NBC gives viewers birds’ eye view of election facilities

By Michael P. Hill November 6, 2022

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NBC News commissioned a drone to fly through multiple studios and control rooms that will be in use during its mulit-network and multi-platform of the 2022 election Tuesday. Nov. 8, 2022.

The drone starts in Studio 1A, home of “Today” and “NBC Nightly News,” entering the space through the semi-hidden passage that goes behind the space’s main video wall and comes out near the “Today” sunrise icon sculpture.

NBC will air coverage on its broadcast network, MSNBC and NBC News Now, its streaming news network. Its apps and digital properties will also cover the event, as will Telemundo and CNBC.

The drone skillfully makes its way around the space with moves that would make a jib drool and showing that NBC is once again using the video wall as its primary background.

The network updated the production area with an additional white frame element to border the six LED panels installed in that space. This element also includes two vertical columns with backlit vertical reveal lines that give off a modern update to the federal architectural vibe.

These are positioned in a way so that the outer panel on both the left and right are visually separate from the center four.

This covers most of the windows along that stretch of the exterior wall, but it’s not quite as enclosed as in 2020, when the network built a sort of structural shell around its main anchor area, reportedly due to security concerns.

At that time, the flat video wall now installed camera left of the sculpture was in a different position, roughly in front of the “Today” icon sculpture, and angled in a way that mostly shielded the main anchor area in front of the video wall from the windows in the corner of the space, which is normally the “Today” home base.

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The flooring has been updated with red, white and blue colors and various forms of the Decision 2022 logo, including one in the home base area of “Today” in the corner of the space.

The craft then flies through the series of basement control rooms and other facilities underneath Studio 1A before zooming through a metal detector and flying into 30 Rockefeller Center across the street via an underground access point. Much of this is a public concourse that leads to a complex of shops and other businesses, but there are NBC Decision 2022 visuals on the walls at times.

The drone zips through the security checkpoint and takes an elevator to the 7th floor, though any awkwardness between the drone and the man in the elevator next to it appeared to be truncated.

Here there is a view of another control room before the drone enters the upper part of Studio 6A, the former home of “Megyn Kelly Today” that has been used as an election space across NBC and MSNBC in past years. 

There is then a less graceful jump cut as the drone is transported to the third floor and into the west side of Studio 3A, the former home of “NBC Nightly News” (though the broadcast has been using the space instead of 1A due to rehearsals and updates going on there to transform it into the election look.

In this space, the drone makes several tricky maneuvers, including circular the ceiling-mounted peacock sculpture in the ceiling, providing a chance to see it from almost 360-degrees.

It then flies under a jib and down the hall to the other part of the 3A, used by MSNBC, though there’s a short period edited out here. 

Here the studio’s multiple video panels are decked out in Decision 2022 graphics and a new curved anchor desk with a polygonal front with red and blue segments as well as stars and LED panels can be seen.

Drone Video Credits

Director: Adam Mancini
Drone Pilot: Ed Kostakis
Drone Provider: Cine Rigs
Drone Team: Adam Troeger, Juan Carpio, Pablo Barrera
Sound Design: Gordon Lee Miller Miller
Creative Director: Ventura Castroo
Stagehand: Don Williams
Utility: Amar Santhosh
Animator: Steffen Kuronen
Technical Manager: Massimo Crescenzo, Joe Caffrey
Senior Vice President
Creative Production: Marc E. Greenstein

Special Thanks: Mary Beth Scalici, Jim Benjamin, Adam Benalt, Steven Thornton, Steven Lima, Lauren Miller, Mike Russell, Scotty Anderson, Gina DiBartolo

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