29 Mar 2024

Oce pledges aid to international disaster zone charity

Océ has pledged aid to MapAction, an international charity for disaster zones that has Prince Harry as one of its patrons.  Agreement has been reached whereby an amount from each Océ ColorWave 600 printer sale to map organisations in the UK goes towards humanitarian life-saving rescue work in disaster-struck countries throughout the world.

The Océ ColorWave 600 is part of a family of wide-format production systems, which uses unique Océ CrystalPoint technology.  It is hoped that around £20,000 will be generated for MapAction by Océ within the first 12 months.

Prince Harry, the Royal Patron of the charity where volunteers of specially trained geographical information systems (GIS) professionals provide crisis support across the world at any time day or night, said, “MapAction harnesses technology to a powerful volunteer ethos. They are a real asset to the humanitarian cause.”

Before aid agencies can help in a crisis, they first require information, such as identifying the people in greatest need, what relief resources are needed and where it is needed. MapAction delivers data in mapped form, from information gathered at the disaster scene. By creating a ‘shared operational picture’, its service is crucial in coordinating response and delivering aid to the right place, quickly.

Details of Océ’s charity link-up with MapAction have been revealed following GeoCommunity 2011 where there were live print demonstrations on Océ’s ColorWave 600 system.

Roger Wedge, the Communications Director of MapAction, the charity that started with a first emergency response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami has since been to 30 different humanitarian crises, said, “Mapping support during the early phases of a response is critical, as aid agencies and donors quickly try to understand the situation on the ground.

“We have been involved with many disasters over the world, more recently Haiti, Japan and Libya, where we took with us maps printed on the Océ ColorWave 600. In these emergencies we have supported thousands of different national and international aid teams bringing help to millions of people whose welfare and very existence have been threatened by devastating events.

“Clearly we can’t bring a printer with us, so it’s vital to be able to produce fantastic quality, detailed maps that could mean the difference between life and death situations. We are very grateful to Océ to agreeing to contribute to our fundraising in that they will give us an amount from each sale of an Océ ColorWave 600 to map organisations. The support from Océ is clearly a very important part of fundraising for us.”

Duncan Smith, Director of Océ UK’s Wide Format Printing, said: “As an international leader in digital document product systems and management, it’s reassuring that our award-winning Océ ColorWave 600 is helping out in a practical way in crisis-hit areas and we are delighted that sales to mapping organisations are helping to contribute cash aid.”

He added: “Océ and MapAction both exhibited at AGI GeoCommunity Conference 2011 – the largest independent UK GIS conference of the year – and visitors were amazed to witness live printing of maps within 60 seconds when they said their own systems normally take at least 20 minutes!”

Esri’s Peter Jolly, President of the British Cartographic Society, said at the conference: “Océ is one of the companies that provide a very fine product for the printed map.”

[photo shows Roger Wedge, Communications Director of MapAction, flanked by Richard Turner (left), Océ UK Wide Format Printing Systems Marketing Manager, and Ryan Milne (right), Océ UK Wide Format Printing Systems Product Manager, at the launch of the agreement to provide cash aid for MapAction]

Digital signage industry expected to grow throughout the Middle East by 26% in 2012

International Expo Consults (IEC) part of Falak Holding, one of UAE’s multi-faceted business conglomerates, stated that with the advent of new technology the ‘Digital Signage’ industry is expected to grow exponentially in 2012 across the region. As per the research carried out by Intel Corporation, the digital signage industry worldwide is growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 26 percent and predicts that the world will have over 22 million digital signs by 2015.

Digital signage is a form of electronic display that shows television programming, menus, information and advertising to name a few. Digital signs such as LCD, LED or projected images can be found in public and private environments, such as retail stores, hotels, restaurants and corporate buildings. According to a new report by Global Industry Analysts Inc. the global digital signage systems market is expected to reach $13.8 Billion by 2017.

“An emerging technology in this space, digital signage, has rewritten the rules of marketing, enabling enterprises to deliver information to their employees and customers more effectively. Furthermore, digital media technologies have completely transformed the landscape in which enterprise and media companies operate by enabling them to optimise their business processes. New delivery mechanisms have also allowed marketers to use innovative strategies to reach their customer bases effectively,” comments Mr. Abdul Rahman Falaknaz, Chairman of IEC. 

