Allen Weiner

In case you were watching another network or perhaps getting your election video fix via Associated Press’ live streaming coverage (via PC or Mac), you missed CNN’s freaky holograms. I saw it twice, once with reporter Jessica Yellin the other with Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Gizmodo does a good job of explaining how CNN pulled this off. Actually I have seen a previous implenenation of this technology at NAB a few years back from the Israeli company, Sportvu, who was involved in the Election Night “you are there but not there” CNN segments. Sportvu uses this same rendering for soccer (football) broadcasts allowing commentators to reconstruct plays and move players around to create what-if scenarios.

I would have loved to have seen holograms of Dr. King as well as JFK and RFK on stage with President-elect Obama when he gave his acceptance speech. As my colleague Mike McGuire points out, the rights issues would have been quite complicated. Maybe next time.