There haven’t yet been any appearances by holograms in this year’s presidential election coverage, but the networks have still come up with some creative ways to report the results to viewers.
NBC News, for example, has taken over the ice-skating rink at Rockefeller Center. A painted map of the United States is displayed on the ice, with each state being filled in as they are called for either President Obama or Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Obama’s wins are, of course, being painted blue, while Romney’s are in red.
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Clearly, it’s a large-scale map: The rink’s skating surface measures 122 feet by 59 feet.
Both NBC and MSNBC are giving live updates from their studios as well as in Rockefeller Center Plaza, which also has been lit up in red and blue.
Meanwhile, CNN has taken over another iconic New York landmark, partnering up with the Empire State Building on a lighting display that tallies each candidate’s electoral votes as they are called by the network. Each vertical LED-illuminated “meter” atop the office tower will light up red or blue as a state is awarded to either Obama (blue) or Romney (red).
CNN also has set up a big screen in Times Square for passersby to watch the network’s coverage of the election.
ABC News also has a major presence in Times Square, taking over the Jumbotron there to display its live coverage as well as the scrolls underneath, where it is displaying the results of each state.
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Fox News, meanwhile, has a Jumbotron at Romney’s Boston headquarters where those in attendance can watch its coverage. At-home viewers can see the screen in the background of FNC’s coverage; it’s unclear — though highly doubtful — whether the conservative-leaning network has such a presence at Obama’s Chicago headquarters.
Current TV, meanwhile, has designated half of its screen to scrolling tweets from various groups, including media and pundits and voters in swing states.
Four years ago, the big news out of the presidential election coverage — aside from Obama’s historic win — was CNN’s use of a hologram to project correspondents into the studio.
