InfoChannel-Powered Interactive Kiosk
Combines Makeovers with Looping Advertisements
NEW YORK, NY –
Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street in New
York wanted to showcase a specific product to drive
traffic into the store, and Estée Lauder was
the cosmetics product picked. What better way to accomplish
this than by broadcasting in-store makeovers to the
4,000 passersby each hour and allowing them to interact
with the makeup artist? Scala’s InfoChannel
software provides the
platform to make this happen.
When designing for the window display,
the design team of Vizicast Multimedia of California
and Teleciné Multimedia of Montreal, Canada,
had a few objectives in mind.
First, they wanted to make it as interesting as possible
to watch a makeover session.
This presented a challenge since makeup application
is by no means a spectator sport.
With the help of Scala software, the Estée
Lauder makeover was just as fascinating to
watch as a great sidewalk portrait artist at work.
Second, the designers wanted to create
a photographic record of before, after and various
stages of
the session. These images could be used in several
ways: they would be of interest to potential
clients outside of the window; they would certainly
be interesting to the client being made up; and
they could be printed or emailed as a permanent record
and as a makeup guide for the client.
Teleciné chose Scala’s
InfoChannel software because it allows the system
to control all the
peripheral equipment from the same software and touch
screen. Four separate liquid crystal display
(LCD) screens capture and show four steps of the makeup
session, allowing the makeup artist to
interact with the people on the street. When a makeup
session is not in progress, the screens are not
dark-- Lauder plays its promotional videos on all
four monitors.
“With Scala software the whole
system went from concept to completed installation
in a matter of a
few weeks,” said James Fine of Teleciné
Multimedia. “Changes to any part of the software
operation and installation can be made from our offices
or literally anywhere. Scala is designed to
receive remote software changes through any type of
connection—from a phone line to a satellite
dish.”
The makeup artist controls the system
using simple commands on a 15" touch-screen monitor.
This
screen allows the artist to frame each picture, grab
the still photos, send them to one of the four
displays, or the artist can even show the entire session
live on all four screens. The unit is designed
to be operated by non-technically savvy people and
requires next to no training.
Besides being user-friendly and flexible,
Scala also offers room-to-grow. “We felt that
Scala offered
us a platform beyond what we were asking it to do,”
said Dirk Hettrich of Perception AV Services,
which supplied and installed the hardware on-site
at Macy’s. “With Scala we were able to
build in
future versatility for this project so we can respond
to whatever the client may want to do in the
future.”
Fine also said he is looking forward
to Scala’s next generation of software, InfoChannel
3, which he
has been using as a premier customer. “Scala
has added a number of features which will greatly
improve the speed and cost with which we can create
and deliver content to any size of signage
network. And with enhanced scheduling and network
management features, it will be easy to apply
changes to one, or any group of displays in a network
of thousands.”
The proof of Scala’s success is
in the pudding, as they say. Sam Joseph, the window
director at
Macy’s in New York City, has been in on the
design of this window from the start. “We wanted
to
do something innovative with our windows,” he
said. “Now we have a very fresh and exciting
installation in our 34th Street windows. I guess you
can say it was "mission accomplished."
About Scala, Inc.
Founded in 1987, Scala pioneered the cable TV industry
with software and services to allow users to create
localized channels inexpensively. Today, Scala has
grown to lead the corporate communications, retail
dynamic signage, and interactive kiosk industries
as well. With an unrivaled software suite to handle
authoring, networking, monitoring, and logged playback,
Scala has been the choice of tens of thousands of
customers worldwide. Built on reliable and flexible
network architecture, Scala software can support nearly
any existing infrastructure from dial-up to LAN to
Wi-Fi to satellite and terrestrial-based multicast
networks. Scala’s powerful and efficient store-and-forward
design allows the control of unique content on a single
cable headend or thousands of remote displays or
kiosks from a single desktop PC without the constraints
of streaming video.
For additional information please contact
Frank Alvy at IDS Menus our visit our website at http://www.idsmenus.com
IDS Menus is a Certified Scala
Partner
