RBDG was commissioned as design architects and acousticians for NFL Films' new world headquarters, a ground-up 200,000 square-foot complex in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey.
Designed to meet growing production needs of NFL Films and the constantly changing worlds of audio, video, and film technology, the facility is a combination of two buildings linked together with a two-story office bridge element. The two buildings reflect the separate yet connected internal structure of NFL Films itself.
The exterior skin of the building is designed using a combination of translucent panels, concrete, metal and glass. The abundant use of transparent and translucent materials on the skin allows daylight to stream into the building wherever possible, so even the spaces that are typically in the dark, such as the recording environments, are exposed to natural light.
Technical Building
The technical building houses all of the spaces where audio and video are recorded, edited, combined, broadcast, and archived.
The audio area features three mix rooms, each with a studio, a mix-to-picture room, three pre-mix rooms, three music edit rooms, two sound transfer rooms and two large MIDI composition rooms.
Studio A, the largest of the three studios, will accommodate an orchestral ensemble. Large windows will allow ample natural light into the studio, and a clear line of sight to the control room will allow effective communication between the musicians and the engineer.
Studios B and C are smaller recording studios, each with a dedicated control room. Both of these studios feature natural light via windows punched through a curved exterior wall.
All of the quiet spaces in the audio area require a great deal of noisy gear, so the audio area also has a central machine room that holds racks of technical equipment. The equipment is accessible from any of the edit or control rooms with just a push of a button, eliminating the need to store the equipment in the edit rooms.
The mix-to-picture room is a unique space equipped with a large projection screen for viewing video in a theater-like setting while adding audio to the film.
The video area includes eight online edit suites, six of which employ video projection for master monitoring. All suites are equipped with 5.1 surround audio and are designed for eventual conversion to nonlinear editing. Six telecine rooms allow NFL Films an astonishing capacity for transferring film to tape. The graphics department is also housed in the video area.
The large video central machine room has the capacity for over 200 racks of equipment, and provides NFL Films with the capacity to integrate the next generation of HDTV hardware without taking its current systems offline. Redundant mechanical systems in the critical areas ensure that the facility can continue to operate, even in the event of a partial mechanical system failure.
A 6,500 square-foot fire-proof concrete videotape vault in the technical building allows NFL Films to safeguard its extensive video library. This vault forms a completely independent structure to support the large main air handling unit, isolating the rest of the building structure from mechanical vibration.
A 60' x 80' Sound Stage includes a two-wall cyclorama, motorized lighting grid, 'drive-in' access, and dressing and make-up facilities. A smaller 30' x 30' insert stage, as well as stage-area audio and video control rooms, surround the larger sound stage. Support spaces for set construction and production storage are also nearby.
Bridge
The bridge that connects the two buildings houses offices for fifty producers, each of whom have Avid video editing workstations, and allows for safe passage throughout the complex during inclement weather.
Administrative Building
The administrative building includes a screening theater, which allows previewing work in progress to an audience of 150. A film processing lab will develop the many miles of film that NFL Films shoots each year. Eight decades of football film history will be preserved in a 3,200 square-foot fire-proof, climate-controlled film vault.
Future expansion space in this building may eventually be used for National Football League offices.
Although the project is designed primarily to meet NFL Films' myriad of technical requirements, it will offer all visitors views into the inner workings of the film and production process. A wall of glass in the administrative building lobby fronts the film processing lab, and a large window off the technical building lobby affords visitors views into the video department's expansive central machine room.
RBDG is honored to have had the opportunity to work on this world-class project.