Canadian holopresence firm ARHT has been pioneering such technologies since 2014. The company’s solutions allow people to communicate across the world while saving time and resources.
It also eliminates the need to travel to remote locations while interacting with live crowds using its remote viewing technologies.
Using holopresence technologies, executives, film stars, and advertisers can use low-latency 5G connections to capture and send their holographic avatars to distant audiences.
ARHT leverages its proprietary solutions to facilitate immersive experiences for all users, including firms, organisations, celebrities, retailers, and government officials.
Their portable, versatile Capsule solution allows live or pre-recorded virtual productions with 4K resolutions and interactive touchscreens.
Businesses can quickly integrate their platform content with plug-and-play infrastructure and motion sensors to interact with audiences. Capsules also incorporate QR codes for sharing information and websites for promotions.
XR Today recently visited ARHT’s London-based office and trialled its Capsule technologies. An ARHT executive discussed how the company’s solution delivers a novel communications platform for enterprise use.
XR Today: How are holograms increasing community engagement with customers, and in which settings?
ARHT: Holograms offer a sense of presence that feels as if subjects are with you in the same place. This is even though the person appearing as a hologram is in another location or may have been previously pre-recorded. With this sense of presence, interactions feel natural and audiences stay engaged. With this, holograms create numerous potential use cases to engage communities. This is especially for clients seeking to engage people in meaningful ways to generate greater impacts and create memorable connections.
For example, in a retail or brand activation setting, holopresence technologies allow famous influencers or celebrities to join local events without travelling or requiring large amounts of time from their schedule. They also help retailers deliver product knowledge from the best experts available, no matter their location. Moreover, many retailers and brands are looking for ways to engage target audiences in the physical world and in person. Furthermore, they also understand that, currently, much more happens digitally.
Holograms can bridge these two spaces by fusing the physical with the digital, or ‘phygital’. This creates experiences that start in one realm and easily shift into the other.
For example, a customer can walk into a retail store and encounter a holographic display with pre-recorded content. This promotes the latest brand collections and, through QR codes, unlocks additional content to view online. It can even offer in-store promotions at the same time.
Our technologies can create more opportunities for in-person sales and extend the brand digitally, all while interacting with an engaging and unforgettable novel technology. We also see trends in holograms as applications for numerous locations. These have included concierge services, customer service, product catalogues, trade shows, training and education, recruitment, speaking engagements, and even important recurring meetings.
XR Today: How does holographic technology work? In which scenarios would users find holograms more beneficial than meeting in real life?
ARHT: At the foundation of ARHT’s hologram technology is our proprietary transmission software, ARHT Engine.
The solution allows us to capture a presenter in one of our Capture Studios and beam them securely over the internet to our hologram displays like the ARHT CAPSULE, live and with zero latency, and in real-time.
In the Capture Studio, presenters stand in a space similar to a video recording studio with a backdrop, specialised lighting, a 4K camera, and reference monitors. The presenter can see their audience via reference monitors that show live feeds from integrated cameras and communicate with mics.On the display side, on the ARHT CAPSULE, the audience sees the presenter’s lifelike, fully-formed hologram on a transparent LCD screen encased within a lightbox. This helps give the visual of the presenter a sense of depth and the appearance of stereoscopic 3D. Since the ARHT Engine can handle multiple two-way streams, presenters can technically be present in multiple places at once at the same time and interact in real-time, all without having to travel. ARHT’s Hologram Displays can be transported and set up as required in many different types of locations. Regarding the ARHT Capture Studio, we have a number of locations around the world with permanent studios already set up. We also provide a mobile Capture solution that can bring the Capture Studio closer to the presenter. We can also deploy our global delivery team and technicians to help deliver projects across every continent in virtually every country or city. In fact, we have even beamed a live hologram of several speakers to an Adventure Yacht in the Antarctic!
XR Today: Which big names are incorporating your solutions, and why did they choose holopresence for their clients?
ARHT: We work with many top brands and companies across numerous verticals. To date, the list is quite remarkable—we have worked with many celebrities, notable speakers, and even heads of state.
Organizations, businesses, and people choose to work with us to deliver more impact, overcome scheduling conflicts or geographical obstacles, improve efficiency by reducing business travel, and align with environmental, sustainability, and governance (ESG) goals.
XR Today: What can you tell us about the XR market related to your solutions? Have you seen any specific emerging trends?
ARHT: Besides phygital experiences, the rise of XR opens up more possibilities and interest in hologram-related applications.
Holograms are a bridge between the digital and physical worlds. As mixed reality becomes more widely adopted, holograms will become a key medium to display elements and content from the digital world and give them a sense of presence in the physical space.
Beyond beaming holograms of people, we have also displayed holograms of digital avatars in the past and can display all kinds of 3D content using holopresence. This allows people to view and interact with these digital elements in real-time and in real life.
