Release 10.3 @ScalaInc Enterprise Launched

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

Exton, Pennsylvania-based Scala has just released 10.3 of Scala Enterprise, which includes new improvements and features for Scala Content Manager, Scala Designer and Scala Player.

These speed and performance updates provide a simplified and efficient experience for all users. Among the new features are:

Scala Designer has Video 4K Enhanced Performance.Scala is always monitoring trends in the digital signage industry. One of those is Scala’s belief in the progression of 4K video, and this update certifies that investment. Scala Enterprise now supports Intel GPU DXVA2 hardware decoding of 4K video and has improved throughput of software decoding of 4K video by 250%-300%. This is a key feature for users whose content heavily relies on strong visual communications, such as retailers.

Included are Show and working with ‘off-page’ elements. In order to bring an idea to fruition, you have to be able to see it, all of it. With that idea in mind, Scala has enabled designers to work visually with elements placed outside of the page border. This enhances the creative control required when manipulating elements close to the edge of the visible page.

Text boxes have been, and always will be, are one of the most important tools in the Designer kit. With this upgrade, Text boxes bring increased efficiency to Scala Designer with the ability to automatically adjust the font size of any text within. As more text is added to the box, the font size will automatically be reduced. When the minimum text size is reached, and text overflows out of the Text Box, Scala Designer will automatically trim the text accordingly when the user moves to another element. When the user resizes the Text Box, the font size is also adjusted.

You can expand your creative limits with Opacity Setting for Page Backdrops Users can now modify the level of opacity of the page backdrop for Plain pages. When the Fill Opacity is set to 0, the background becomes fully transparent, revealing the content hidden underneath. This creates the opportunity for some interesting layouts that produce a more impactful experience.

Business plans change from time to time, and strategies along with them. Flexibility is a key part of a successful business model, which is why Scala has enhanced Plan Generation to include Player Groups to be scheduled at different time intervals. This allows users to modify the delivery of their content based on their frequency of change. Modifying Plan Generation also improves the performance and therefore improves load of the distribution engine.

And in terms of Player Health, with more accessibility options, users can now choose how informed they want to be:

  • Filtering by Players: Players can be pre-filtered to show only the errors from selected players;
  • Add Problems to Ignore List: Users now have the option to suppress notifications on selected problems;
  • Automatic clearing and deletion oreported problems: Problems are now cleared seven days after being reported, and deleted 30 days after being reported. Timing can be modified to the user’s needs.
  • Player Properties: New Health tab along with error information for each individual player.

There are also Simplified Lists. Less clutter allows for more productivity. Quicken your workflow by adjusting the list views of Media, Playlist and Players to show only the fields that are important to you.


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