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And how big is this market? "The US and Europe signage and kiosk markets are the first focus," says Porter. "It’s expected to be $1.5 billion by 2004. Our job is to figure how to add value to this market in terms of software and creative services."
Their job is also to get dealers educated in Scala’s product offerings as well as how Scala supports integrators wanting to recommend Scala to clients.
"In the past we tried to fit everyone into a square hole," Porter says, "but now we have this program that better addresses different types of audiovisual integrators and dealers.
"Scala is this amazing Swiss army knife and sometimes you don’t know which knife to take out. The trick is to make dealers happy, so we are offering ways of buying pre-configured, pre-defined systems, ranging from entry level to the most power you can get, and two steps in between."
Scala also offers three training courses: Introduction, Advanced Technical, and Advanced Creative. The entire series takes a week to complete at the Exton, Pennsylvania headquarters.
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Porter says they expect to add resellers due to the new program and especially due to the market demands. But new features, too, are attracting new systems integrators.
"The most significant piece in the Player 3 is Windows Scripting," says Porter. "A basic Java or Basic script can interact with the POS or inventory system for example. If the store has a surplus of blue sweaters, for example, it can automatically advertise the blue sweaters. When the blue sweater inventory runs low, it can automatically switch to advertising red sweaters. In addition, a customer can swipe a frequent shopper card and their name can pop up on screen and thank them for the purchase."
(See Scala in use at the Hollywood & Highland entertainment and retail center)
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