You may have seen the CNN 3D (magic wall) and holographic show on the US election night. This resulted in a mixed reception on-line. There were a range of predictable comments: - From “that’s cool” to completely wacky - my favorite is “this is pure retro Star Wars” (see Techcrunch). In addition to the holograms - CNN created a virtual model of Washington and a representation of the inside of the US senate, all in 3D. Kind of puts my own models to shame!

Not all of it worked, but the reporters like all good users, didn’t panic and persevered (mostly). (I imagine its a bit like a frozen screen on a PC except having it happen in front of ten million people!) Considering some of it was only tested a day beforehand, it functioned remarkably well.

The company incidentally behind the magic wall is called Perceptive Pixel. Another player in the CNN technology suite is Vizrt that has a bunch of very cool technologies as well.

Take Away

What’s the take away from all this? Behind the Star Wars effect its really the choice of communication method. CNN’s view clearly is that the complexity of the overall picture warranted this kind of 3 dimensional representation. Research shows that visualizations - diagrams or pictures, when done well, are significantly better than just audio and text. My own work indicates that “models” act as bridges between different groups because they allow data and real world objects to be tied together more effectively. Real world depictions remove “text labels” that can be understood or interpreted differently depending on how each person translates them.

The magic wall, because it uses touch screen technology, can be driven 100% by the presenter. It allows an experienced user the opportunity to make points quite dramatically by enabling drill downs - comparing visually last election’s results vs this year’s and so on. Make no mistake its not magic, there is 3 dimensional modeling software and a fully integrated database living behind the touch screen technology. This is a quote from CNNTechnology.com:
“Here is a perfect example of how effective it can be: During our coverage of the Indiana primary, we were able to zoom in, county-by-county, to voting returns, and even though some of our competitors had already called the race, we were able to explain why we weren’t able to do so,” Bohrman says.

“John King was able to show the votes outstanding, the votes in Gary, Indiana, and how the race could have gone for Obama or [Hillary] Clinton, with a slight difference in that county’s results. We were actually able to show viewers a lot more information and make the story clearer.”

See a Youtube video for more

Wrap

Beyond the hype, CNN is experimenting and now really learning how to harnass visual models with innovative touch screen technology. Glitches are bound to happen and they will discover no doubt which formats work best. Lets not forget that CNN is persuaded that this is actually the best way to present complex data. If you are trying to figure out how a big complex environment operates (or the way it should operate), hopefully there are some lessons here and a little bit of inspiration.

For my part, even with the holograms, CNN really made this an interesting spectacle!