“The market sees digital signage as a more beneficial compared to static signage because content that updates frequently can be digitally updated, saving the cost of printing. Digital signage also has the ability to be interactive with imbedded touch screens, movement detection and image capture devices. Increasing adoption among a wider base of industrial sectors as an effective medium for interactive advertising and decreasing costs of purchasing, installation and maintenance also augurs well for the future of the market,” said Mr.Sharif Rahman, CEO, IEC.

IEC will unveil its 15th edition of the ‘Sign and Graphic Imaging Middle East’ (SGI) show in early 2012. The show will be held from January 31st - February 2nd at the Dubai World Trade Centre. SGI is one of the most anticipated events of the year in the region for exhibitors and visitors in the signage, outdoor media, screen and digital printing industries.

“It’s a special year for us and we will introduce new components such as the ‘Digital Signage’ and the ‘Digital Commerce’ industry sectors at our show next year. We had a strong turnout from across the GCC as well as East Africa, the Sub Continent, Europe, Asia among other geographies. The quality of visitors who attended the last edition of SGI Middle East was amongst the best we have ever seen and we expect the trend to continue into 2012,” added Mr.Rahman.

Screen UK partners with Roland to add powerful UV-curable platform to product range

Specialist pre-press and digital solutions supplier Screen UK has partnered with Roland DG (UK) to add a powerful yet cost-effective UV-curable platform to its existing wide-format product family. This agreement will result in greater penetration for Screen UK into the display and flexible packaging prototyping market segments which complements the company's existing systems for the inkjet, offset and flexo markets.

The Roland VersaUV LEJ-640 is a combination flat-bed and roll-fed wide-format printer designed and manufactured for high standards of finish on a variety of applications where durability and excellent ink adhesion are required. It incorporates CMYK, white and clear making it ideal for customised graphics and displays as well as packaging prototypes.

The addition of the VersaUV LEJ-640 to Screen's current product portfolio of inkjet solutions brings a high quality but low investment point to users who either want an auxiliary machine or who are entering the digital wide-format market for the first time. The inclusion of white ink makes it ideal for working with non-white and transparent materials, such as window films, whilst the clear varnish can be used to generate special finishes and textures.

"We have been increasing our presence significantly in the wide-format arena and needed a solution with a lower price point but which didn't compromise on production standards," says Bui Burke, Screen VP Sales. "Logically it made perfect sense to form a partnership with Roland DG at the quality end of inkjet printers. As we both have head offices and manufacturing in Japan, this gives us a natural synergy."

Screen UK introduced the Roland VersaUV LEJ-640 to a diverse range of end users at the company's recent Widescreen 2011 event held at its Milton Keynes UK headquarters. This open house proved to be the ideal location for launching the partnership as it was supported by material and finishing specialists and attended by customers interested in investing in specialist inkjet solutions.

The addition of the 1.62m Roland VersaUV LEJ-640 augments Screen's existing wide-format UV-curable platforms, and the company sees the machine complementing the capabilities of its own Truepress Jet2500 2.5m system. It will appeal to commercial printers wanting to extend into inkjet production at a realistic price point, as well as to existing customers who need to add to their digital capabilities with a versatile solution which can be used to output on to rigid and flexible materials.

The Roland VersaUV LEJ-640 perpetuates the company's philosophy of producing wide-format inkjet platforms which lead on innovative technology and capabilities. Designed to be easy to use, the machine features rear and front folding tables to support rigid substrates up to 13mm thick and 250 x 1625mm in size, with fast change-over to roll-fed mode.

Incorporating low cost, long life LED curing, the Roland VersaUV LEJ-640 is claimed to have the lowest power consumption in its class, and utilises Eco-UV inks and a maximum output resolution of 1440 x 1440dpi. It is supplied with Roland VersaWorks production software which includes full support for the Roland Color System for accurate reproduction of spot colours, plus 72 ready-to-use textures that can be applied to designs incorporating clear varnish.

Mat Drake, Business Manager – Commercial Print, at Roland DG sums up: "We're seeing increasing opportunities within the offset litho and flexo sectors for users wanting to reap the benefits of a quality wide-format device. Our partnership with Screen UK enables us to combine experience and resources for print companies looking to bring proofing, prototyping and a wide range of print options in-house."

 

Clarity launches low cost e-marketing tool ideal for sign & display businesses

Clarity Software has launched a new online product designed to make it easier for small and mediium-sized businesses - including sign and display companies - to manage and deliver successful online marketing campaigns.

