Scala, Inc

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Scala
Type private
Founded 1987
Headquarters Philadelphia, PA, USA
Industry Computer software
Products Infochannel

Scala, Inc (formerly Scala Multimedia) is a producer of multimedia software. Founded in 1987, its headquarters are based near Philadelphia, PA with additional operations in California, UK, France, Norway, The Netherlands, China and Japan.

The Company's multimedia software platform powers thousands of digital signs around the world including the digital signage networks of Rabobank, IKEA, Bloomberg Television, Burger King, T-Mobile, Virgin Megastores, Disneyland Resort Paris, McDonald's, Warner Bros., Shell, Esso, Ericsson and The Life Channel.

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[edit] History

In 1987 a small group of coders in Oslo, Norway calling themselves "Digital Vision" joined forces and started programing on the Amiga computer platform. Soon afterwards they started releasing multimedia software the first being Infochannel 2.15, which was released in 1989.

In 1990, they redesigned the program with a new graphical user interface. They renamed themselves and the software "Scala" and released a number of successful multimedia applications. The Scala family of programs became widely considered as a professional video titler by various TV broadcast companies worldwide.[citation needed] It was acquired by investors in the USA in 199x and is now based in the United States with their European Union headquarters located in the Netherlands.

The name "Scala" was taken from a live actor animation made by the creators of Scala using an Amiga, a video camera and a video digitizer (a must for video creators and video hobbyists in those times). In this animation there was shown the magic trick of Indian fakirs of a man climbing a ladder and disappearing in the air. Because one of creators loved the Italian language,[citation needed] the animation was called "Lo scalatore". This animation was then included into the Demo disk of Scala Multimedia in order to show the capabilities of that presentation software in loading and playing animations while superimposing it various computer generated text messages ("Lo Scalatore" animation was preserved for historical purposes and could be seen on this site).

In 1994 Scala released Multimedia MM400 and Infochannel IC 500. Infochannel 500 was one of the first applications that could control the streaming of data in a network of computer-driven video peripherals. This completely changed the way people used this type of software.

In 1996, due to the shrinking Amiga market, Scala left the Amiga platform and started delivering PC programs. Scala Multimedia MM100, Scala Multimedia Publisher and Scala InfoChannel 100 were released for the PC.

Scala software evolved from a video titling application into a complete multimedia authoring suite, and is used for interactive video TV, presentations, digital signage, and streaming TV into large LAN and WAN, such as information monitor installations and video walls in airports or stations. Scala software provides a complete suite for corporate television.

Scala was a popular application for video titling in TV stations worldwide in the nineties. Amongst its notable users were large broadcasting companies such as CNN, BBC English national broadcast, RAI TV, the Italian national broadcast, and many others.

[edit] Scala Multimedia

The first versions for the Amiga computer were only a simple but powerful videotitler. Scala was bundled with a large amount of typefaces, background images, and a selection of transition effects to be applied to them. Scala was also capable of working with Genlock equipment to superimpose titles over footage played through the devices video input.

Succeeding versions of the programme on the same platform added features such as animation playback, more effects and the ability to interact with multimedia devices through a programming language called "Lingua" (taken from the Italian word "lingo" translated as "language").

With its move to the Microsoft Windows platform, Scala then evolved into a complete set of programs capable of allowing the user create very complex animations, video-presentations, and entire usable all-purpose programs, that could be also stand-alone. Scala could now also support more multimedia languages such as Python and Visual Basic.

Modern versions of Scala can interface TV data streaming with databases of information. A typical application in an airport departure lounge would be to have monitors showing recorded streaming video interspersed with up-to-date flight information.

A strong point of Scala Multimedia has been the interaction of the program with presentation hardware (videoprojectors, digital videorecorders and touch-screens). There were many software drivers modules to pilot these hardware peripherals, and cables all integrated with the main Scala suite. Scala was one of the first software that could remotely turn on and off entire consoles of monitors (such as in airports), and could pilot separately the output for each one of these monitors.

[edit] Infochannel

InfoChannel is the successor of Scala. It is a Digital Signage software suite which is used by companies in verticals - such as retail, healthcare, education, manufacturing and more - to create, manage, and distribute electronic messages on plasma screens, projectors, video walls or other digital displays.

Scala InfoChannel is comprised of 3 main components; InfoChannel Designer which is used to create dynamic content, InfoChannel Content Manager which is used to manage and distribute content, and InfoChannel Player which plays back the distributed content.

Scala InfoChannel is used for many digital display networks ranging in size from 1 screen to thousands of screens with uses including advertising displays, touch screens, retail TV, LED billboards, lobby signage, digital menu boards, interactive kiosks, and more.

The current version of the software is InfoChannel 5 for the PC platform.

[edit] References and notes

  1. ^  As stated by Business Wire Magazine of Feb. 15, 1999, Scala was nominated by Animation Magazine amongst the 13 best companies of 2D software manufacturers. An article about this nomination is maintained here, preserved by Find Articles service site collecting magazine articles.

[edit] External links