News: Magic Leap & Three UK Power 5G Augmented Reality Fashion Show at London Fashion Week

While AT&T is gradually showing off the powers of its 5G technology in the US via the Magic Leap One, another major wireless company is doing the same in the UK using the world of fashion.

At this month's London Fashion Week, UK wireless company Three teamed up with designers to show off one of the first fashion runway shows enhanced by imagery delivered over its 5G network and through the Magic Leap One.

• Don't Miss: Moschino & H&M Harness the Power of Magic Leap One to Intro Augmented Reality to the Fashion World

The event featured the clothing of up-and-coming fashion designer Gerrit Jacob, whose runway show was framed by augmented reality imagery seen by audience members wearing the Magic Leap One.

Presented at the Central Saint Martins art school in London, film star Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man and The Social Network) was among the ten people in the audience simultaneously wearing the AR device to take in the show.

Of course, it's always tricky to fully describe a Magic Leap One experience without the headset, but Three posted a portion of the experience, which was developed by immersive content studio Rewind, on Instagram.

"We were running a multi-user experience where low latency and a consistent connection was essential. Every headset, plus the video feeds to the event screens, had to be in sync — 5G was essential for keeping that all on track," Greg Furber, the senior creative director at Rewind, told Next Reality.

"The biggest challenge was ensuring the show ran to time with the models. To allow this the mixed reality experience was broken down into sections and animation loops which were run by the Rewind mixed reality showrunner, he was responsible for keeping the mixed reality layer in time with the runway show. We had to build a custom control app which ran the experience from the gallery."

So far, most of the chatter we've heard about 5G and Magic Leap has come from AT&T through its in-store experiences and upcoming support of a consumer version of the Magic Leap One. But Three could help deliver this same kind of 5G immersive computing punch to European users through projects like these, in conjunction with Magic Leap's internal team.

"We have a close relationship with Magic Leap and they supported us with access to hardware," said Furber. "We have some other really exciting projects in the pipeline which involve Magic Leap hardware, but unfortunately, we cannot say anything more right now."

For those who weren't able to make to the London Fashion Week show, there will be additional opportunities to try out Three's 5G network in combination with the Magic Leap One starting in March at the company's flagship store in Oxford Circus.

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