NBC opens Studio N7 in Washington

NBC News has opened Studio N7, a new broadcasting space inside its Washington, D.C., facility as part of its preparation to spin off MSNBC and CNBC.

The space, adjacent to the seventh-floor newsroom that serves as the core of NBC’s D.C. bureau, made its debut on the Aug. 3, 2025, edition of NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

It was also used for the Aug. 4, 2025, installment of “The Weeknight” on MSNBC.

The space, which has modular elements, is eventually planned to become the home of “Hallie Jackson Now” and “Meet the Press Now,” which are both NBC News productions for its FAST streamer, NBC News Now.

Construction of this studio space was triggered by the upcoming split of MSNBC and other NBCUniversal cable properties into Versant, which has also sparked plans to create separate production and newsroom facilities mainly for MSNBC.

Sources say that, once everything shakes out, NBC News will use the first and seventh floors (Studios N1 and N7) while MSNBC will be relegated to the eighth floor, using Studios N4 and N5, along with a new newsroom.

“Meet the Press” is expected to return to Studio N1 on the first floor. It’s not clear why “MTP” and “The Weeknight”  shifted to N7 at 400 North Capitol NW in early August 2025, but it’s possible there are updates going on in other parts of the building, or the networks wanted to trial the new studio.

NBC News had occupied portions of the upper part of the North Capitol building for years, which also houses studios and workspaces for other broadcasters, many with windows overlooking the Capitol grounds.

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In 2021, NBC moved its D.C. bureau from the space it shared with its owned station WRC on Nebraska Avenue to North Capitol, taking over the N1 space and expanding its footprint on the upper floors.

Studio N7 uses some of the building’s real windows overlooking the Capitol dome, which have dramatic archways installed around them.

Below these are counter-like ledges fronted with gold-toned panels with circular cutouts accented with color-changing integrated lighting. 

The space, designed by Bryan Higgason and HD Studio, also incorporates visual cues from other studios in the building, particularly N1.

In addition to the distinct row of archways along the wall of real windows that borrow from the Palladian window motif and stone archways common in government buildings inside the district, Higgason’s design also includes multiple iterations of the wider, more elliptical-inspired archways found downstairs.

The deep, thick surrounds installed around the archways use a similar brushed gold metallic tone, as do the faux picture frames on the wall that are really LED panels.

Studio N7 is equipped with Ross Video’s Artimo robotic camera system and can support the use of a steadicam.

It has also been designed to transition between multiple styles of productions — including more traditional live newscasts, podcasts, interviews and special coverage. 

It’s also been outfitted with a circular roundtable with a generous amount of chin fills. The space is equipped with LED lighting instruments, allowing the crew to adjust color temperature to work best with whatever the outside conditions happen to be, with lighting design by Niel Galen of The Lighting Design Group. 

Much like Studio N1, the space also has a visual connection between studio and newsroom thanks to a window and glass doors connecting the two spaces. 

The window gives viewers a sort of side-angle view of the monitor wall that’s installed behind the flashcam in the newsroom. Portions of the metal and glass header element and its frosted banding are also visible. 

The big view, however, is that row of windows overlooking the Capitol dome, which is similar to the views afforded from Studios N4 and Studio N5 upstairs, which have served both MSNBC and NBC but are expected to become MSNBC and CNBC’s exclusive domain post-spinoff.

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