From what we could guess (and were hastily told), pundits would stand in a tent surrounded by dozens of cameras covering their body from multiple angles. The data from these cameras were fed into some sort of super-secret CNN technology box and combined with the motion capture camera being used for hand-held shots in the background of Anderson Cooper’s boring speeches.

You can tell the Mo-Cap Camera because it had many white marker balls jutting out from the top of it, something that also seemed to make it difficult to handle, judging from some of the motion on pundit close ups.

Then, with a nifty animation ripped out of Star Trek fan films, Will.i.am or some sort of pundit was “beamed” into the studio. Which is all well and good, except Anderson Cooper is still staring at nothing, and Will.i.am is staring at a dot on the wall of a tent that is slightly bigger than the other dots on the side of a tent.

We don’t see the benefit of this theater that suggests someone from anywhere can be “in the same room” with Anderson Cooper. Here’s a hypothetical disconnect for you: if Cooper took out his earpiece where the producer is constantly calling the shots, Will.i.am could have been talking normally, but constantly flipping Cooper the bird and Cooper would have no idea.

Nice debut of your new technology, CNN, lots of people saw it. We just wish you could have saved it until it was useful.

(Jeers go to NBC’s graphics designer, who really sucked last night both in design and conveying information)