In 1987 a young Norwegian entrepreneur, Jon Bøhmer founded the company "Digital Visjon" in Brumunddal, Norway to create multimedia software on the Commodore Amiga computer platform.

The company attracted investors, mainly from Norway and incorporated in the US in 1994 and is now based in the United States with their European headquarters located in the Netherlands.

The name "Scala" was given by Bøhmer and designer Bjørn Rybakken and represents the scales in colors, tones and the opera in Milan.

The animation, named Lo scalatore (Italian for 'The Climber'), featured a magic trick of Indian fakirs of a man climbing a ladder and disappearing in the air.

Due to bankruptcies of Commodore and Escom in 1994 and 1996 respectively, Scala left the Amiga platform and started delivering the same applications under MS-DOS.

Scala was also capable of working with Genlock equipment to superimpose titles over footage played through the devices video input.