A live hologram keynote from Tokyo for Hitachi’s event in New Delhi

Summary

Lorena Dellagiovanna, Senior Vice President and Executive Officer at Hitachi, Ltd., needed to address Hitachi’s company event in New Delhi. Instead of flying in, she spoke live from a studio in Tokyo and appeared life-size on the Delhi stage inside a HoloBox.

We ran the capture, the stream, live show management and post-production. The address ran without a drop from start to finish, and no flights were booked.

The brief: three problems for one keynote

The keynote needed the executive, not a recording

A pre-recorded address plays to an emptying room. The event needed her live and able to respond in the moment, which meant either her physically in Delhi or something the audience would accept in its place.

Her calendar was the constraint

Tokyo to Delhi and back for one address takes most of a working week out of a senior executive’s schedule. The event date was fixed.

A live stage runs once

There is no second take and no cutting to a backup slide. The stream had to hold its synchronisation and quality for the full address, in front of the whole company.

What we built

A HoloBox shows a person inside an 86-inch 4K transparent LCD enclosure at true human scale. Each unit pairs a 4K, high-transmission transparent panel with its own operating system and control app. Nobody wears anything, the lights stay up, and everyone in the hall sees the same figure at once.

An audience gives a screen a couple of seconds; it gives a person in the room its full attention. That is why a life-size figure on stage holds a room in a way a broadcast does not.

How the live stream works

The speaker stands in front of a green screen. Chroma key removes the background in real time, and the isolated figure is sent to the HoloBox at up to 2K over Ethernet, WiFi or 4G. It appears inside the enclosure at full human height. Afterwards, we edit the recorded feed.

The capture rig travels to the speaker, instead of the speaker travelling to the audience. This is also known as holographic telepresence, holoportation or a hologram video call.

How it worked on the day

An event hire like this is planned around the date, with capture set up at the speaker’s end, a connectivity check and a rehearsal. On the day, the executive spoke from the Tokyo studio and appeared live and life-size on the New Delhi stage, with no drops across the presentation. Our operator managed the show from a control laptop beside the unit.

Delegates also met the HoloBox up close in the lobby area of the event.

Results

• The executive gave an afternoon to the address instead of the working week a round trip from Tokyo to Delhi would take.
• No flights were booked.
• The audience saw her live and at full height, not as a broadcast.
• The stream ran without a drop for the whole presentation.

Other jobs the same unit can do

Hitachi hired the HoloBox for one keynote. Without any reconfiguration, the same unit can also:

• Show hardware too heavy to ship, such as a rail bogie or grid transformer, life-size on a stand.
• Pull apart a plant schematic in mid-air, with live operating data running against it.
• Bring a specialist into a Delhi briefing from a desk in Tokyo, at full height.
• Record a safety procedure demonstrated by the engineer who wrote it, then replay it at every site induction.
• Test new formats, such as an AI avatar answering dealer questions or a product reveal timed to a stage cue.

Frequently asked questions

Can a speaker appear as a hologram from another country?

Yes. Hitachi’s executive addressed the New Delhi event from a Tokyo studio, live and life-size, with no drops across the presentation.

Do viewers need headsets or 3D glasses?

No. Everyone in the room sees the hologram with the naked eye at the same time, which is what makes it work on a stage.

Can a hologram meeting replace travel?

For a keynote, yes. The audience gets the speaker live at full height, which a video call cannot match.

What does a HoloBox need to run?

Mains power and a connection: Ethernet, WiFi or 4G to stream live, or local media to run offline. It needs no rigging, special lighting or darkened room. Full figures are in the HoloBox brochure.

How long does deployment take?

An event hire is planned around the date: capture set-up at the speaker’s end, a connectivity check and a rehearsal. A permanent installation is planned around the site. We run hardware, content, streaming and live show management. Talk to our team about your event.