was that Sullivan Theatre or Grand Central?
Makes sense to me because when I worked at Byron Motion Pictures in Washington DC, we chased the problem of NOT achieving video resolution in our EBR (electron beam recorder). It was finally determined that vibrations from the nearby rail traffic going into the Union Train Station was modulating the beam of the EBR. The low tech and inexpensive resolution was to schedule the EBR transfers late at night when the passenger trains were not running.
Wow!
They told us about that when we were looking at 8H when on the tour in 1970 or 71!
This is Studio 6A at 441 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. This was the first tv studio to be in use in the post-WWII WGN Building. Therefore, the control room window is divided in two. Until Studio 7B, Master Control, was completed, the equipment racks were located in one of the two halves. I believe, half of the control room was scheduled to be turned into a client’s booth, once 7B was completed. 6A and 7A were the two “hi-tech” studios. The remaining studios had architectural pretensions. This is from the November 1950 Popular Mechanics. Here is a photo of the same studio from a PM book on television. Notice the double control room window.
On the tour in the 1960s and 70s the pages would all say that the entire 8H was suspended on springs, making it entirely isolated at the walls and floor from the building. None ever could explain exactly what that all meant – their interpretations ran the gamut from springs under the floor, to giant springs anchored in the structure’s walls that suspended the entire room!
A few years back I worked a corporate event that borrowed (with Lorne’s personal approval) the SNL set. The NBC facilities person assigned to the event couldn’t believe that the tour made such grandiose claims. She explained how she believed there was simply rubber and felt under the floor.When I insisted that the word “springs” was used, she couldn’t fathom how metal springs could have been utilized under the floor, much less isolating the walls.
Chicago Classical Music station had floor floating on bags, but they were filled with some oil, like a vegetable oil, as I recall in 1982.
Of course the 8H story is that NBC orchestra musicians complained that the subway vibrations made them play off key and at Toscanini’s insistence the floor was isolated.
The Independent Line that ran along 6th Ave was elevated until 1940. The West Building is directly adjacent to the subway line. But there are no studios in the West Building and it is isolated from the Studio Building behind it (to the east). Even so, most if not all of the radio studios were built on rubber pads that helped isolate them from the steel structure of the building. As renovations took place over the years, these pads were removed. Since the early radio days, only two studios have isolation pads today: An audio mix room on the 8th floor used for Saturday Night Live music mixes, and Studio 8G. 8G received a new floor in 2013 as part of its renovation for Late Night with Seth Meyers. The isolation pads were installed in order to limit audio transmission between Studio 8G and Studio 6B which is directly below. Here are two photos of Studio 8G taken during the renovation which clearly show the isolation pads:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisdegan/12795077433/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dennisdegan/12795402514/