Like many people my age, I grew up watching Star Wars and Star Trek, where holograms and teleportation were used to bring people together across vast distances. It always felt like unobtainable science fiction. But the way we communicate today is starting to feel surprisingly close to that future.
At Vizrt, we have spent years exploring one core question: how do you help people feel truly present when they are not physically in the same place? With Vizrt CaptivAIte, we took a clear step forward in making hybrid communication feel genuinely human.
Vizrt CaptivAIte allows someone joining on Zoom to appear inside a Zoom Room as if they are standing there in person. Not inside a screen. Not confined to a video tile on the wall. They appear life‑size, in the same physical space, next to the presenter. The impact is immediate and shifts the energy of a meeting. Conversations feel more natural. People engage differently.
Using Vizrt CaptivAIte to “teleport” a Zoom contributor into the Zoom Room.
This matters because hybrid communication is still not working as well as it should. Even with the best intentions, remote participants often feel like observers rather than contributors. Attention drifts. Vizrt CaptivAIte brings presence back into the room and pulls remote contributors into the shared experience.
Vizrt’s work on virtual presence did not start with Zoom. In 2008, we helped CNN create a moment many people still remember from the US election, when a journalist and a pop star appeared live in the studio from another city. At the time, we called it the Hologram. It worked, but it required a green screen, dozens of cameras, and complex production workflows. It proved what was possible, but it was far from simple.
Pop star Will.I.Am brought into the CNN studio via hologram in 2008
What stayed with us was not the spectacle, but the effect. When people felt physically present, even virtually, the message landed differently.
Over the years, we kept pushing on the same idea. How do you make people feel like they are together without broadcast‑level complexity or special setups?
The real turning point came in 2020. During the lockdowns, we needed to find ways to bring people together when travel was not an option. Using advances in keying and low‑latency streaming, we demonstrated that two people in different countries could appear side by side in a shared space with minimal infrastructure. We were able to have more natural conversations and engagement when it appeared that all the contributors were in the same space together. That moment reinforced something fundamental for us. Technology itself is not the outcome. The experience it enables is.
In 2020, Vizrt CMO Chris Black, based in Norway, and Dorna Sports head of global technology, Sergi Sendra, teleported from Spain to the Vizrt Studio in Austria to have a conversation with Vizrt Former CTO Gerhard Lang.
Since then, we have seen this approach used in leadership communications, events, interviews, and award shows. Again and again, the result has been the same. When someone feels present, the connection is stronger. The communication feels more human.
The biggest step forward has been removing the green screen entirely. With the latest generation of our AI‑powered keyer, we can take a standard video feed, automatically detect the person, extract them cleanly, and place them into the room in real time. No studio. No special lighting. No complex setup. It fits naturally into the tools teams already use.
This is where AI plays its role. Not as the headline, but as the enabler. AI removes friction. It simplifies what used to be complex. It makes high‑quality experiences easier to create and easier to scale. In Vizrt CaptivAIte, AI is not the point. Presence is.
For corporate teams, this is not about visual effects. It is about better meetings and stronger communication. It also changes the economics of collaboration. Organizations can bring remote contributors directly into boardrooms, town halls, or keynote stages without flying people across the world. Executives, subject matter experts, and presenters can appear as part of the same shared experience, regardless of location.
That creates a consistent experience for audiences, while reducing travel costs, time, and logistical overhead. Teams stay connected. Decisions happen faster. The experience improves, while efficiency improves with it.
Teleportation may have started as science fiction, but it is becoming a practical tool for modern communication. Enabled by AI, Vizrt helps organizations create more engaging, more human experiences at scale. Teleportation is no longer about the future. It is the next evolution of how we connect.
Chris Black
Chief Marketing Officer, Vizrt
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