The Province of Manitoba has invested $1.5 million toward a virtual production training studio in Winnipeg.

StudioLab xR is a more than 5,000 square foot facility, developed by New Media Manitoba (NMM), a non-profit association for the province’s digital interactive media industry.

The three-year investment will support the “operating costs, capital purchases, courseware and other learning support” for the studio, according to an announcement from Economic Development, Investment and Trade Minister Cliff Cullen on Monday (Nov. 7).

The studio, located in downtown Winnipeg, is billed as a “first-of-its-kind training facility” for the Prairie region, and includes production space and on-site training areas. The studio will provide both online and hands-on training, which includes “virtual production, performance capture, projection mapping and Unreal Engine,” according to a release from NMM.

StudioLab xR is expected to create “100 net new indirect jobs” and generate more than $3 million in revenue through the next three years.

The studio is the “first facility dedicated to providing extended reality technology,” said NMM executive director Louie Ghiz in a statement, noting that “the future opportunities created by this studio will result in hundreds of new content creation jobs.”

Cullen said Studio xR will “establish Manitoba as an industry leader in Canada, and attract new domestic and international productions to the province,” adding that the interactive digital media and film industries are “among the fastest growing sectors of the provincial economy.”

Manitoba industry leaders set out on their first L.A. mission earlier this month during the American Film Market. The province recently opened the 187,000-square-foot facility Big Sky Studios in Winnipeg.

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