For pure details and almost minute anaysis CNN was by far the best. Incidentally MSNBC was available on CNBC until midnight and then CNBC US own coverage started. However you could watch the MSNBC through the night on NDTV 24x7.
darn... CNBC Asia only shows Squawk Australia and Squawk Box, i wish they just show MSNBC...
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After Midnight you would have got CNBC US's own election show. Anchored initially by Erin Burnett and Mark Haines then later by Dylan Ratigan and Maria Bartiromo with the dreadful Larry Kudlow as one of the night long pundits. Like we did in Europe. Luckily the Indian English language news channel NDTV 24x7, which we get on satellite in the UK, simulcast MSNBC coverage.
That hologram stuff was like from a sci fi movie. Just one question, was Wolf Blitzer also able to see her in the studio or was it only on TV?
He could see her in the studio. That's what he said.
He could see her on preview monitors - nothing more. It was a clever virtual graphic (presumably using the same camera sensing technology as their virtual table that showed Senate and Congress breakdowns) - combined with a 35 camera capture rig in Chicago. There was a big red dot on the floor that was real to ensure his eyeline was right. You could see the chromakey fall to bits at times - as some rogue stuff appeared at points.
It seemed to me that the motion information to define the view they needed to see was sent from the CNN to Chicago (captured by the VR cameras in the CNN studio. In Chicago, where the guests were, every angle was captured in HD (a bit like the live timeslicing i-vision system used on sport to capture a sports match from multiple angle simultaneously) and thus any angle could be sent back to the CNN studio based on the motion information sent from CNN. (When you get to 35 cameras capturing a scene - then you can in-between any angle rather than just having 10 degree or so lumps) The guest was almost certainly surrounded by blue-screen cloth or similar, and thus the image was inserted in CNN's studio using a conventional chroma key. You never saw anybody in front of the "hologram" image (i.e. overlap with it) - and the guest was always anchored to the red eyeline dot.
Very gimmicky - but not a revolutionary "never seen before" technology - more a combination of existing technologies (multi-camera capture, motion capture, chroma key etc.) used in a new way. The one thing it was NOT was a 3D image sent and projected into the studio using holography (which would require clever lasers and a HUGE bandwith to carry the phase reference information etc.)
I thought the CNN coverage was pretty much flawless - slightly understated (in a good way), clearly presented, graphically excellent, and the presenting team of Blitzer, Cooper and especially John King and his magic map put the whole thing across superbly.
That said, I love the way that MSNBC covered the moment when Obama is called is president. Instead of presenters/experts babbling inanities, they simply let the images of celebration up and down the country do the talking for a full five minutes. Surely the best way to portray a truly historic moment ...
I thought the CNN coverage was pretty much flawless - slightly understated (in a good way), clearly presented, graphically excellent, and the presenting team of Blitzer, Cooper and especially John King and his magic map put the whole thing across superbly.
Yep - John King was a really class act - and had real information at his fingertips (literally) to backup the flashy graphics. The ability to look at previous results and see the wider geography across state boundaries really added huge insight to the coverage.
I also appreciated that they held back on declaring and made a point of it.
It felt very confident and very assured throughout. No majorly icky moments - and the pundits were interesting and in the main good humoured.
I was really happy with my split screen of CNN and the BBC - listening to CNN apart from the adbreaks usually.
I also love John King and the magic screen, he gave us so much info on voting in different states and districts. It was so interetsing to compare it to 2004.
