Thanks to the nice people at Obscura Society NY I had a chance to visit the office of Countdown Entertainment at 1 Times Square, home of...THE BALL.


Yes...THE BALL.


THE BALL is enormous...




...and hella bright.


You don't notice from far away, and wouldn't unless you got RIGHT UP to it, but all of the tiles are not the same. There are several different designs, and they change every year.


The ball famously switched to its current "crystal ball" configuration for the Millennium celebration, first using light bulbs...


...before switching to this all LED design in 2007...


...then further refinements in 2008 to the design that we have today.


The "office" itself is basically just a large conference room with a large bathroom off to the side. Nothing too thrilling, but here's a picture of the bathroom anyway, just because.


Great view, though.


In all a very exciting, informative and educational outing with the Obscura people. Need to schedule another event with them soon.