CNM Short Takes

Take a trip with Tigga and ToggaImagine a world where every object has a sound waiting to be discovered and every creature has a song. Welcome to the musical world of Tigga and Togga Interactive! The site is based on Tigga and Togga, the 26x3-minute preschool musical series from Cuppa Coffee Studios, which will be debuting soon on TVO with strong support from Head of Children’s Programming Pat Ellingson. Now, thanks to the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, Tigga and Togga has expanded with an interactive website that captures the spirit of the television show and breaks new ground in musical interactivity. Tigga and Togga Interactive is a place where young viewers can further explore the musical concepts that create the foundation of the television series. Featuring a dazzling array of musical concepts and styles, you become the conductor of a veritable symphony of sound – exploring, creating and sharing in the music that makes the world go round. Online, kids will find interactive activities focusing on the foundation concepts of musical expression: melody, harmony, rhythm, pitch, tempo and dynamics. Each location provides an opportunity to play with sounds unique to the environment. For example, a visit to the farm launches a barnyard orchestra with clucking chickens and crowing roosters. Or take a trip inside a grandfather clock where cogs and levers turn and twist in time to the "tick-tock" beat. Each location also features a variety of mini-activities meant to engage young minds and introduce them to a world of musical interactivity. So join Tigga and Togga for a groundbreaking and innovative interactive musical experience from Cuppa Coffee Studios that will change the way you hear the world around you!www.tiggaandtogga.com FUN releases abbreviated Q1 earningsCanadian online gaming provider FUN Technologies Inc. announced Q1 2006 earnings recently. During the quarter ending March 31, 2006 – which only featured 22 days’ worth of business due to a share repurchasing and reverse takeover – the firm’s pro forma revenue clocked in at $7.76 million, a 174% gain over the same three months in 2005. FUN’s fantasy sports properties led the increase with a 189% improvement year-over-year, while its skill gaming business posted a respectable 154% rise in revenues. Despite the enhanced revenue, however, the firm still posted a US$12.73 million pro forma net loss for the quarter. FUN recently engineered the spinoff of a new firm, dubbed New FUN, which then acquired the old company and sold a 51% stake in New FUN to Englewood CO-based Liberty Media Corp., a conglomerate which includes News Corp. and Expedia among its holdings. Feds provide extra funds for HexagramCanada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, a federal government agency devoted to boosting economic opportunities in the province of Quebec, recently made a non-refundable contribution totaling more than $880,000 to Montreal’s Hexagram Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts. The amount supplements funding already provided by the agency and other branches of the federal government, bringing Hexagram’s total financial aid package to $3.7 million. "Our support for Hexagram reflects our desire to consolidate Montreal’s enviable position in the new knowledge economy," said Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of Labour and the Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada, which oversees the Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions initiative. Hexagram is a joint venture between the Université du Québec à Montréal and Concordia University which teams 75 artist-researchers with more than 350 post-secondary students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. It is designed to explore and research technologies on the cutting edge of film, television, digital media, interactive games, and other artforms. Kangaroo hops over to Formula OneFresh on the heels of its successes with NASCAR (CNM, Mar. 31/06), Montreal’s Kangaroo Media Inc. has inked another deal with an auto racing franchise. The Canadian provider of handheld multimedia devices for racing installations entered into a six-year licensing deal with the Formula One group of companies, including the FI Teams and Formula One Management operating entities. In a media release, Formula One Management CEO and president Bernie Ecclestone said the Kangaroo.TV handheld video, audio and data device works along the same principles as Formula One racing. "Both are about technology and performance," Ecclestone said. "This will provide a truly enhanced at-race experience." The first deployment of Kangaroo.TV devices at Formula One events will get underway July 2, with a limited rollout of the Kangaroo network at the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis. Microsoft CLICKs with kids at CHUQMicrosoft Canada Co. recently paired up with the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire du Québec (CHUQ) to offer Xbox consoles to sick kids receiving care at the Quebec City hospital. The program, dubbed Child Life Interactive Computers for Kids (CLICK), will see the two organizations provide hardware, software and wireless connectivity for patients, allowing them to not only play games but keep in touch with schoolmates, friends, family and others. Fondation du CHUQ president Denis Rhéaume praised the CLICK program, saying it "restores a balance in the lives of our young patients, who often spend several days a year at the hospital." Last year, Microsoft Canada partnered with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa on a similar initiative. Sympatico goes to the movies with ZipBell Canada’s Sympatico/MSN portal announced a deal with Zip.ca, an online movie rental service, to offer an online entertainment channel devoted to television and film. The Showfinder channel on Sympatico/MSN is a free resource for all things screen-related, including reviews, news, features, trailers and more, and is of course tied into the Zip.ca offering with a Ziplist that allows users to create an online "must-see" list for future watching. Ngrain to help train US Army aviation troopsVancouver’s Ngrain, a provider of interactive training simulators, recently announced a deal with the US Army’s Aviation Warfighting Center based in Fort Rucker AL. The Canadian firm will provide a 3D training aid for flight engineers and other personnel working with the auxiliary power unit found on the CH-47D Chinook helicopter. Ngrain’s portable system is a vast improvement on the center’s existing training apparatus, a panel that because of its size must remain fixed in a classroom. "With Ngrain, our instructors have a lot more flexibility in how and where they conduct training," said Danny Flowers, project manager for the Digital Training Access Center at the Aviation Warfighting Center, in a media release. "Students are also able to access their training materials anytime, anywhere, which helps them to grasp concepts quicker and retain information better."

CNM Short Takes

News | 06/12/2006 4:00 am EDT

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