CNN's Election Coverage Meets Star Wars
— -- Twenty-four-hour news stations love to cram the latest technology into their newscasts, and last night's election coverage was no exception. CNN continued the tradition by having its reporters and interview subjects "beamed" into the studio via hologram. And CNN's Wolf Blitzer was so excited about the hologram technology that he used almost half of his interview time with hologram reporter Jessica Yellin to talk about using a hologram instead of actually talking about the news.
Of course, the catch is that these weren't real holograms. As Yellin explained in her interview, 35 HD cameras were set up around her to produce a hologram, but the hologram image was merely superimposed on in the camera view similarly to green screen technology. Unlike a real hologram, the CNN hologram was not actually visible in the studio.
And gimmicky as the holograms may be, they did actually have a practical purpose. During last night's election coverage, many reporters were amid huge crowds of screaming supporters, making it nearly impossible to hear a single word some of them were saying. The holograms managed to eliminate the background noise so the reporter could actually be heard. The background noise probably could have been eliminated without the hologram, but I know that if I were CNN then I wouldn't hesitate to bring a little touch of Star Wars into the news. Now if only each hologram report began with "help me Anderson Cooper, you're my only hope."
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