Le Temps highlights Virtual Hall® at HUG

A different way to experience Victoria Hall

What if a concert could offer a brief escape during a dialysis session? In its report of 22 October 2026, Le Temps highlights the Virtual Hall® experience offered at Geneva University Hospitals (HUG).

Using a virtual-reality headset, people receiving dialysis can find themselves at the heart of a concert by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. The 360° recordings make it possible to experience the music from several positions among the instrumentalists: no longer merely in front of the orchestra, but inside it.

A musical interlude at the heart of care

Developed by Cybel’Art at the initiative of the OSR, Virtual Hall® brings the concert experience closer to audiences who cannot always get to a concert hall. At HUG, this meeting of music and immersion takes place in a particularly human setting: that of demanding treatment, during which another form of attention and escape can be offered.

This approach explores possibilities for support and comfort during dialysis. The publicly available information in the report is not, on its own, sufficient to establish clinically proven pain relief. The musical experience does not replace medical care.

Read the Le Temps report

‘It feels as though we were at Victoria Hall’: at HUG, a virtual-reality symphony to relieve pain for people receiving dialysis — read the article on letemps.ch.

Source: Le Temps, 22 October 2026. The report is reserved for subscribers; this news item is based on its publicly accessible elements.

Photograph from the report in Le Temps: a virtual-reality experience at the heart of a classical-music concert, in Geneva on 13 October 2026. © David Wagnières for Le Temps.