HOLOGRAMS AND THE FUTURE OF ‘LIVE’ GIGS
Many of you will have watched the original Star Wars movie and may remember the scene where a hologram of Princess Leia is being projected from R2-D2 when she says “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope”. I remember thinking at the time that it was pretty clever stuff!
Roll on to 2007 and we witnessed an incredible duet of Elvis and Celine Dion performing ‘If I Can Dream’ on the stage of American Idol.
The technology continues to evolve and get better and better and you may have seen the viral video on social media using 7D of the whale appearing to jump out of the floor of a sports hall and splash back down … amazing!
Similar visual effects are already being used in theme parks and will be pretty standard in most leisure sites in one form or another before too long.
Just imagine if you are on a Halloween ghost walk and strategically placed figures walk through the walls, the uses and fun are endless.
Advertisers are already starting to have a lot of success with this and it could be a way of overcoming the hassle of gaining planning permission for billboards.
So, are holograms going to be the future of ‘live’ gigs? Well I certainly think they will continue to be part of some performances. An increasing number of artists will be incorporating them into their shows to create a more spectacular visual experience, and in some cases transmitting virtual shows to an eager and receptive audience.
The Japanese singing sensation Hatsune Miku has been building a huge fan base over the last decade … and she is a hologram. Go check out her ‘World is Mine’ concert.
The rapper Tupac died in 1996 yet he appeared ‘live’ at Coachella by way of a hologram in 2012. Whitney Houston, Billie Holliday, Roy Orbison and Maria Callas are amongst others who have posthumously performed somewhere.
Some people find the whole thing a bit creepy and in bad taste but holograms alive or dead will continue coming to a venue near you.
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