The Channel Wire

November 07, 2008

If you watched CNN's coverage of the presidential election earlier this week, chances are good you saw a hologram. Jessica Yellin, CNN political correspondent, was beamed into the network's stage set to give her report, even though she was physically in Chicago. The company that brought Yellin to CNN's set was Israel-based SportVU.

SportVU (pronounced sports view) originated as a company that "allows sports fans watching television, cellular displays, Web sites or gaming consoles to get much better insight and understanding of the game events and tactics," the company's Web site says.

According to CNN, Yellin was placed in a circular green room and was surrounded by 35 high-definition cameras placed 6 inches apart that nearly circled the reporter. The technology is similar to the green screen weathermen have been standing in front of for years, but on steroids.

While SportVU originally intended on using this technique to give soccer fans better insight into what happened during a given play on replay, the company has been working with the news network for the past couple of months, CNN reports.

Say what you will about the technology -- and reporters, bloggers and comedians have already said a lot, even overlaying Princess Leia's lines from Star Wars over Yellin's voice -- it's a neat application of technology and shows what a small company can do.

So rather than comparing Wolf Blitzer to Darth Vader and Larry King to The Emperor, let's try to appreciate the fact that SportVU has an interesting take on how television can be presented.

And who knows, 3-D movies are starting to make a comeback. Maybe this is the first step in actually putting television watchers inside their programming.