ARHT Media Inc. filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations in October 2024. If you deployed, evaluated or were quoted ARHT’s HoloPresence holographic-telepresence line, the Holoconnects Holobox is the closest supported successor for that job — a life-size hologram seen with the naked eye, with a two-way live 4K connection for beaming a real presenter to a destination, from an operating vendor with ongoing support.
What happened to ARHT Media
ARHT Media was a Canada-based pioneer of live holographic telepresence (its HoloPresence line beamed presenters onto keynote and business-event stages). On 4 October 2024 the company filed for bankruptcy under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and halted operations, laying off its staff; MNP Ltd. was appointed licensed insolvency trustee, and the wind-down affected its subsidiaries in the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong. (Source: ARHT Media’s bankruptcy announcement, GlobeNewswire, 4 Oct 2024.)
This page is intentionally non-disparaging — a bankruptcy is a neutral fact, not a talking point. It exists because ARHT’s core use case is one the Holobox serves directly, so buyers who arrive here looking for ARHT deserve an honest, current answer.
The Holobox as the supported successor
ARHT’s strength was holographic telepresence — making a live person present, at scale, somewhere they physically aren’t. That is exactly what the Holobox is built for: a transparent-LCD unit shows a life-size person in 3D to the naked eye, and a two-way live 4K connection lets a real presenter at one Holobox appear life-size at a destination Holobox for real-time conversation. Crescent Regional Hospital in Texas uses it for life-size remote telehealth consults; it is deployed for reception, keynotes, education and retail across Europe and beyond.
Unlike a wound-down vendor, Holoconnects is an operating company with ongoing support, software updates, a content-production Recording Station, and transparent, published pricing.
| Holobox (Holoconnects) | ARHT Media (former) | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Operating vendor (Holoconnects, Culemborg, the Netherlands). Ongoing support, updates and content services. | Ceased operations October 2024 (bankruptcy; MNP Ltd. trustee). No ongoing vendor support. |
| Core use case | Life-size holographic presence + two-way live 4K telepresence: a real presenter appears life-size at a destination unit for real-time conversation. | Holographic telepresence (HoloPresence) — beaming live presenters onto keynote and business-event stages. |
| Form factor | Self-contained transparent-LCD unit (Mini 22" to life-size 86", plus the modular Hologrid wall). Plug-and-play; running within an hour on site. | HoloPresence line with variable, often stage-scale configurations for live events. |
| Who sees it | Everyone at once, naked-eye, in normal indoor light — no headset, glasses or app. | Audience-facing stage telepresence for live-event and keynote settings. |
| Sector references | Hospitality (CIC Hospitality, rollout planned for 30 hotels; Aiden by Best Western), telehealth (Crescent Regional Hospital), education (UN ITC-ILO Turin), events (BMW × Urban Media, Smart Mission UAE). | Corporate summit appearances and keynote-scale telepresence deployments (historic). |
| Pricing | Transparent from-prices: Holobox Mini from €4,500, the 86" Holobox from €25,000, Hologrid from €45,000. Buy, lease or rent. | Quoted per configuration (no longer available). |
If you have an existing ARHT deployment
After a bankruptcy and wind-down, manufacturer support, spare parts, software updates and content services are generally no longer available from the original vendor — so organisations still running ARHT installations usually need to migrate to a supported platform. The Holobox is a self-contained successor for the live-presenter and telepresence use cases: give us the use case in a short call and we’ll say honestly whether it fits.
Questions
What happened to ARHT Media?
ARHT Media Inc., the Canadian holographic-telepresence company behind the HoloPresence line, filed for bankruptcy under Canada's Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and ceased operations on 4 October 2024. MNP Ltd. was appointed licensed insolvency trustee, and the wind-down affected its subsidiaries in the US, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong.
What is the best ARHT Media alternative?
For ARHT's core use case — beaming a live presenter as a life-size hologram (telepresence) — the Holoconnects Holobox is the closest supported successor. It shows a life-size person seen with the naked eye (no headset), supports a two-way live 4K connection for real-time remote presence, ships as a self-contained plug-and-play unit, and has transparent from-prices (from €4,500). Holoconnects is an operating vendor with named enterprise deployments and ongoing support.
Can I still get support for existing ARHT hardware?
After a bankruptcy and wind-down, ongoing manufacturer support, spare parts, software updates and content services are typically no longer available from the original vendor. Organisations still running ARHT installations usually need to migrate to a supported platform. The Holobox is a self-contained successor for the live-presenter and telepresence use cases.
Further reading
- Best hologram displays compared — the current, operating makers side by side.
- Holographic telepresence — how a live presenter is beamed to a destination unit.
- What is a hologram? — the three types explained.
Want a scoped assessment?
Give us your use case in a 30-minute call and we’ll say honestly whether the Holobox fits as a successor, and where it doesn’t. No obligation.