ARHT Media, a Canadian-based hologram company founded in 2012 showcased their technology to press last month. The technology is being made available to WeWork members at the Century City location. It's not inexpensive though and can range in cost from $5,000 to $25,000. But both companies think with the pandemic changing the way business is done, more executives will be willing to spend for the virtual interaction.
As part of the presentation, CEO of ARHT Media, Larry O'Reilly and VP of product extensions at WeWork, Carla D'Alessandro appeared in hologram form.
"I appear life-sized in high resolution, and there's no noticeable latency in the audio. As an audience member, your brain is telling you, 'I'm in the room,'" O'Reilly said.
"That's really what our goal is, to create the illusion that the person is actually in the room with you." (For example, last month ARHT Media beamed in a woman living in London to a wedding ceremony in Canada because she couldn't attend due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.)
ARHT Media created holograms for AT&T, sports channel ESPN, Live Nation Entertainment, among others. As part of their deal with WeWork, HoloPresence will appear in 100 of the coworking giant's office spaces across the globe by the end of 2021 (LA is the first).
HoloPresence allows for an individual to beam into multiple locations at once, as well as beam in speakers from different locations and bring them on stage together as if they are there in person.
The hologram has been around for quite some time. Perhaps most famously, the deceased rapper Tupac Shakur showed up at Coachella in 2012, much to the audience's delight (and shock). "While [the Tupac performance] created a good image, it required a large footprint, took a long time to set up and tear down, and was expensive to deploy," O'Reilly told the small crowd.
By comparison, HoloPresence's technology can be set up in a matter of minutes. Someone opting for the more bare-bones option needs a green screen and a condensed version of what's available at WeWork offices – lights, monitors and a 4K camera. ARHT Media has set up remote studios in professional soccer locker rooms, hotel rooms, and homes. WeWork, will provide the equipment for any customer wishing to use the tech.
Three and a half years ago, it would have cost $85,000 to use HoloPresence for a single session and required eight technicians between the display and capture studio. Today, it takes one technician to be present in each studio for the technology to run smoothly.
To create the holograms the 4K video and audio files are captured, compressed, sent over the internet to Los Angeles and played back to the audience within 0.3 seconds of them speaking.
Here's How it Really Looks
As part of the live demo, WeWork representatives rounded myself and other attendees into groups of five to guide us to their "capture and display studio."
While I waited my turn, I was greeted by lights, and a green screen draped from the ceiling to the floor. The capture studio was reminiscent of photoshoot studios I'd visit before every high school dance.
I sat down in the director's chair, and the technician mic'd me up. I was in awe at how clear and smooth the technology was working. Seeing my hologram for the first time was bizarre because I never thought this was possible. I always thought this type of technology was only used for important people.
When I saw my hologram, it felt like I was looking into a mirror. The hologram of me was so accurate that I was able to see the wrinkles in my shirt, to my overgrown roots, and strands of hair that were out of place.
The biggest "wow" factor for me, there was no latency from what's being recorded and what's being displayed. It feels more engaging than your average Zoom call and you'll no longer encounter the dreaded mute button, or delays between voice and audio sync. I'm really looking forward to seeing this technology widespread as it can eliminate huge travel expenses, reduce carbon footprint and offer a work-life balance.
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Photo: Proto
During the pandemic as artists worldwide sought out alternative ways to reach their audiences, there was again, a moment in which holograms appeared to be a part of the future – of classrooms, work communication and entertainment.
But the technology is far from mainstream, and the dream that we’d all interact with holograms on a daily basis hasn’t come to fruition yet.
Entertainment
Back in 2012, Tupac Shakur was reanimated for a brief set as a hologram at the Coachella Valley music festival.
The creation was a joint effort between several firms, including Arizona-based AV Concepts and Digital Domain, based in Playa Vista. Digital Domain’s chief technology officer Hanno Basse told dot.LA the company worked with the also King estate and Time Magazine to create a hologram of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for a VR museum exhibit.
Besides holographic people, Digital Domain creates realistic CGI for films in its digital humans lab, and has been used in blockbusters including Marvel’s “She-Hulk,” “Black Widow” and “Avengers: Endgame” as well as a 2018 “Call of Duty” ad for Activision.
Basse said that while Digital Domain’s VFX work with digital humans on films like “Titanic” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” has earned it Oscars, the company’s eager to use its tech in other ventures. Additionally, one area Digital Domain is trying to work more on is video games, which rely entirely on virtual humans. Gaming in particular is a space ripe for virtual human tech, especially since realistically animating characters, especially in multiplayer games, is still challenging even for huge studios.
