Dimension named Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner to help others create cutting-edge digital experiences

A UK company that has created interactive digital experiences involving Madonna, Michael Bublé and tennis star Andy Murray has become a Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner.

Dimension, based in London and Newcastle, provides revolutionary volumetric production studios that can be used to create of realistic digital humans, extended reality content and virtual production.

These digital replicas and content can be experienced and interacted with via mobile phones, tablets, laptops and headsets such as Microsoft HoloLens. Dimension has both on-premise and mobile volumetric capture stages, each of which uses 106 cameras and computer vision algorithms to record performances from every angle to provide a 3D volumetric video asset.

The team has more than a decade’s experience working at the forefront of augmented reality and virtual reality, recently creating innovative mixed-reality experiences for enterprise and entertainment customers, supported by Microsoft’s services, tools and experts.

This technology enabled Madonna to stage a cutting-edge live performance at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards, in which four lifelike versions of the singer appeared on stage at the same time.

Dimension has also created experiences for the sporting and fashion worlds, TV and cinema, including a digital Captain America movie poster that let fans take a unique selfie.

Simon Windsor, Joint Managing Director at Dimension, said: “Microsoft has been a key partner through the growth of Dimension and a trailblazer in mixed reality and volumetric capture technologies. Building on the success of our Mixed Reality Capture Studio partnership, we are delighted to be collaborating more closely with the Mixed Reality team and other Mixed Reality Partner Program partners to drive forward exciting new use cases.”

Microsoft is a leader in mixed-reality technology, thanks to its HoloLens headset. Rather than put users in a fully computer-generated world, as virtual reality does, HoloLens allows users to place 3D digital models in the room alongside them. As the Windows-10-based product does not have wires or external cameras, or require a phone or PC connection, users can walk around the objects they create and interact with them using gestures, gaze and voice.

Dimension joins the Mixed Reality Partner Program as Microsoft announced new markets for HoloLens as well as availability of services such as Azure Spatial Anchors and Azure Remote Rendering.

Leila Martine, Mixed Reality Product Marketing Director at Microsoft, said: “We are thrilled to have Dimension as an approved Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner. Since 2017, Dimension has been a pioneering Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture Studio partner, leading to ground-breaking holographic and immersive experiences – from making Madonna into holograms for the Billboard Music Awards, to creating immersive worlds for Sky’s Britannia and War of the Worlds. We look forward to expanding our partnership further with the Dimension team to cover HoloLens and Azure Mixed Reality Services, and can’t wait to see what they create next.”