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Wednesday November 5, 2008
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One of the most talked-about features of last night's election coverage was CNN's supposedly holographic projections of correspondent Jessica Yellin and musician will.i.am onto the CNN studio floor. But CNN's name for the tech was misleading. As Gizmodo explains, the anchors on the studio floor couldn't see 3D images of the correspondents - there was no "hologram" being projected.
Rather, the correspondents were being shot by 35 HD cameras simultaneously to create a 3D image which was then digitally composited into CNN's broadcast image of their studio. There was no live, glowing, 3D picture that people could walk around. The "image" of Jessica Yellin and Wolf Blitzer standing in the same room existed only on TV screens.
If you want to be really pedantic (oh, and I do), Merriam-Webster describes a "hologram" as "a three-dimensional image reproduced from a pattern of interference produced by a split coherent beam of radiation." The CNN shots weren't three-dimensional images - they existed only on two-D TV screens. And they weren't produced from a pattern of interference, etc etc. They were produced by meshing live feeds from 35 cameras pointing in different angles.
It was movie magic, folks, similar to what we all remember from The Matrix. Given that it was done live without a hitch, it was extremely way cool. But it wasn't a hologram, and no amount of wishing will make it so.
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November 5, 2008 3:54 PM
Wasn't really a hologram!!??!!Awww jeez and I was soooooooooo impressed!!!
Did you really expect anything except outright fraud from a snakeoil sales company like CNN? Did they really expect people to belive anything they say?Maybe they figured in our blush of excitement over a large group of misguided fools,electing a stick figure to the highest office in the land,that they could slip one by us.And no,I'm not a disgrunteled Repub.spreading sour grapes.I am a disgrunteled independent who is sick of the losers in charge in D.C.Will the last true American leaving for Austrailia please turn off the lights?
November 5, 2008 4:04 PM
No, it obviously was not a hologram, but do you really think Wolf Blitzer or Anderson Cooper could competently describe the special effects so the average clueless viewer could understand? The only way was to draw on pop-culture references: Star Wars and Star Trek. I actually thought the Virtual Capitol was pretty cool. The non-hologram was a waste of 35 HD cameras - they should have placed them in the crowd so we could really get a feel of what it was like there. As they televised the celebration in Grant Park last night, CNN's coverage looked more 'recording studio' than "Dancing In The Dark." (Speaking of which, I was quite bummed Bruce didn't show....)
November 5, 2008 4:07 PM
LOL - CNN (aka the western wing of Al Jazeera) lies all of the time. The only good thing about their election broadcast was that they refrained from having any talking heads comment over McCain's and Obama's speeches. The morons over at Fox kept talking incessently over both speeches.
November 5, 2008 10:16 PM
@ESTREETBAND: Yes, yes you are. Head on to Australia - at least then you'll have someone else's immigration policies to whine about when they don't let you in. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
As usual, the best media coverage was found online.
November 6, 2008 12:41 AM
Well I for one assumed it really was a hologram and I feel cheated. Certainly CNN routinely puts their spin on news but I was surprised to find out it was an outright lie. Another video image super imposed on my TV screen? Big friggin deal, that's been done for years better than CNN did it without 35 camera's and 20 computers, what's the big deal about that? Why are we even wasting our time talking about this scam?
November 6, 2008 6:19 AM
"Help me Anderson Cooper, you're my only hope"
November 6, 2008 7:41 AM
LOL Australia. I thought comedy central was awesome even tho I like will.I.am! :)
November 6, 2008 11:22 AM
they could have had ted turners head show up as a hologram and had wolf blitzer bowing in front of it saying "what is thy bidding my master". that would have been cool.
November 6, 2008 8:35 PM
I don't see why they needed 35 camera, most of it could have been done with two. One shot from the front, one from the slightly off angle from behind.
But beyond that, it's was only useful for these trite soft interviews. Any real interview the interviewer would need to see the interviewee's reaction to questions, and despite scripted lies that they could, that wasn't the case.
Plus, even if they were really projected onto the set as a hologram... so? Does it help the news coverage?
And what was the point of the 3D computer model of the Capital building. It was pretty and all, but it was really just the background for a standard seat distribution graphic.
November 13, 2008 7:02 AM
On the night of the 2008 presidential election, CNN claimed to be projecting interviewees into its studio using a hologram. While this might have been theoretically possible, they were, in fact, misusing the term and were actually using tomography*, not holography *Tomography is imaging by sections or sectioning. (from Wikipedia)
November 17, 2008 5:27 AM
ESTREETBAND: I'll be turning off the lights as I leave to board my flight to Australia on January 4th.