It was like bits of technology from "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" were beamed into CNN. The news channel sexed up its coverage with 3-D holographic projections of its correspondents. ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox used everything from touchscreens to supersized high-def plasma screens to help display election returns, maps, and an endless parade of commentators. Fox News did things a little bit differently. The network designed two virtual reality studios with a giant wall of touchscreens, connected together to provide electoral map results as they were released. What was done live on CNN with 35 high-definition cameras and 20 computers used to take a Hollywood studios weeks to do.

The 3-D appearance was not an actual hologram projected into the CNN studios, but rather a virtual hologram, inserted into the video by some sophisticated real-time effects processing. To make it happen, the network built hologram-enabled satellite sets at both campaign headquarters, in Phoenix and Chicago.

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