Nickelodeon has announced the launch of its new Burbank-based Entertainment Lab, which will spearhead long-range research and development efforts around new technologies for Nickelodeon and its audience! The facility will be led by the former creative director of Nickelodeon Animation Lab, Chris Young.
Nickelodeon Slime Zone VR experience
“The Entertainment Lab primarily is focused on alternative authoring pipelines and platforms, which is a fancy way of saying we've been looking at real-time rendering capabilities and using specifically game engine technology to take a long range look at what the possibilities are for reimagining CG pipelines,” says Chris Young, Senior Vice President (SVP), Entertainment Lab.
The lab will focus on identifying and experimenting with emerging technologies, and develop entertainment experiences for kids across all lines of business, by identifying and experimenting with new trends in technology and emerging platforms to create new creative capabilities, and entertainment for kids and families. Some of the areas Nickelodeon is working on include real-time rendering, virtual cinema, virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality and artificial intelligence, all of which could shape new entertainment content for the Viacom-owned kidsnet.
“It’s about looking at tools as well as the types of content that we might make for kids and how we might choose to entertain them down the line,” says Young.
That includes going to places beyond television children already are watching, like mobile, tablets and video games. The company is taking a more conservative approach to virtual reality as it relates to children, but sees big potential in mixed reality [MR] and augmented reality [AR].
“It’s important for us as a company to know as much as we can, to have the right vocabulary as it relates to creating this kind of content, and a real deep understanding of how the tool sets work,” he says.
Using a long-range strategy, the Entertainment Lab will build prototypes to test new concepts, partner on innovation with creators, shape strategy around production capabilities to fuel future content opportunities, and evolve Nick’s production capabilities with new tech discoveries.
Housed on the mezzanine level of the original building at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California, the lab currently has four employees in addition to Young and will grow as needed.
Chris Young, Senior Vice President (SVP), Entertainment Lab
Young will report to Matthew Evans, Nickelodeon's Executive Vice President (EVP) of Digital and New Business, as well as James Stephenson, SVP of Original Animation.
In his previous role, Young concentrated on analyzing and engineering alternative animation pipelines. Prior to his lab work, he served as a Nickelodeon Animation Studio producer in Burbank.
“We’ve rebranded Animation Lab as the Entertainment Lab so we can look across all lines of business and try to connect some of the things we’re doing not just in animation, but in live-action, theme parks and games, too,” says Young.
“We’re seeing this new wave emerge around VR and mixed reality being driven by the notion of real-time rendered content. We’ve been investing a lot of time and energy in looking at game engine technology and how we can use it to leverage what has typically been a very traditional CG pipeline.”
To this end, the Lab has been working closely with Chris Savino, creator of Nick’s hit animated series
The Loud House, to develop a real-time puppet version of the show’s star, Lincoln Loud, called 'Lincoln Live'.
Using its existing relationship with Adobe, the Lab helped the computer software company build a character animator tool. “We’ve been using that to create topical, real-time conversations on social media using Lincoln as a real-time puppet character,” says Young.
In addition, the Lab recently created a robust tech demo called Nickelodeon Slime Zone. It’s a social VR experience that puts kids and their families inside a giant Nickelodeon play space where they can watch cartoons, compete in multiplayer games, create art and run around and shoot each other with virtual slime blasters.
“We shared it at scale during the opening party in Burbank for the
2017 Kids’ Choice Awards. We put groups of six people in at a time and got a tremendous response. We’ll be sharing it at conferences and in a couple of select places over the next few months. But we’re taking a thoughtful approach for how and what we want to bring to market,” says Young.
The Slime Zone arrives on the heels of Nick’s new partnership with Cra-Z-Art
to market and distribute branded DIY slime kits across the US.
As it looks for other potentially sticky tech concepts, the Lab is also sharing insights with Viacom's New York-based digital research and development hub, Viacom Lab,
which opened last year.
“One of the greatest things about working with the Viacom family under Bob Bakish's leadership is that he’s brought all these groups together and broken down the silos. We talk a lot with the Viacom Next group, which is part of Viacom Lab, and everyone is sharing information across divisions,” says Young.
Bakish became Viacom CEO and president in November 2016 and reestablished its Kids and Family Group as Nickelodeon Group. The division is currently putting more focus on its Nickelodeon kids cable channel and leveraging additional growth opportunities around its kids business, including recreation and hospitality.
As part of a new five-point turnaround plan announced earlier this year, Viacom plans to deepen its partnerships to drive digital revenue, bolster Viacom’s live experiences and consumer products business, and create the company's first-ever short-form content unit, which will feature new original IP (intellectual properties) and existing programming.
“Our Entertainment Lab is a way to give our artists and creators access to innovative tools to inspire new ways to tell stories for the next generation of kids,” said Cyma Zarghami, President, Nickelodeon Group. “We are working with technology partners, gaming and visual effects companies and our own creators to bring our IP to new platforms, in new formats, and faster.”
Nickelodeon are aware that VR technology is in a bit of a grey area when it comes to kids. “We want to take it slow and determine what the long term effects might be,” added Young, “we’re on that evolutionary cycle where now it is time to reach out and share some of the things we’re doing and talk about it.”
UPDATE: Below is Nickelodeon's official Press Release announcing the exciting news, via NickPress.com:
NICKELODEON LAUNCHES BRAND-NEW ENTERTAINMENT LAB, DESIGNED TO IDENTIFY AND EXPERIMENT WITH NEW AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
New Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab To Fuel Production Opportunities and Content Creation
Click HERE for Art
BURBANK, Calif.–May 2, 2017–Nickelodeon, the number-one kids entertainment brand, today announced the launch of its new Burbank-based Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab, which will spearhead long-range research and development efforts around new technologies for Nick and its audience.
“Our Entertainment Lab is a way to give our artists and creators access to innovative tools to inspire new ways to tell stories for the next generation of kids,” said Cyma Zarghami, President, Nickelodeon Group. “We are working with technology partners, gaming and visual effects companies and our own creators to bring our IP to new platforms, in new formats, and faster.”
The Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab will work to develop new entertainment experiences for kids by identifying and experimenting with new trends in technology and emerging platforms to create new creative capabilities and entertainment. Some of the areas Nickelodeon is currently working on include real-time rendering, virtual cinema, virtual reality, augmented and mixed reality and artificial intelligence. The Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab will focus on building prototypes to test new ideas, collaborating on innovation with creators, and shaping strategy around production capabilities to fuel future content opportunities.
The Lab will be headed by Chris Young, Senior Vice President, Nickelodeon Entertainment Lab. Young previously served as Executive Creative Director, Nickelodeon Animation Lab, where he focused on exploring and engineering alternative animation pipelines. Prior to that role, he held the title of Producer at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in Burbank. Young reports to Matthew Evans, Executive Vice President, Digital & New Business and James Stephenson, Senior Vice President, Original Animation.
Nickelodeon, now in its 38th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, digital, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S. television network is seen in more than 90 million households and has been the number-one-rated kids’ basic cable network for 22 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB).
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