More NBC News election night plans come to light

TVNewser has obtained an internal memo that outlines more of NBC’s election night coverage plans.

Though NBC will be using Rockefeller Plaza as a sort of showcase for its election coverage, it appears that NBC won’t be broadcasting from outdoors. Rather, Studio 8G will be used as home base for Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw and Andrea Mitchell.

Studio 8G, normally used for “Football Night in America” is a good choice for election night coverage; it has a large, camera center rear projection screen as well as two large flat panel monitors on each side, as well as ticker ribbons and other visual displays.

It’s not clear where MSNBC will be anchoring from. The network could use its main newsroom set (and spill into the “Nightly News” studio if needed since it appears it won’t be used election night) or use one of the “portable” outdoor studios NBC has to report from the plaza. One would think, however, that at least a portion of the MSNBC and NBC’s coverage would be presented from outdoors since the network is investing money into the decor out there.

It’s interesting that the completely outdoor broadcast has been scratched, at least on NBC. Budgets may be one of the reasons behind this; setting up all the shelters, wiring, equipment and systems needed to run an outdoor extravaganza such “Democracy Plaza” is very expensive.

NBC is also touting its online coverage, in particular the MSNBC.com Decision 2008 Dashboard.

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