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Our experiment with slow TV at the office

Quartz is moving to a new office in New York. We’re documenting it here because many of our questions apply to other startups. Our introduction explains more about what we’re up to. Follow our publication for updates.

The previous pieces written here about our upcoming move have all followed a common theme: the positive aspects of moving to the new office. There will be a new, elaborate coffee setup; an actual library, with real, printed books; and we even get to bring our dogs into the new office. This is all great (especially the dog part), and I’m just as excited as everyone else, but this move also has its downsides. Specifically a part of the current office I’ve gotten rather attached to: the wall above the kitchen sink.

Honestly, it’s a fairly unremarkable wall, as far as walls go. It’s got a few stains on it that are too hard to reach to clean, and there are still holes in it from the sign that was mounted up there when we first moved it. But what it does have going for it is that it’s high up, and almost everyone in our office can see it from their desk (thanks, open seating plan), if they so desire. It also is a great place to project video, and my desk just so happens to be in the perfect spot to keep a projector pointed at said wall.

It started soon after we moved into our current office. Above the kitchen, the previous tenant had left a somewhat trite motivational sign mounted above the kitchen and, since the move to our current office was a little rushed and always meant to be temporary, the sign hadn’t been taken down before we moved in. It could be seen from every desk in the office, and it needed to go. A few of us were still working late and/or drinking on a Friday night and we decided it was time to dig out the very tall (and kind of dangerous) ladder and tear the sign down.

The resulting blank wall was a marked improvement, but it was clear we needed to do something with the space, it just wasn’t obvious what. We talked about trying to get a giant TV mounted up there and maybe display realtime metrics for the website, but that was going to cost a bunch of money, and honestly it felt pretty tacky. Most people wouldn’t want those numbers staring down at them all day while they work. So we left it blank for a time.

Then, seemingly out of thing air, it all became clear: We needed to project a live feed from the International Space Station (ISS) up on the wall. After a quick check with the boss to make sure it was OK, and snagging the unused projector from the closet, we had a live feed of the earth on our office wall. Seriously. Live video. Of the planet Earth. Filmed from a freakin’ SPACE STATION. Amazing times, people.

And my new work hobby quickly became an endless search for other videos to project.

The sun sets every 90 minutes on the ISS, which means there’s about 45 minutes of dead air while the ISS is in the shadow of the earth and I wanted other content to fill in during the down time. Pretty soon, long videos shot from the the cab of trains were added to the rotation. And, of course, anytime there was a live space walk (or a llamas chase), I made sure to switch the feed over. Occasionally we put up various sports on the wall, but they tend to be pretty distracting and are usually limited to major playoff games or more international sports like non-American football or cycling. (We’re a global news organization, after all.)

The best videos are the ones where you feel like you’re looking out a window to somewhere else: out the window of a train traveling through Germany, or out the window of a space station looking down on a little blue planet. You can glance away from your computer for a moment or two to watch it, think through a problem, or clear your head. It turns out this style of video has been around for a little while and has a name: slow TV. There are thousands of hours of slow TV on YouTube and elsewhere. There’s even a subreddit dedicated to the subject. The internet can be pretty awesome sometimes.

I wound up getting enough comments and questions from my colleagues about the wall and what was playing, that I eventually setup a slack channel #now-playing, which I update with a link to the current video and take requests for other stuff to project onto the wall. Our London office liked the idea enough they created a similar setup and keep an eye on the slack channel for videos to play on their screen.

Using a GoPro and suction cup mount, I’ve even took a stab at making a my own videos for the wall during a long train trip to Chicago, which turned out surprisingly well.

So at this point, you’re probably wondering: If we love the video wall so damn much, why not just do the exact same thing at the new office? Unfortunately, as cool as the new office is, there really isn’t a space to replicate the video wall. There’s not a single, large, blank space that’s easy to see throughout the office and the blank walls that do exist extend from the floor up to a few feet above our heads where the current wall above the kitchen starts at around 10 feet and extends up another 10 feet or so. High enough that you can look up at it if you want, but it’s also pretty easy to ignore. Projecting onto a wall at eye-level would be too distracting, especially for anyone unfortunate enough to be sitting nearby.

Apparently people tend to favor large, sunlit windows to blank walls.

Go figure.

We’ve discussed trying to use the strategically placed TVs scattered around the office to send the same video feeds to, as a way to get close to our current setup. We’ll give it a shot, but it feels a bit off to me, and I’m not really expecting that to work out that well. But that’s fine. With the recent news that the live ISS feed of the earth will be ending when a different module is eventually flown up to replace it, it feels fitting to retire the Now Playing wall and see what else we can think up for the new space. That being said, I am still pretty fond of the dirty little patch of wall I was able to take over for the past few years.

If you have a similar such wall in your office and happen to have a unused projector laying around, you should try throwing some slow TV videos up on the wall. Below are a few things I’ve picked up while running the projector, if you decide to give it a shot:

• The most important thing to remember is it should not be distracting. Turn off the sound. Avoid videos that flash a lot or have a ton of movement. If this were music, think more light jazz, less hard house.
• Slow TV is the style of video you’re looking for and there’s a ton of great (and free) stuff out there. Norway (NRK) has mastered it and a great place to start.
• The longer the video, the better. Look for hours, not minutes. Practically speaking, you won’t have to change the video every few minutes, but gradually seeing the scenery change throughout the day is subtle and ideal.
• Use highest video quality you can find. HD or better and the highest frame rate you can get. It especially makes a difference when blown up on a large screen.
• There’s no sound, so avoid talking heads (documentaries etc). Most movies probably won’t work either (though some, like Planet Earth and 2001: A Space Odyssey are a great fit)
• The new appleTV screensavers look beautiful, but feel a little too polished… but maybe that’s just me.
• NASA has started filming and uploading some ISS spacewalks with GoPro cameras attached to the astronauts and the videos are stunning.

Things to search for

• SlowTV
• “minutt for minutt” (it’s a Norwegian thing)
• train cab view (be sure to filter out the shorter videos)
• Bob Ross
• How It’s Made
• Tom & Jerry and Roadrunner cartoons
• crafting in general (sculpting etc)
• Live animal video feeds (Bald eagle nest, panda bears etc.). I try to shy away from the puppy cams as they tend to be a bit distracting for the puppy lovers in the office.
• SpaceX launches. Obviously.
• video pizza
• http://reddit/r/slowtv