PORTL’s Holograms Are Engaging Fans Around the World

Even before the pandemic, holograms were an interesting and immersive technology that captured fans’ attention, but their use has accelerated over the past 18 months, along with most other immersive tech. Some types of holograms can be viewed using augmented reality on mobile devices, while others can be beamed into the real world, as is the case with PORTL’s hologram technology.

PORTL Founder and CEO David Nussbaum previously ran one of the one of the world's largest hologram entertainment companies, which was known for bringing dead celebrities back to life to posthumously perform. But instead of focusing on digitally resurrecting the dead, Nussbaum always believed that “the future was in connecting the living.” He began to focus his efforts on telepresence — or holo-presence, as he calls it — and founded PORTL three years ago.

PORTL’s technology allows users to “beam” into a PORTL device anywhere in the world, using only a basic studio setup. Nussbaum explains that it works “in all forms of daylight and other types of lighting conditions. Before PORTL, all holograms needed darkness or controlled light, which isn’t practical for all types of events and situations.” The hologram projection device itself is completely self-contained and can simply be rolled into position and plugged in. It then displays a life-like hologram of the person being beamed in in 4k resolution.

The tech has allowed for innovative fan activations over the past few months, including an album launch event with Migos in June, during which the trio beamed to four different cities around the country simultaneously to interact with fans and talk about their new music.

“With travel restrictions, artists don't have to perform in front of fans physically but can still have those same VIP, one-on-one communication abilities,” notes Nussbaum. “And the full-body experience is different from 2D video like Zoom. For storytellers, musicians, and entertainers, it's almost completely necessary for their entire body to be seen, in real time. That's why this is so important.”

PORTL has also been utilized for innovative brand activations at sporting events. Nussbaum shares that a PORTL device has been set up at the AT&T Perch at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which players use to beam up into the stands and interact with fans. T Mobile also sponsored an activation at the MLB All-Star Game that involved decorating the PORTL to look like a baseball card, and “fans were able to beam in from one side of the convention hall to the other holding baseball bats to make it seem like they were inside of a hologram baseball card,” says Nussbaum.

The technology has come in particularly handy during the pandemic, as it has cut down on the need for physical travel. During the recent Formula E event in New York last month, PORTL was also able to beam racers out of the Covid bubble to enable them to talk with fans and journalists.

Racecar driver PORTL hologram

The sustainability aspect of eliminating travel will remain important far beyond the pandemic. “Saving the earth is very important to me,” notes Nussbaum. “Without having to jump in cars and airplanes, a lot of our customers have seen their carbon footprint shrink considerably, sometimes down to around 10% of what it used to be.” PORTL is about more than saving money, he says, it’s also about saving the Earth.

Nussbaum shares that the company has about 20 major sports, music, and television activations scheduled over the next month or two. PORTL is currently being utilized to beam in Romeo Santos for HBO’s House of Bachata pop-up in Washington Heights in promotion of his documentary and concert on the network. Moving forward, PORTL will also continue expanding into the telecommunications space.

Nussbaum and his team are currently developing an app that will allow users to beam without a studio when they don’t quite need studio-quality production. “It's going to rotoscope you out of your environment and add the shadows, reflections, color correction and volumetric abilities that the studio provides,” explains Nussbaum. “And it will allow you to beam in real time or beam pre-recorded content from your phone into any PORTL that you have access to.”

Further down the line, consumers can expect to see a tabletop PORTL unit, which will make the technology more accessible. “In the years to come, we anticipate distributing thousands of the PORTLs, and millions of the tabletop units,” says Nussbaum. “These smaller devices are going to be great not only in conference rooms, retail shops, and at pop ups and activations, but they will also allow fitness instructors, inspirational speakers, educators, and entertainers to beam directly into people’s homes in their own personal PORTL.”