Question: How did they get those funky holograms of reporters when CNN was covering the election?

Answer: CNN Senior VP David Bohrman explains the technology behind CNNs 3-D high-definition election night hologram beamed into the cable news networks Election Center in New York.

The basics of the system don’t sound all that space-age at first. A series of 44 HD cameras are laid out in a circular array that surrounds the interviewee in a booth of sorts. The cameras all shoot at various angles, completing a 3D composite image which makes up the hologram you saw. This, however, is only the tip of a technologically complex iceberg.

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The Viz IO calibration tool converts the live CNN studio camera feed positions into a map of 3D coordinates. This information gets beamed out to the remote CNN hologram rooms, with their 44 cameras, which then instantaneously choose which 2 of the 44 cameras in the remote location best sync with the live CNN studio feed. Exactly which two cameras get used dynamically shifts depending on the 3D coordinates the Viz IO feeds the remote studios, allowing both participants to move around fairly naturally.

After the remote images come back to the CNN headquarters, the Viz Engine plug-in (developed by SportVu) creates a fully 3D representation of whomever is in the remote 44 camera studio; in this case that was Jessica Yellin and will.i.am. After being processed further, the 3D image is thrown back to the CNN (in full HD mind you). In the mixing room, Jessica and will.i.am were united with Wolf’s live camera feed, creating the effect you saw during election night. All of these steps are performed in well under one second to create an almost lossless live holographic feed.

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