The experience of visiting XM Satellite Radio's headquarters takes you into a world of musical enthusiasm bordering on the fanatic, interwoven with a healthy dose of futuristic technology. The people of XM are dedicated to creating an entertainment experience unlike any other, and the technology that they use to reach this end is truly state-of-the-art.
 Twin dishes (each one 7 meters in diameter) transmit the signal to XM's orbital satellites. |
Facilities
1500 Eckington Place, just a few blocks away from the National Mall in Washington DC, is the home of XM Satellite Radio, an unassuming brick building in an unassuming part of the city. Unassuming, that is, except for the twin satellite dishes, 7 meters in diameter, stark white and boldly displaying the XM logo, perched atop one wing of the building.
From the outside, the building looks like its bricks have seen better days. But upon stepping inside, you are confronted with modern architecture and smiling faces behind a security desk on one side of the spacious lobby.
Formerly, the building was a printing facility for National Geographic, and the rugged, industrial architecture of the building is still apparent under a layer of modern interior design. Ceilings are high, often with exposed girders and light fixtures, giving the place an open and airy feel. In contrast, the place is furnished and decorated in modern styles. Overall, you find a solid, modern veneer over rugged, industrial construction.
The company's enthusiasm for music as an art form is obvious everywhere you turn. Hallways are decorated with large, glossy photographs of music's legendary artists: Elvis, Tina Turner, Willie Nelson, Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, and Johnny Cash, to name just a few. Another example is the music-geek names given to some of the rooms. They have a Beatles Room (a conference room) and the Phil Spector Room (one of five production rooms).
 Larger than life photos adorn the halls of XM. |
Even when waiting for an elevator, these music lovers want to be able to enjoy listening to tunes. Each floor's elevator lobby has a series of plastic domes hanging from the ceiling, just overhead. A circle is painted on the floor below each dome. Stepping into a circle, you discover that each dome is playing a different XM channel. When standing under a dome, you can easily hear the music. But standing outside of the circle on the floor, even by mere inches, you hear nothing. The domes are tied in to the digital network that runs through the building and XM's cutting-edge technology delivers a stereo image to the listener. These listening circles are just another way that XM shows its use of applied technology for the music enthusiast.
Broadcasting Studios
The creative force behind each XM channel is a Program Director and a small team of programmers (DJs). Together, they pilot the microphone and select the 24-hour-a-day entertainment for their channel. En masse, they are led by a Music Director, Lee Abrams, who has set forth the prime directive: "Respect the listener, respect the artist." As long as this rule is adhered to, the individual Program Directors are free to play what they want. Except for one other tiny rule: "If it sounds like FM, you're out." That means play music, lots of it, with lots of variety within the channel's genre.
The work takes place in 82 sound studios, all on the building's second floor. They vary in size, from small closet-sized assembly rooms containing just a music programmer's (again, that's a high-tech term for DJ) workstation, to larger rooms capable of housing a programmer and several guests.
The studios are designed for universal use. A program director can log-on to the network from any studio to access their show and even retrieve his or her customized microphone and board settings. They pull songs from XM's central computer library — every programmer is able to access the entire song library of three million pieces of music at any time. That's right. Their song collection consists of three million pieces of music and it's growing every day.
Programmers can set up their play list in advance, making their job easier when they are on the air. Inserting call-in requests is as easy as clicking the mouse button a few times, so the listeners are never at a loss.
Every broadcast studio is soundproofed and built on a suspended floor to prevent any outside sounds or digital artifacts to be picked up in a channel's signal. An intricate network (one of the world's largest) of fiber optics carry the signal from the studios to the transmitters.
Wandering through the dimly lit hallways, you see "On Air" lights outside of each studio. A glass window allows you to see the DJ at work, while a set of headphones hangs on the wall so that you can hear the live channel feed that's being broadcast at that moment. Many of the studio rooms are decorated to reflect the attitude and personality of that channel's DJs. This gives the room an immediate feeling of authenticity. Right away, you know that these people know the vibe of the music that they are playing. But then, one listen to XM is enough to assure you of this, too.
A good example is Tobi, one of the personalities from XMU, the cutting-edge alternative rock channel (think college radio on steroids). She doesn't just know underground and indie music, she lives and breathes it. If you're lucky enough to meet her, you'll find an attractive and hip young woman who will talk circles around you about indie rock. One thing is certain about Tobi: when it comes to the music, she knows her stuff.
Production Studios
In addition to the broadcasting studios, there are five production rooms where producers create, amongst other things, what XM calls "Audio Animations." These are the sound effects and channel identification bits heard on each XM radio channel. Just like video animators create visual animations, the audio animators spend hours patiently crafting what will end up being a few seconds of sound on the radio.
The creative force behind each XM channel is a Program Director and a small team of programmers (DJs). Together, they pilot the microphone and select the 24-hour-a-day entertainment for their channel. En masse, they are led by a Music Director, Lee Abrams, who has set forth the prime directive: "Respect the listener, respect the artist." As long as this rule is adhered to, the individual Program Directors are free to play what they want. Except for one other tiny rule: "If it sounds like FM, you're out." That means play music, lots of it, with lots of variety within the channel's genre.
The work takes place in 82 sound studios, all on the building's second floor. They vary in size, from small closet-sized assembly rooms containing just a music programmer's (again, that's a high-tech term for DJ) workstation, to larger rooms capable of housing a programmer and several guests.
