Scala Upgrades Broadcast Multimedia Software

Scala Monday launched the latest version of its broadcast multimedia software for clients such as retailers and entertainment venues to deliver advertising and other digital content via dynamic signage networks.

Using the InfoChannel 3 software suite, solution providers can help clients customize, schedule and instantly update the delivery of content such as advertisements, news, movie clips and music videos. Content can be delivered down to the level of each display screen, enabling promotions that can be targeted not only to, say, each local store in a retail chain, but to each department within that store, said Jeff Porter, president and CEO of Scala, based here.

Rather than distributing content on video tapes or DVDs, customers can use Scala's suite to deliver digital content via a LAN, the Internet or satellite broadcast, Porter said.

"If you're sending out video tapes, how do you know they are even played? How do you know the 18-year-old manager put the video in rather than the movie he hasn't seen yet?" Porter said.

In addition, the production time and mailing costs of distributing tapes or DVDs makes it difficult to customize content for separate locations and makes it impossible to instantly update the content, he said.

"Traditional retailers over past years have put in TV monitors to run video and movie clips, but there's no real meaning [in the content] to the customer. Now, the customer wants more to it," said Carre Dawson, vice president of solution sales at EDR, a Cleveland, Ohio-based solution provider that specializes in digital media.

EDR is currently working to deploy Scala technology for electronics retailer Best Buy.

New features in the product upgrade include an improved scheduling features, support for more than one person to work on the same script at the same time, and the ability to integrate InfoChannel with other systems using languages such as JavaScript and VBScript.

For example, solution providers can tie their clients' Scala implementations into their inventory systems, Dawson said.

"If a retailer is running a promotion on Sony High Definition TVs, when the last one is sold, when that SKU is scanned, the ad can be immediately pulled," she said.

The InfoChannel 3 suite includes three pieces: Designer 3 for creating and editing content; Network Manager 3 to control the distribution of the content; and Player 3 to publish the content.

Additional add-on components include Broadcast Server 3 for content distribution across larger signage networks, and Reporter 3, which gives employees at each venue the ability to add localized information.

Pricing for the suite, available now, ranges from $1,200 to $24,000.