Wan-Ifra preview: Key exhibitors in Chennai
With Wan-Ifra India 2011 Conference & Expo to be held from 6 to 8 September Rahul Kumar profiles what to look for at the three-day expo in Chennai.
31 Aug 2011 | By Rahul Kumar
Comyan GmbH
Comyan offers integration with 15 suppliers, including Alfa, Hermes, InDesign, JJK, NewsNT, Polopoly, PPI, Prestige, Protec and Quark. Built-in workflows, Drag and Drop as well as Soap and Rest interfaces allow working "just like working with one system".
The "Comyan Media System" is a scaleable media asset management system for text, images, articles, pages, audio and video. Using a simple web interface, the editor can find all contents in the publishing house - it is of no consequence on which system the content is stored - in a single search.
Peter Resele of Comyan, said: "We are at Wan-Ifra India since 2005. The response is good and it is a great time to meet publishers from all over the world. We are launching the second version of our iPad edition, which automatically translates print styles into HTML5/CSS3, including real fonts, initial letters and images. Intelligent templates and a freely definable stylebook allow real publication design, without the daily manual re-lay out of work."
Content Backbone and the iPad edition V2 will be highlight of the stand. The company believes the trend from print to tablets will pick up.
Shakti Udyog
Facebook and Twitter and other social networking sites create opportunity. Shakti Udyog has taken this concept forward, and brought to the industry "the world's first newspaper vending machine using Telemetry. This means the mobile phone will work like a wallet for you. Mobile payment options will permit the "Click for Cash" process.
The system also generates vending data records and passes the data to the operator's billing system to be handled in any desired manner between the service provider and the product supplier.
Each vending machine is equipped with a GPRS module and firmware to handle messages forwarded from the Mobile Vending Server. This is made possible with cloud computing applications.
S Vijay, director, Shakti Udyog, said: "The basic model of the newspaper and magazine vending machine with electronic coin and smartcard was launched during Wan-Ifra in Chennai and Ipex in Mumbai. Regional newspapers have blocked up to 100 vending machines."
Smartvend SV1will be Shakti's new launch during the Wan-Ifra at Chennai.
The company has a range of equipment which includes violet processors (CTP), thermal processors (CTP), plate processors, printing down frames, contact printers, film processors, viewing table for offset printing, exposing systems, screen washers and screen dryers for screen printing, exposing systems, light finishing and flexo dryers for flexo printing.
Quark Software
V Prasad Rao of Quark India said that the company has participated many times at Wan-Ifra. He said: "It is a good event to meet good prospects. We aim to showcase our product-line and our company’s strength in the publishing world to newspaper and magazine verticals."
Quark will showcase its QuarkXPress 9, Publishing System 9, XML Author for Microsoft Word, XPress Server 9, Web-to-Print System and CopyDesk 9.
The demo of the QuarkXPress 9, Publishing System 9, XML Author for Microsoft Word and CopyDesk 9 will be the highlight at the stall.
The company is doing well and the recent acquisition of Platinum Equity has boosted the company’s strength.
Summit Information Technologies
Summit is a Gurgaon, India based software company engaged in development of Asian language enabling technologies and media industry software solutions for the Asian market.
The Asian language product, Indica is available on Windows and Apple Mac platforms and supports Asian language publishing with Indian languages as well as Arabic, Thai, Sinhala, Chinese, Japanese and others.
Rakesh Kapoor, managing director, Summit Information Technologies, said: "Our objective is to be the leading language and media technology development company in Asia and then address other geographies. Summit’s languages and media industry solutions will have a strong impact on e governance, education, media, corporate, Internet and home users."
Kapoor added: "Liberty is the new launch along with a whole gamut of new media publishing offerings that will be used by customers to expand their reach to their readers and advertising customers in a big way through ePaper, dynamic web sites and tablet and mobile Apps."
Kapoor said: "This year has brought us substantial growth opportunities and our revenues are likely to grow in excess of 50% over the last financial year. New business is coming from both domestic and global markets."
EAE Ewert Ahrensburg Electronic GmbH
Birgit Wagner of EAE said that we were at Wan-Ifra 2005 in Delhi, Publish Asia 2010 Kuala Lumpur, Publish Asia 2011 Bangkok and Wan-Ifra events all over the world.