The studios are designed for universal use. A program director can log-on to the network from any studio to access their show and even retrieve his or her customized microphone and board settings. They pull songs from XM's central computer library — every programmer is able to access the entire song library of three million pieces of music at any time. That's right. Their song collection consists of three million pieces of music and it's growing every day.
Programmers can set up their play list in advance, making their job easier when they are on the air. Inserting call-in requests is as easy as clicking the mouse button a few times, so the listeners are never at a loss.
Every broadcast studio is soundproofed and built on a suspended floor to prevent any outside sounds or digital artifacts to be picked up in a channel's signal. An intricate network (one of the world's largest) of fiber optics carry the signal from the studios to the transmitters.
 A DJ hard at work at "Hank's Place" — the studio for channel 13. |
Wandering through the dimly lit hallways, you see "On Air" lights outside of each studio. A glass window allows you to see the DJ at work, while a set of headphones hangs on the wall so that you can hear the live channel feed that's being broadcast at that moment. Many of the studio rooms are decorated to reflect the attitude and personality of that channel's DJs. This gives the room an immediate feeling of authenticity. Right away, you know that these people know the vibe of the music that they are playing. But then, one listen to XM is enough to assure you of this, too.
A good example is Tobi, one of the personalities from XMU, the cutting-edge alternative rock channel (think college radio on steroids). She doesn't just know underground and indie music, she lives and breathes it. If you're lucky enough to meet her, you'll find an attractive and hip young woman who will talk circles around you about indie rock. One thing is certain about Tobi: when it comes to the music, she knows her stuff.
Production Studios
In addition to the broadcasting studios, there are five production rooms where producers create, amongst other things, what XM calls "Audio Animations." These are the sound effects and channel identification bits heard on each XM radio channel. Just like video animators create visual animations, the audio animators spend hours patiently crafting what will end up being a few seconds of sound on the radio.
Performance Studio
If you are lucky, when visiting XM Radio's headquarters, you'll be able to attend a live show at their in-house concert hall. The room, called Performance Studio 1, seats about 50 and is an intimate performance hall with amazing acoustics. Every sound and note is crystal clear. XM uses the concert hall to host live shows for XM-only performances. This enables XM subscribers to get private concerts that can't be heard anywhere else.
In the past, XM has been host to such talent as Wynton Marsalis, Kindred, Tragically Hip, Ben Folds, Melissa Etheridge, and even the Glenn Miller Orchestra. It just goes to prove that, at XM, there's room for everyone! Check out our article on XM's Live Performance Studio.
Control Room
When the people of XM Satellite Radio refer to XM as "the future of radio," they're not joking. Visiting their Broadcast Operations Center is like stepping onto the bridge of a starship. A wall of video monitors allows the staff of engineers to keep an eye on the uplink signal sent to and transmitted from the satellites in orbit. This way they can be aware of the signal strength for every channel.
From this room, XM can also monitor its expansive network of terrestrial repeaters, allowing them to diagnose any problems and dispatch local repairmen if needed. Coordinating all the action is the Officer of the Deck, who has a control board and a command chair very reminiscent of the captain's chair from a certain '60s science fiction TV show. This person oversees the operation of the satellites and transmitters and is effectively responsible for ensuring that the subscribers never have interrupted satellite radio service. No pressure here!
XM is an entertainment company
Cloistered away in their soundproofed cells, the fanatic music programmers at XM spend their days selecting the right flavor of music for their respective channels, answering calls and e-mails from devoted fans, and sharing their entertaining personalities over the air.
In a central control room, an engineer sits back with satisfaction as computers and satellites work flawlessly to deliver the entertainment to hundreds of thousands of listeners.
And somewhere in the recesses of XM HQ, CEO Hugh Panero smiles at a job well done.
If you are lucky, when visiting XM Radio's headquarters, you'll be able to attend a live show at their in-house concert hall. The room, called Performance Studio 1, seats about 50 and is an intimate performance hall with amazing acoustics. Every sound and note is crystal clear. XM uses the concert hall to host live shows for XM-only performances. This enables XM subscribers to get private concerts that can't be heard anywhere else.
In the past, XM has been host to such talent as Wynton Marsalis, Kindred, Tragically Hip, Ben Folds, Melissa Etheridge, and even the Glenn Miller Orchestra. It just goes to prove that, at XM, there's room for everyone! Check out our article on XM's Live Performance Studio.
Control Room
 An environmentally sealed chamber serves as the mission control for XM's 24-7 broadcasts. |
When the people of XM Satellite Radio refer to XM as "the future of radio," they're not joking. Visiting their Broadcast Operations Center is like stepping onto the bridge of a starship. A wall of video monitors allows the staff of engineers to keep an eye on the uplink signal sent to and transmitted from the satellites in orbit. This way they can be aware of the signal strength for every channel.
From this room, XM can also monitor its expansive network of terrestrial repeaters, allowing them to diagnose any problems and dispatch local repairmen if needed. Coordinating all the action is the Officer of the Deck, who has a control board and a command chair very reminiscent of the captain's chair from a certain '60s science fiction TV show. This person oversees the operation of the satellites and transmitters and is effectively responsible for ensuring that the subscribers never have interrupted satellite radio service. No pressure here!
XM is an entertainment company
Cloistered away in their soundproofed cells, the fanatic music programmers at XM spend their days selecting the right flavor of music for their respective channels, answering calls and e-mails from devoted fans, and sharing their entertaining personalities over the air.
In a central control room, an engineer sits back with satisfaction as computers and satellites work flawlessly to deliver the entertainment to hundreds of thousands of listeners.
And somewhere in the recesses of XM HQ, CEO Hugh Panero smiles at a job well done.