hologram projection screens
How transparent scrims float video in open air and what NOVA Light Labs has learned building the effect.
A hologram screen is not a hologram. It is a transparent scrim: a fine mesh that reads nearly clear up close, engineered to catch projected light while staying invisible from a distance. The best versions weave metallic thread into the fibers.
The 2Pac performance at Coachella made the category famous using a Pepper's ghost reflection. Direct projection on transparent mesh reaches a similar result with far less machinery. The content hangs in open air.
NOVA Light Labs has run a series of studio experiments with these screens. This page is the record: the formats, the rooms that suit them, and the production control that makes or breaks the effect.
Formats & uses
Hologram screens scale from a framed doorway panel to a full stage width surface, in single or layered configurations.
The studio's doorway experiment framed a scrim inside a door sized opening: a portal where figures appear at human scale. Small panels suit retail windows, displays, and photo moments. The frame disappears.
At full scale, one scrim spans an entire stage front with performers behind it. A dark drape upstage swallows the spill, and the projection reads as a plane suspended between the audience and the stage. Stacking 2 or 3 scrims adds depth and parallax.
The technique fits concerts, product reveals, brand activations, immersive dining, and permanent installations.
control the light
The effect depends on projector placement, audience sightlines, and strict control of spill light.
Projection passes through the mesh. That is the defining behavior. The light that misses the threads lands on whatever sits beyond. Sometimes that is a feature: a second surface catches the pass through and one projector produces 2 aligned images.
When the spill is not wanted, NOVA designs the geometry so it lands in a dark drape, gets drowned by a wash light, or bounces off a mirror out of view. Sightlines come first. The beam never crosses a guest's eyes.
Ambient light flattens a hologram projection screen fast. The technique demands the same discipline as any projection mapping build. These are experiments, and what they prove is range: NOVA can carry the technique into any room that can support it.
