Microsoft : How REWIND is using HoloLens to take Red Bull Air Race fans closer to the action

Leila Martine, Director of Product Marketing at Microsoft, sees first-hand the excitement HoloLens is causing. 'HoloLens is helping companies to work better by empowering staff. Every day we are seeing that workers from a range of sectors can easily collaborate to make complicated problems simple to solve. It really is taking human experiences to the next level.'

Virtual, augmented and mixed reality is becoming increasingly important to companies across the globe. According to market intelligence firm IDC, 'worldwide revenues for the augmented reality and virtual reality market will grow … to more than $162 billion in 2020″.

REWIND is at the cutting-edge of that market. The company, which is based in St Albans (Rogers: 'We're only 2.5 miles outside the M25, so we're London'), was only founded in 2011 but has grown quickly, boasting a team of more than 50 people. The group has already created a multi-award-winning virtual reality spacewalk for the BBC, as well as experiences with Jaguar, Lexus, Nissan, Rolls-Royce, Nike, Stella Artois, Savills and singer Bjork, among many others.

That level of technical experience led to REWIND being added to Microsoft's HoloLens Agency Readiness Partner programme, which means the company will help other businesses use the mixed-reality headset to transform how they work. Rogers is excited by the possibilities.

'HoloLens is the first device humans have ever had that can augment human intelligence in real time. We have the world's knowledge at our fingertips with one of these [he holds up his smartphone] but it's a layer away, a search algorithm away. We have laptops, but what if the second screen is a HoloLens screen? If I can make this [he points to my laptop] as good as talking like we are now, as though I'm really here in the same space as you [when I'm really somewhere else], then why do we need to commute in the way we currently do, why do we all need to be compacted down this end of the country? What if you don't like the weather so you change it to something else? That's a little far away, but it's not that big a leap. HoloLens has some amazing stuff, which is just the tip of the iceberg of what mixed reality can do.'

However, rather than see what he can do with HoloLens in the commercial sector, where the device has been predominantly used since its launch in 2016, Rogers wants members of the public to get their hands on the technology, too.