Hologram Tupac debuted at the Coachella Valley Arts & Music Festival in 2012.Photo: AV Concepts
Communication
But while hologram Tupac was a big deal, in 2020, Nussbaum realized that communication – not concerts – was where hologram tech was needed.
So Nussbaum started Proto and developed what’s now the company’s flagship device, the Proto Epic. It’s a nearly 90-inch-tall metal box capable of fitting a human over six feet tall inside. The box is also equipped with front-facing 4K video cameras and speakers, so the box can transmit audience feedback and let the user respond in real-time (watch Ellen DeGeneres do so here).
Becoming a hologram is simple – iPhones 13 and above have 4k cameras, so all it requires is the Proto Beam app, which uses the phone to live capture 3D video and beam it to the Proto E (or the smaller, tabletop model, the Proto M) from anywhere.
You might recall that during the pandemic, news station KTLA used Proto to do remote red-carpet reporting for the 2020 Emmy Awards.
Howie Mandel, a backer of Proto, told dot.LA after a demo he became an investor and advocate for the technology (Proto’s Van Nuys office is housed in the same building as Mandel’s production and podcast studio).
“It was like the first time I saw an iPhone,” Mandel said. “It puts Zoom and every other video broadcaster and hologram company to shame. I can be someplace without going anywhere, which is my dream come true as a germaphobe.”
Proto founder David Nussbaum, left, does a fist-bump with investor Howie Mandel, right, via the Proto E device. Photo: Proto
Advertising
Mandel said he sees potential for Proto in merchandising. To that end, the company has already inked deals with auction house Christie’s, also an investor, to use Proto devices to show items. Other clients include Verizon, Virgin Media O2 and CAA. Retailer H&M also uses Proto E devices to replace window mannequins.
“I think it’s going to be the Kleenex of communication, retail, education and advertising,” Mandel told dot.LA about his predictions for Proto’s future.
Scott Likens, head of accounting firm PwC’s innovation hub, said he learned of Proto from a participant in its Next Tech Studio and began working with them last spring. PwC mainly uses Proto to communicate globally without boundaries.
“Hologram is a unique space that requires dynamic hardware and software, so we are continuously testing what works in both small and large collaborative sessions,” Likens noted.
H&M used a Proto E (right) to replace window mannequins at one of its stores with videos of hologram models. Photo: Proto
Healthcare
Bari Hoffman, associate dean for clinical affairs and internal medicine professor at the University of Central Florida, said she’s been using the Proto Epic device since 2021.
Hoffman said UCF has used Proto to beam in volunteers for virtual exams, including people with advanced Huntington’s disease who couldn’t otherwise travel. She also said Mandel used one to talk to a class about his OCD diagnosis and had a “seamless” live conversation.
“It’s really imperative and impactful for our students to be able to see in high definition the life-size, head to toe experience of that patient,” Hoffman said. She added that while most medical schools also rely on trained actors to simulate symptoms for education, hologram tech could allow people actually living with chronic diseases to volunteer from afar.
But holograms are not ready for large-scale healthcare use, Hoffman said. “Nobody is actually delivering health care with the technology yet, because there's some other things that need to be in place to make it compliant [with regulators].” Adding that, UCF has recruited a “large number of faculty and clinical experts, physicians and surgeons in the community to study and evaluate [it].”
Digital Domain's virtual human technology used hologram-like tech to de-age football star Joe Montana for NBCUniversal's "Quantum Leap." Photo: Digital Domain
Upcoming innovations
That said, it’s going to take some time before consumer-focused devices like Proto make their way into the home of everyone in America considering the smaller Proto M retails for nearly $7,000. Though Nussbaum wouldn’t disclose sales figures, he said he’s sold “hundreds” of them.
Which explains why other companies have jumped into the hologram business. In 2016, Microsoft began working on HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset that retails for $3,500. And in 2020, Meta filed a patent application for “3D conversations” conducted virtually using hologram-like tech.
For his part, Basse said he expects an arms race for holograms or digital human technology to accelerate. “Visual presentations in one form or another are a major piece of modern life, and people, creators and organizations that are looking to stand out need to find ways to rise above the competition,” he said.
Mandel was also optimistic about holograms becoming mainstream. “This is probably the most excited I have seen people around a piece of technology,” he said of Proto. “It needs to be everywhere.”
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