CNBC uses up to 5,000 graphics per day

Bob Kovacs of TV Technology writes about the strategy behind CNBC’s recent graphics redesign and how it uses graphics throughout the day.

Kovacs writes, “The result is a system that deals with an insane amount of data from a wide variety of sources, displayed on the screen in a logical and interesting way. Depending on the information, it may linger for minutes on-screen, or it may pass by once and get replaced by the next item. It was a challenge from both the visual and technical standpoints.

“‘The most challenging aspect of this redesign is the scale of the implementation,’ said Steve Fastook, senior vice president for operations & engineering at CNBC. ‘For example, yesterday, more than 290 individual users ordered more than 4,900 HD graphics including more than 12,000 desktop preview panes. With every image highly stylized and moving, the processing, distribution and storage of this is a huge undertaking.’

“Despite megabytes of data flowing through the graphics, it doesn’t require much oversight.

“‘Our real-time data is delivered on an automated basis, as it needs to be fast, accurate and actionable,’ Clendenin said. ‘However, what data is shown is an editorial decision based on what we feel is the most important information for our viewers at any given time.'”

Read more here.