KIDS_CYBERGROUP_INSERT_1015_ALT2_EUR_1006_ELLENDER 8/26/15 5:23 PM Page 10
TV KIDS
© Cyber Group Studios - KD Productions Toons & Games. From Sarbacane 2009
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FINDING MIRETTE With the new series Mirette Investigates, Cyber Group Studios is building an interactive, multiplatform show for kids. irette has big dreams. The adventure-loving 10-year-old travels the globe with her father, who is a reporter, and her pet cat, Jean-Pat, investigating mysteries. She takes center stage in Cyber Group’s new 52x11minute CGI animation for the 6-to-10 set, Mirette Investigates, which has signed up TF1, Télétoon, WDR, VRT and TV3 as initial partners. For the new show, which takes Mirette to Barcelona, Berlin, Beijing, London, Paris and Cairo, among many other cities, Cyber Group Studios was eager to build an immersive, interactive experience for kids that would go beyond the linear broadcast. “We have associated with KD, the creator of the Kurio tablet, to create a set of interactive apps that will connect directly to the show and the websites of some of the broadcasters,” says Dominique Bourse, the company’s COO. In working on the “enriched experience,” which will be built into Kurio tablets, Bourse says Cyber Group and KD will be developing voice- and movement-recognition technologies. “This world is changing faster than what we ever anticipated,
so we need to be forward-thinking all the time to bring new experiences to the multi-connected children of today.” The transmedia experience will include games on the Mirette Investigates website as well as in an app. Kids will be able to go into the app and choose a city and a crime scene to play hidden-object games. Some scenes will only be unlocked via sound recognition that will detect when the child is watching the series on television. There will also be some games available for purchase. In the future, Cyber Group anticipates the creation of toys, travel guides for kids and a board game, among other extensions. The key philosophy, Bourse says, is that any related apps or products must enhance the TVviewing session for a young viewer, not detract from it. “Three things can happen [with a secondscreen experience]. The viewer can say, I don’t like the interactivity, but I’ll continue watching the television show. Or, there is so much interactivity that I don’t want to watch the series anymore. You don’t want that to happen. You want people to connect with the series while it’s on air and enrich their experience.”