Clarity Marketing, a trading division of Clarity Software, is a software system based purely 'in the cloud' at www.clarity-marketing.com and is available to anyone; regardless of whether they have a Clarity MIS system installed.

With prices starting from just £10 per month, Clarity Marketers can use the simple designer to publish branded and personalised bulk email messages to users. The system tracks the open, click-through and forward rates, and creates graphical charts and graphs to present detailed reports in an easy, quick-glance view.

Many businesses find it hard to segregate and organise their contacts and end up with a messy database which is hard to manage. This was a key factor in the system's development, with product developer David Moxon creating a drag and drop interface to add unique tags to contacts and enable users to build highly targeted lists to optimise success.

Clarity Marketing aims remove the technical obstacles of internet marketing, making it easy to increase revenues and improve customer service. Clarity Marketing's product director Emerson Welch explains, “E-marketing is one of the most cost-effective strategies currently available to businesses, and we wanted to give SMEs the best chance of reaping the benefits of it, irrespective of their knowledge and proficiency.”

“Our online system helps you organise your contact data, find your ideal target audience and tailor messages to trigger the best possible campaign responses. It can be used for sales generation or to improve customer service with proactive and reactive messages, and even allows you to manage offline campaigns alongside online ones.”

Emerson continues, “We've made it as simple as possible with an educational marketing workflow, whilst retaining powerful flexibility for impressive brand creative design under a supportive campaign infrastructure.”

“This is such an exciting product and we have a huge road map of features to come, including social media integration, website integration, geo-location and powerful fully-automated response mechanisms.”

Customers beta-trialling the system have already chosen to invest, and the official launch at the recent Clarity Software User Group Meeting generated an overwhelming response, with many attendees activating their free 30-day trial the same day.  Clarity Marketing says it will change the way SMEs carry out their online sales generation and service communications.

For more information, please visit www.clarity-marketing.com

 

Millbrook Design & Print makes big savings by signing up Tech8 and switching to Colorific ink

East Sussex-based Millbrook Design & Print Ltd was originally established in 1999 by Dave Roderick as a design agency.  In 2007 it was transformed into a design and print business and now produces high quality, digitally-printed small and wide format output for a variety of purposes.  The company employs three people and recently came Highly Commended in the Customer Service category of a local business award competition*.

In order to cater for the wide format market, Millbrook Design & Print bought a Mimaki CJV30 130 printer from Robert Horne Group in 2009 which was supplied with the standard manufacturer’s warranty.  All of Millbrook’s wide format output is created on the Mimaki including banners, vehicle wraps and posters to name a few.  The company also has a Xerox digital printer in-house on which it produces small-format print.  Millbrook’s key customers include local venues and businesses and also other printing businesses that outsource their wide format work to the company.

When the warranty expired on the Mimaki, Millbrook looked to renew but found that the quoted price for the standard manufacturer’s warranty was too costly.  Company director, Dave Roderick, explains, “In March - just prior to the expiry of the manufacturer’s warranty - we visited the Sign & Digital 2011 show in Birmingham to evaluate our options.  Whilst there, we visited the neighbouring Tech8 and Colorific ink stands and spoke to Shaun Holdom who explained the partnership between the two companies.” 

Tech8 and Colorific announced their close working relationship at Sign & Digital 2011.  The two companies work together to remove the perceived risk factor in switching to alternative inks.  This ‘alternative inks made easy’ strategy is proving highly successful as it enables wide format printer owners to make significant savings in ink costs by switching to Colorific’s high quality, alternative inks, whilst having the added reassurance of Tech8’s backing and support.

Like many other print business owners, Dave Roderick had heard all the supposed horror stories about alternative inks and was planning to stick with OEM inks.  However, when realising that Tech8 would honour and guarantee the Colorific inks and provide any necessary support during and after the transition, he felt it was a potential win-win situation. 

Shaun Holdom, Business Manager for Colorific, states, “Previously, there had been concerns about the viability of alternative inks – mainly due to scaremongering by OEMs.  Our sales are growing rapidly because customers like the security of being fully backed up by Tech8 in the unlikely circumstance that any issues might occur.”

Millbrook Design & Print purchases its Colorific inks and the warranty from Tech8 through John Sears at Universal Print Supplies.  On the switchover process, Dave Roderick explains, “It was a very straightforward swap as there was no flushing required.  Since that time, the printer has been working all day - every single working day - and we have had no issues whatsoever.”

