Hero Zone: Where Social VR Meets Real-World Revenue -
Hololabs Studio has named its mixed reality attraction format Atrium. Each deployment uses a four-room plan inside an 8-by-22-meter footprint. A group starts every 10 minutes. Four groups are in the attraction at once, and a group finishes in about 40 minutes. Mike Wozniewski, the studio’s founder, described the design to blooloop on 5 October 2026. The studio showed the first room of the format at IAAPA Expo Europe in London, 22 to 24 September 2026. The VR Collective reported on that preview on 28 September.
Atrium’s free-roam VR act runs for about 20 minutes, twice the 10-minute start interval. So the plan runs two free-roam VR rooms in parallel. The mixed reality opening and the motion-seat finale are shorter, each in its own room.
The September preview reported that flow as stacking. The October account sets a clock on it: at steady state, four groups occupy different acts and advance together every 10 minutes. blooloop described the pattern as a continuously loading dark ride and the guest side as a four-act journey of about 40 minutes.
“Creators and operators of immersive experiences have all been circling the same three-cornered tradeoff: we want a high-throughput attraction, in a low physical footprint, with a high degree of immersion and interactivity,” said Wozniewski.
Wozniewski described the alternative as a choice free-roam venues have had to make. A dedicated square play space gives groups interactive freedom, he said, and each group holds it for a long time. “You can increase the square footage, but it becomes unmanageable unless you force guests through in a prescribed fashion, which can cause the experience to flatten into something that feels more like a tour, and less like an attraction,” he said.
“Set the creative argument aside for a moment and look at it as a spreadsheet,” said Wozniewski. “With high guest throughput, a smaller space can generate higher revenue per square meter in retail and mixed-use spaces than a large warehouse can match.”
He said the format supports a premium ticket. The Atrium journey runs 40 minutes across four acts, with physical sets and a motion finale. It is a different product from a single VR session, he said. He named pre-show food and beverage and post-show retail and photos as further revenue.
Hololabs Studio, of Victoria, British Columbia, built Abyss: Vault and has developed gameplay for augmented reality dark rides, among them Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge at Universal’s parks.
“Almost nobody has done both. Atrium lives exactly at the seam between these, which is why it’s the format we’ve spent years quietly preparing to build,” said Wozniewski.
The VR Collective covered the studio’s theme-park design and arcade economics in April.
Hololabs Studio is a LEXRA founding member. Wozniewski set out the thinking behind Atrium at the LEXRA Summit in Dallas.
Atrium’s plan gives operators three numbers: 176 square metres, six group starts an hour, and four groups at once. For IP owners, Wozniewski presented Atrium as a platform whose show-orchestration layer Hololabs supplies.
What is VR attraction throughput in Hololabs Studio’s Atrium format? A group starts every 10 minutes, which is six starts an hour, and four groups occupy different acts at once. Each group finishes in about 40 minutes.
How big is an Atrium deployment? Each deployment uses a four-room plan that fits inside an 8 by 22 metre footprint, or 176 square metres.
Why does Atrium run two free-roam VR rooms? The free-roam VR act lasts about 20 minutes, twice the 10-minute start interval, so two rooms run it in parallel. The mixed reality opening and the motion-seat finale are shorter and take one room each.
Where did Hololabs Studio show Atrium? Hololabs showed the first room of the format at IAAPA Expo Europe in London, 22 to 24 September 2026. Wozniewski set out the design behind it at the LEXRA Summit in Dallas.
What does Atrium change for revenue per square metre? Wozniewski said high guest throughput lets a smaller space earn more per square metre than a large warehouse. He named pre-show food and beverage, post-show retail and photos as further revenue.
