March 19, 2002 — Scala's InfoChannel Software Lends a Hand on OSCAR NIGHT®
Hollywood, CA - March 19, 2002 -- Hollywood's premier event takes place Sunday, March 24th in the Kodak Theatre located at Hollywood & Highland, LA's newest and leading shopping and entertainment complex. And if you aren't lucky enough to be in the audience during the awards, don't fret, you can catch the winners while outside the complex, thanks in part to Scala's InfoChannel software.
As you approach the two-block square, $615 million complex you will see one of the world's largest high resolution displays - an explosion of motion and color that befits not just the grandeur of the structure, but the grandeur of the OSCARS® themselves. The screen, measuring six feet high by 85 feet long, literally wraps around the corner of the building. The "Zipper", as it is affectionately known, is only one of two massive color displays. The other sits further west on Hollywood just to the right of the grand entrance to the Kodak Theatre. The content on this 9-foot by 16-foot screen, known as the "Marquee", is devoted primarily to the shows and events inside.
That is where Scala comes into the picture, pun intended, during the motion picture awards ceremony of the year. Both screens use InfoChannel to display, manage, schedule and deliver material to the constantly shifting content on the screens. During the awards engineers at the Kodak Theater will broadcast the winners on the "Zipper", as soon as they are announced inside the building, to the onlookers and autograph seekers outside. Rumor has it that ABC, who is broadcasting the whole affair, will cut to the "Zipper" several times during the telecast. In between winners the screens will run their regularly scheduled content consisting of ads, entertainment and uniquely created content from the Hollywood Reporter, the bible of the industry.
Hollywood is the epicenter of moving images and video is what gets displayed most of the time. Since most of that content is composed of "spots" - short ads sold to run at a specific frequency -- the ability to hit precise timings without fail is crucial. Users particularly likes Scala's ability to run "nested" scripts, within a master script or "loop". The master script governs the entire day and is made up of multiple time slots of varying lengths. The nested scripts are scripts within the master script that determine which spot runs in a given time slot. In Hollywood & Highland's case these can go four or five levels deep, constantly rotating content in and out.
About Scala, Inc.
Scala is the leading international developer of multimedia software content and technology solutions for dynamic signage, television and web applications. Scala software enables users to create, schedule, manage, distribute and playback rich media content, via the Internet, to dynamic signage and computer-based displays. Thousands of retailers, corporations, advertisers, cable television operators, educators and consumers use Scala's product suite.
Through its global distribution network, Scala offers complete software as well as content and technology solutions and services to the emerging dynamic signage market. Scala is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA with offices throughout the United States and Europe. www.scala.com
