“Lights, camera, action” once echoed here at HARAJUKU Abema Studio. It was once a vibrant hub for television and online broadcasting. HARAJUKU Abema Studio was located in Shibuya, Tokyo. More precisely it was situated in the Harajuku Ashu Building. The studio occupied the first and second floors.
Let’s step back to July 2015. This is when HARAJUKU Abema Studio first opened. Back then it was known as AmebaFRESH Studio. NIGO handled the interior and exterior design. The first-floor studio had a glass-covered section. This allowed many recordings to be open to the public.
The highest broadcasting technology officer was Satoshi Fujisaki. HARAJUKU Abema Studio was not typically available for general rental. In June 2016 the studio was renamed HARAJUKU Abema Studio. Sadly HARAJUKU Abema Studio closed on October 31 2018. The studio closed due to relocation.
HARAJUKU Abema Studio was designed for public broadcasting. It hosted various online programs. These programs were produced by CyberAgent. It also hosted public recordings. Some of them were “YomPachi 48 hours” for TOKYO FM and “SMAP POWER SPLASH” for bayfm.
Inside HARAJUKU Abema Studio was a sub-control room. It had five television cameras. This made it suitable for television recording. The studio featured two rooms Ast and Bst on the first floor. Ast was equipped for television recording. Bst was designed for broadcasting and online streaming with a glass window. CyberAgent provided Bst’s equipment. This equipment came from the Shibuya Dogenzaka Ameba Studio. In November 2017 the interior of Bst was renovated. It became the dedicated studio for AbemaTV HIPHOP channel “AbemaMix”.
The second floor contained sixteen talent cloakrooms. Each room had monitors and green screen roll curtains. They also had MacBook Pros for streaming. These rooms could be used as personal broadcasting booths.
HARAJUKU Abema Studio also featured a large room Cst. It could accommodate sixty people. Cst was used for events and press conferences. It also had similar sub-control equipment to Ast. A digital signage measuring 2.4 meters high and 12.9 meters wide was installed on the 2nd-floor wall. It was Japan’s longest indoor digital signage.
The building’s sixth floor housed the Harajuku Station Stage. Special attention was given to wireless equipment. This ensured no signal interference with nearby Harajuku Station. According to Fujisaki only this studio allowed 20 people to use the wireless equipment simultaneously in Japan.
Today HARAJUKU Abema Studio may be closed. It remains a notable part of Harajuku’s entertainment history.