He adds, “You wouldn’t know the difference in terms of the quality of output we are creating using the Colorific alternative inks.  We are also making cost savings of £30 per cartridge in ink terms alone.  In addition, we are covered by a more cost-effective, better value warranty package from Tech8.”

*The 1066 Business Awards organised by the Hastings Observer and sponsored by HSBC.  For more information, please visit: www.1066businessawards.net

[picture shows Dave Roderick of Millbrook Design & Print and company logo]

DPI signs UK & Ireland distribution agreement for Novus Imaging's 'green' superwide format printer at SGIA

Novus Imaging Inc., an environmentally-focused superwide format printer and ink company has unveiled its new patent-pending, full greyscale, 3-metre hybrid printer and a new patent-pending ink technology at SGIA. Digital Print Innovations (DPI) was also announced as the sole UK and Ireland distribution partner for the product range.

Founded by industry veterans Kevin Sykes and Mike Mills, Novus Imaging is making its mark in the industry with never-before-seen products and ink systems.  “Our printer is state-of-the-art and our AquEpoxy ink technology is unprecedented in the market.  Our focus is to bring cost-efficient, environmentally-sound solutions to business owners, while maintaining high quality and excellent results,” said Kevin Sykes, Novus Imaging President & CEO.

The company’s flagship product, the Synergia H (Hybrid), is a combination flatbed and roll-to-roll printer for maximum flexibility.  It is available in two models: UV and AQ, which denote the type of ink used.  The AQ model has minimal emissions, no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and operates at twice the speed of current printers with exceptional quality output.  The lower cost UV model can be upgraded in both speed and ink type to the Synergia H/AQ.  With a minimum 10 picolitre drop size, the Synergia H has full greyscale capability, prints flawless photorealistic quality and continuous tone. It has a patent-pending belt design that combines enhanced material handling, increased vacuum and improved step accuracy, all of which contribute to its superior print quality.  

“There are many innovations in the way the printer was designed for unsurpassed performance and ease of maintenance,” Sykes said.  “For example, an innovative plug and play print bar design enables print head replacement and alignment in less than 10 minutes, glass secondary ink tanks provide continuous visibility of ink levels and our revolutionary iPad control centre contains maintenance videos, tutorials and expert system troubleshooting capability.” 

Moreover the printer will come with an extensive warranty package.

Novus Imaging’s pioneering AquEpoxy ink is an entirely new and eco-friendly, water-based solution that is 100% environmentally sustainable.  It also boasts superior adhesion characteristics, making it ideal for almost any rigid substrate up to two inches in thickness, including glass and acrylic, making it an excellent alternative to UV for those looking for a green footprint.

Another unique quality about AquEpoxy is that it does not require a high intensity lamp system like those traditionally used with UV technology to cure, which equates to tremendous savings on electricity.

For those who still prefer a UV solution, Novus Imagings’ UV27 inks are specially formulated for high performance, trouble-free printing.  The inks have superior adhesion, long- term outdoor durability and low maintenance requirements.  Equally important, they use the latest technologies to provide full cure properties at very low energy levels.  With less heat being applied, substrate options increase for both flexible and rigid surfaces, which also equates to lower utility costs.

“Novus is comprised of an environmentally conscious team of some of the brightest minds in the industry, which has resulted in a new printer and ink technology unlike anything that currently exists in the marketplace.  Our focus is ensuring our customers’ satisfaction and to support their profitable growth with our sustainable products and services. The UK grand format market is mature and we needed a distribution partner that would understand not only the product, but the needs of the market and the customers so we are very pleased to be working with DPI as our sole UK distributor,” Sykes said.

Stewart Bell, MD of Digital Print Innovations comments, “We’ve been talking with Novus for some months now about the new AquaEpoxy ink technology and we’re very excited about what this will bring to the UK print market and further afield. We’ve conducted rigorous tests with the Synergia H and it has stood up to everything we’ve thrown at it so far, so we are very excited about introducing this revolutionary new printer to the UK over the coming months.”

Novus Imaging products are designed and manufactured in the United States and will be distributed in the United States exclusively by Global Imaging, a leading value added reseller of wide and grand format printers and supplies based in Louisville, Colorado.  In the coming months, Novus Imaging will be introducing a full line of Synergia products including textile, dedicated flatbed and dedicated roll-to-roll printers.