Flipping dynamic panels with cascading colour and light. A central orb from which the game is directed. An impish creature skipping across the panelled backdrop, responding to game player activity.

No, it’s not a CGI adventure film or a simulation 3D video game.  It’s the interactive set for Le Tricheur, created by Montreal-based Moment Factory, and it’s all real.

Le Tricheur, set to debut Jan. 9 on the TVA network, is a new competitive quiz show from TVA Productions Inc, created with support from the Quebecor Fund. Unlike many other quiz shows, in which the set merely supports the format, the set for Le Tricheur is a part of the show – it moves, changes and reacts to game play. The idea of the static Q and A quiz show setting is transformed to a dynamic environment where every episode is different.

Moment Factory worked with show creator Olivier Aghaby to “transform the set with very dynamic and creative content,” says Eric Fournier, Moment Factory co-partner and executive producer, adding that they wanted the game show environment for the players and audience to be textured and immersive.

This meant having elements of the set responding to game events in real-time, panels showing the five game players’ activities, and the central orb from which the host directs the game.

The challenge, says Fournier, was to set up a system that would be able to manage, coordinate and map light, sound and video on the 3D surfaces on the set, while executing responses to the show in real-time. The answer was found by using Moment Factory’s proprietary X-Agora software, which Fournier calls “the backbone of the set.”

X-Agora is a multimedia technology platform developed over the last five years by Moment Factory. In October 2010, Moment Factory received the maximum $1 million grant from the first round of the CMF Experimental stream to develop and publicly launch (in July 2012) the software, which they have used to manage almost all of their interactive projects.

Last month, the CMF confirmed additional financial support to the tune of $445,000, says Fournier, to help Moment Factory develop X-Agora Grand Public, an application through which people will be able to use their mobile and smartphones to change content and interact with public spaces and theatre performances.

Fournier says that interactivity is a key component to everything that’s being created in multimedia right now, and says he hopes that the added real-time experiential aspect will attract viewers.

“There is lots of movement and there are lots of 3D effects. You’re going to be watching this show as if you’re viewing a video game. That’s what’s cool for the audience and for the players – it’s real. It’s not done in post-production – it’s being done right there and that’s the total experience that people will feel,” he adds.

Moment Factory’s work with urban installations and concert performances– for example, the projected images and drawings in the sky from La Dance des lumieres for the Fete des lumieres in Lyon, France; and the colour-changing LED beach balls during an Arcade Fire performance at Coachella – similarly reflects that notion.

The set for Le Tricheur is the second interactive set Moment Factory has created for TV. The first, for Les étoiles du dodo, produced by Montreal’s Trio Orange and which premiered last October, was a multimedia set using animation and projection mixed with real actors (no green screen). The show was shot at Mel’s studio in Montreal.