skift take
— Justin Dawes
Guests at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills can now access their in-room concierge via hologram.
The Beverly Wilshire Hotel has installed Proto hologram devices in its penthouse and presidential suite. This allows guests to interact with hotel staff as if they were face-to-face, except that staff are projected onto the device as holograms.
This is the first hotel to install this product in-room, but Proto CEO David Nussbaum hopes it will be the first of many.
“I think hospitality is going to be a huge thing for us because we can do a lot of different things, from corporate meetings to live concierge to entertainment to live events,” Nussbaum said.
“I think this is going to give us a lot of calls.”
The tabletop device, called the M, is approximately 29 inches tall, 12 inches wide, and 8.5 inches deep. It works by capturing your subject with a camera connected to your device’s software or a mobile camera. That video is projected in real time into the space behind the device’s screen at a time specified by the guest. From there, holographic staff and guests can see and hear each other.
The technology inside consists of a series of projections and evenly distributed LED lighting aimed at making the subject appear three-dimensional and lifelike. A software platform that operates this technology can be used to connect devices to a network.
A hologram can be a projection of a human being in real time, or it can be a recording or digital avatar.
Proto’s original hologram device, called The Epic, is 7 feet tall and was released in 2021.
Proto introduced the two devices in a social media video shown below.
Expanding in the field of hospitality
In a statement to Skift, Beverly Wilshire general manager Reid Kanderft said the hotel is starting with the interaction feature, but is exploring other ways to use the device.
This includes projecting guests into remote meetings, offering shopping options at Rodeo Drive’s high-end retail stores, hosting business speakers, providing entertainment and fitness content, and more.
Nussbaum agrees there is a lot of potential for what hotels can do. Hotel X Toronto recently installed a life-sized display in its lobby as a digital concierge. Proto allows hotels to be creative.
“People, they’re loyal. So if they go to a hotel and have a great experience, they’ll come back, which creates more revenue for the hotel,” he says on the How I Built This podcast with Guy Raz. said Nussbaum, who recently guest-starred on an episode of . .
Nussbaum also promotes this as a way companies can save on travel and reduce their environmental impact.
“It’s much better for the environment to transport people to the keynote and get them home in time for breakfast than it is to fly to Australia,” he says.
Proto isn’t the only hologram device maker looking to expand into the hospitality space. His Holoconnects startup has installed similar-looking hologram boxes to replace front desk employees at his new Aiden Hotel in Denmark as part of a deal with 30 hotels in 2023.
Celebrity-backed companies
Proto investors include Paris Hilton, America’s Got Talent judge Howie Mandel, musicians Quavo and Lil Wayne, and athletes Britney Griner, Marshawn Lynch, Robert Griffin III, and Albert – Includes Pujols.
They include Tesla and SpaceX investor Tim Draper and Uber investor Mike Walsh.
Founded in 2019, the company has completed a Series A funding round, raising $12 million. The company currently has open convertible notes (loans that can be repaid with equity in a startup) and is planning a Series B round, Nussbaum said.
Much of the company’s previous business has come from the entertainment industry, including airports, theme parks and cruise ships, as well as marketing and advertising.
It has been featured in over 120 promotions including the Super Bowl and H&M, T-Mobile, Netflix, CBS and more.
Qatar Airways displayed a digital face hologram representing its new AI travel planner at the ITB Travel Conference last month.
About 40 universities are also using it for distance learning, Nussbaum said. The company just showed off its technology at the AARP convention as a way to combat loneliness and improve telemedicine for an aging population. Some major retailers are considering placing boxes in their stores as a way to display 3D samples of their products.
Another Proto investor, Christie’s auction house in New York, uses the device to project holograms onto items for sale. A pre-recorded holographic Elton John was sold at an auction house in February while selling items from his home in Atlanta.
Photo Credit: The Beverly Wilshires at the Four Seasons Hotel installed proto-hologram devices in certain guest rooms.
