Bringing a volumetric presence into an everyday space is not only a visual decision. For the icologram® protocol, Cybel’Art favours native augmented reality over WebAR and has worked with Real Illusions for several years. The choice is to pursue a more stable, more substantial experience without treating technology as a promise without limits.
Choosing native AR over the browser trade-off
WebAR has an obvious advantage: an experience can start in a browser, without downloading an app. That convenience can nevertheless limit access to processing resources, memory and certain camera capabilities. Depending on the content and the device, those constraints can affect volumetric-asset size, resolution or spatial tracking.
When Cybel’Art considered bringing performances by Philippe Entremont and Henri Dès into the audience’s own environment, a native application became a coherent route for the agency’s AR and VR approach. An app can draw more directly on a phone’s augmented-reality functions and handle more demanding content.
Real Illusions: an engine and a long-term collaboration
The collaboration with Real Illusions rests on a professional licence that has been in place for several years. In the icologram® app, the native engine can use Apple’s ARKit or Google’s ARCore frameworks, depending on the device. After a marker is read, including an icolocard®, the scene can be anchored in the environment and viewed from different angles.
The artist content is presented as volumetric capture, rather than artificially generated performers. That distinction does not make a claim about every step in the production chain. Rendering large data volumes may also use approaches such as Gaussian Splatting; it is a representation and rendering technique, not proof of authenticity. The native environment also aims for close synchronisation of volumetric video and spatial audio.
An operational product and a broader announced architecture
Operationally, the icologram® app is the AR entry point: it connects the reading of a physical medium with content placed in the space. The icologram® and the icolocard® therefore give the interaction a tangible form.
The .icolo ecosystem is described as a broader architecture intended to connect these interactions with artist-access and rights-management services. This announced vision does not mean every future function is publicly available today. For context on that environment, see .icolo SA.
AR first; VR as a distinct initiative
Virtual Hall® is a separate virtual-reality initiative created in collaboration with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. It should not be confused with the native AR app discussed here. In this specific context, choosing Real Illusions is chiefly about bringing technical care, artistic presence and ease of use together.
Editorial adaptation of the article by Pierluigi Christophe Orunesu, originally published on Substack on 21 July 2026. Read the original article on Substack