The brief: Create the nation’s most advanced, data-driven storytelling platform.

The Big Board needed to make vast and complex election data accessible and understandable to a broad audience across broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms. NBC needed a definitive source of election data, and the Big Board had to bear the brunt of the simultaneous rapid speed and scrutiny of elections. We set out to merge complex election data, and the quirky (and sometimes bizarre) rules across different races with cutting-edge technology and data-driven visual storytelling. On a deeper level, the reimagined Big Board would be critical in grounding often-charged political discussions in verified data and visual evidence, demystifying the path from voter turnout to final results, and any skepticism around trust and the media.

The Big Board offers compelling, up-to-second election data as fast as possible with zero errors tolerated. Anchors are empowered to deliver visual, data-driven stories seamlessly to millions during intense political moments. Merging data strategy with dynamic broadcasting capabilities, the Big Board swiftly illuminates factual data — ingested, verified, and available within 4 seconds from 16,000 U.S. geographies down to the county level.

Most of all, the board is the perfect "dance partner" for hosts during election coverage. In fact, the Big Board was developed by researching how Steve Kornacki, the nation’s leading data analyst, interacted with data and behaved under stress. Today, the Big Board anticipates Kornacki’s needs as a presenter to better translate complex election data into an understandable, interactive visual spectacle as the news unfolds.

There are two audiences: the handful of anchors using it and more than 20 million engaged audience members on and offline. Display modes and apps, customizing types, colors and graphics can be easily manipulated to reflect the speaker and the channel, giving the audience a clear, consistent data presentation, no matter where they are watching.

The Big Board's scalable architecture ensures it can be customized across NBC’s top platforms in English and Spanish, providing a reliable, adaptable tool. This includes two networks (NBC and MSNBC), four TV shows (Today Show, Meet the Press, Morning Joe, The Rachel Maddow Show), NBC News Now’s YouTube channel and the “Kornacki Cam” YouTube stream.

The Big Board's scalable architecture ensures customization across NBC’s top platforms in English and Spanish, including two networks (NBC and MSNBC), four TV shows (Today Show, Meet the Press, Morning Joe, The Rachel Maddow Show), NBC News Now’s YouTube channel and the “Kornacki Cam” YouTube stream.

We created a framework to unify the Big Board’s data and visual systems into a seamless experience. This integration involved advanced data modeling, system integration, and security safeguards. A first-of-its-kind caching strategy was implemented to enable instant load times for complex maps, allowing hosts to smoothly zoom in and out of regions with real-time speed and precision. The mapping strategy was also enhanced to improve performance and expand NBCU News' capabilities, using a single codebase across multiple broadcast graphic teams.

The infrastructure, supported by eight app modules and extensive AI-aided QA, efficiently manages 56 datasets for varying election types across all NBCU News Group platforms. It took a year of trial and error to achieve zero errors.

Impact:

Zero errors in 5,000-plus broadcast hours

3X increase in 2024 Super Tuesday streaming coverage vs. 2020

NBC News NOW on YouTube recorded the highest live audience tune-in than any key competitor on Super Tuesday

+218% social mentions for Steve Kornacki and the Big Board (6.9M impressions 2024)

12M viewers across the 2024 primary season

+23% followers on NBC News YouTube Channel/Kornacki Cam (9.2M Followers)

250X faster application data load time to handle breaking news

The fastest on-air data-mapping tool in production, with over 100FPS rendering

:04 seconds to ingest, verify and deliver data from anywhere in the country to the Big Board live on air

10M+ data points from 16 years of electoral data

16,356 geographies across the U.S. are managed by the Big Board concurrently

Zero errors in 5,000-plus broadcast hours

3X increase in 2024 Super Tuesday streaming coverage vs. 2020

NBC News NOW on YouTube recorded the highest live audience tune-in than any key competitor on Super Tuesday

+218% social mentions for Steve Kornacki and the Big Board (6.9M impressions 2024)

12M viewers across the 2024 primary season

+23% followers on NBC News YouTube Channel/Kornacki Cam (9.2M Followers)

:04 seconds to ingest, verify and deliver data from anywhere in the country to the Big Board live on air

10M+ data points from 16 years of electoral data

16,356 geographies across the U.S. are managed by the Big Board concurrently

5K hours spent unifying complex mapping technology for broadcast TV distribution

250X faster application data load time to handle breaking news

The fastest on-air data-mapping tool in production, with over 100FPS rendering