How holograms are used at live events in India, from 2014 to HoloBox

Industry insight: this article describes how the technology is used in the industry. It is not a Metaverse911 client project. See our case studies for our own work.

The situation: reaching audiences across a large country

Live events in India are defined by scale. Reaching audiences across many cities has meant flat LED walls and heavy travel schedules for speakers and leaders. Being in several places at once, or making a hall of thousands feel addressed in person, was the hard limit.

The first large public answer came in the 2014 general elections. To reach voters in remote constituencies and several cities at once, large-scale 3D holographic projections let a single speaker appear in dozens of locations across the country. It showed that holograms could work at scale and hold an audience's attention.

What changed: from campaign stages to standalone units

A decade on, the technology has moved into corporate and public events. The inaugural WAVES summit, held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai from 1 to 4 May 2025 with delegates from over 90 countries, reflected India's ambition to be a hub for media, entertainment and immersive technology.

The technical change is just as large. Instead of the stage-sized "Pepper's Ghost" rigs of 2014, events now use standalone units such as HoloBox: a self-contained enclosure that shows a life-size, photorealistic hologram, with far less setup, a sharper image and two-way interaction.

How it works

The 2014 approach

The 2014 rigs were a scaled-up version of the 19th-century Pepper's Ghost illusion. A projector beamed video onto a hidden reflective surface, which bounced it onto a transparent foil stretched across the stage at 45 degrees. It needed near-total lighting control, heavy trusses and several days of calibration, so it suited only the largest events.

The HoloBox approach

A HoloBox needs no foil or blacked-out hall. It is a sealed enclosure with an 86" 4K display that makes a person appear to stand inside the box. The steps are:

• Record or stream: the subject is recorded once in a studio with professional lighting and a green screen, or streamed live using chroma-key capture.
• Show in the box: the feed plays in the unit as a life-size, photorealistic figure, bright enough to read across a busy venue.
• Interact: visitors tap a 22" touch overlay to trigger recorded answers; a look-alike AI avatar built from a LiDAR scan can lip-sync responses; and live two-way streaming at up to 2K lets a remote leader see, hear and reply in real time.
• Scale across cities: a keynote recorded in Mumbai can play on HoloBox units in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru at the same time.

Setup is plug-and-play: standard 110–240V power, an Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection (4G-ready), and media loaded by USB, SD card or media server.

Results

The source describes benefits for each team rather than figures from a single event:

• Event production: no week-long builds. A HoloBox is wheeled in, plugged in and running within hours, which lowers venue, labour and risk, and makes holograms possible in corporate lobbies and regional banquet halls.
• Corporate communications: a CEO or spokesperson can appear in person, in effect, in several cities in one day without flying, with the same message everywhere.
• Marketing: a life-size hologram draws a crowd and gets photographed and shared. HoloBox can also record which questions visitors tap most, which shows what the audience cares about.

The indicative benchmarks the source gives for this kind of deployment are wider live reach without the cost of multi-city stages, higher engagement and recall than 2D video in post-event surveys, lower executive travel costs, and more earned media and social reach.

What it means for manufacturers

Manufacturers run dealer meets, product launches, town halls and trade show stands across many cities. A hologram unit lets a managing director or product head appear at each one without travelling, either recorded or live, and lets visitors ask questions through a touch screen.

Because the unit is self-contained and runs on standard power and network, it fits a stand, a plant reception or a regional office as easily as a convention hall. Recording once and playing in several cities keeps the message consistent.

Frequently asked questions

Is HoloBox suitable for smaller corporate events?

Yes. It needs no stage build, only standard power and a network connection, so it works in lobbies, regional banquet halls and other small venues as well as large stages.

What hardware is needed, and is setup difficult?

The unit is a sealed enclosure with an 86" 4K display. It runs on standard 110–240V power with Ethernet or Wi-Fi (4G-ready), and content is loaded by USB, SD card or media server. It can be running within hours.

Can the speaker interact with the audience, or is it only pre-recorded?

Both. Content can be pre-recorded, visitors can trigger recorded answers on a 22" touch overlay, an AI avatar can lip-sync responses, and live two-way streaming at up to 2K lets a remote speaker reply in real time.

Can one presentation run in several cities at once?

Yes. A keynote recorded in one city can play on HoloBox units in other cities at the same time, for example Mumbai to Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.

How is live streaming handled?

The speaker is captured on a chroma-key background and streamed live at up to 2K into the unit, where they appear as a life-size hologram.