One of Canada's leading companies in broadband entertainment and technology, Trapeze Media Limited of Toronto, announced today it is locating its new division, Trapeze Animation Studios Limited (TASL), in the Atlantic Technology Centre (ATC) in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Trapeze opened its PEI operation in March 2002 and will move to the ATC when the facility is available in August 2002.
The new studio will become Trapeze's "Centre of Excellence" for Interactive Animation and Motion Graphics, serving its clients in the Media, Entertainment and Advertising industries. The Studio will also support the production of Trapeze's own interactive entertainment properties and will work across a number of platforms including broadcast television, interactive television (iTV), the Internet, and next generation gaming consoles.
Trapeze Media is currently collaborating on a new animated series called, "Doodlez," with Cellar Door Productions of Charlottetown. Trapeze anticipates its current PEI workforce of 9 people will expand to 30 within 3 years.
"Trapeze's initial interest in PEI was stimulated by our partnership with Cellar Door Productions who opened our eyes to the benefits of expanding our production capabilities in PEI," said Rob Balfour, President and CEO of Trapeze.
"Upon further investigation, we became very impressed with the proactive attitude of all levels of government and the impressive new Atlantic Technology Centre. A strong technology infrastructure plus a talented, well educated and hard working talent pool is central to Trapeze's growth and success. Our aim is to create a team of highly motivated employees that we can develop and grow with the company," added Balfour.
The Honourable Mike Currie, Minister of Development and Technology says Trapeze brings a new dimension to the PEI economy. "This is really a new business stream for the province," said the Minister. "This is an animation company with a global focus, which is already employing a number of local animators, with the potential for many more jobs. These are high-end technical jobs offering another career choice for our young people."
"This is also a great example of partnerships between local companies like Cellar Door and Trapeze Media, which is one of the benefits of ATC," added the Minister.
Scheduled to open in August, ATC will feature a world class media production environment for television and new media projects with multimedia theatres, digital audio and picture editing suites, television production studio, green screen and webcasting capability.
ATC is designed to stimulate new partnerships among IT companies, local post-secondary training institutions and national and international IT firms seeking a competitive business environment to locate innovative applied research, new product and solution development, testing and pre-commercialization
For more information visit www.atlantictechnologycentre.ca