Wagner added: "Wan-Ifra events are important for our business to meet users and decision-makers from the newspaper printing industry."
He said: "Our newly developed RIGA concept has been designed for the control and automation of single-width presses. It is primarily used as a Retrofit system for single-width presses with single cylinder circumference and a low degree of automation. The basic level includes a control console with remote controlled ink zones and can be extended by four further steps: ink duct, dampening, register and machine control."
The Press Presetting with EAE print system and automated colour control by EAE loop will be the highlight at the show.
The retrofit business and the automation of existing printing presses has exceeded EAE's expectations, according to Wagner.
Pongrass Publishing Systems
Pongrass has been developing publishing software since 1984 in Sydney, Australia.
Single database integration of the various companion products of the suite is the Key to the success of the Pongrass. Advertisement booking, classified pagination, advertisement layout and tracking, editorial tracking, content management, story editing and pagination software can be installed individually or in any combination for the ultimate in configuration flexibility.
Working as a system integrator in Australia and New Zealand, it has channel partners around the world.
Pongrass Advertising Archive solution will be new launch at the show. It is a complete solution using the latest browser technologies.
Pressline India
Pressline India, an ISO 9001:2000 and CE Certified Company, manufacturer and exporter of web offset printing presses with the speeds of 40,000 cph.
Satish Bajwa, chairman and MD, said: "We get an opportunity to meet the stalwarts of the industry. We get good business from the Wan-Ifra. We will display product catalogues and blow-ups at the show."
Pressline’s presence is visible in Albania, Argentina, Brazil, USA, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Romania, Bangladesh, Indonesia and installations India.
The popular Pressline model is the Prima series, the bearer to bearer machine which scores on its competitors because of the availability of the RCR on both the plate cylinders making it versatile and providing proper registration.
Prime UV
Prime UV perfection dryer series will highlighted at the show. This exclusive design for high speed newspapers and cold set web presses cures both sides of the web at speeds over 3,000 fpm.
Prime UV perfection dryers are famed for its environmental benefits and the low cost of installation, dryers installed in 34 countries.
Designed to eliminate all the components of the costly heat set printing process, including gas fired ovens, natural gas consumption and afterburner, as well as chill rolls to cool down the web, the Prime UV perfection dryer delivers instant, cool drying for the four-colour process, solids and black on every substrate including highest gloss coated stocks.
Installed on single-width and double-width high speed newspaper presses the Prime UV perfection dryers include an Ethernet connection to Prime UV’s engineering lab for troubleshooting and preventive maintenance service.
The newest addition to the Prime UV perfection dryers series is the M110. Elinor Midlik of Prime UV said they have seen an upsurge in companies looking to replace heatset dryers with dryers.
Dryers can be installed inter-station after each of the colour units on web presses. They are rated by the EPA as BACT (Best Available Control Technology) and are recommended to eliminate VOCs and emissions in the press room.
Prime UV flexfilm advanced UV curing system can be easily installed after the last colour unit on a CI flexo press and guarantees complete cure of UV flexo ink on flexible film substrates.
One Vision Software India
OneVision is a provider of innovative and cost-effective software solutions designed to secure, optimise, and simplify complex production workflows for the printing, publishing and media industries.
The Wall Street Journal, O Globo, Financial Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Times of India, The Sydney Morning Herald, Pearson, Merrill Corporation and Pragati are some of the prominent clients of the company. Even the Council of Europe and International Monetary Fund rely on software from OneVision.
OneVision Software has subsidiaries in the USA, United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Singapore and India with headquarter at Germany. Kathrin Schwägerl of OneVision, said that we take part in many minor conferences and shows organized by Wan-Ifra like Publish Asia, Wan-Ifra Latin America and others. We equally exhibited at IPEX in Birmingham, UK last year.
The company will present its new standalone inksaver called Ink Balance at the show.
Schwägerl added: "E-publishing solution Mirado will be the highlight in the show and it aims to support the innovation of your business model and as such allows hybrid PDF production for print, web and mobile use. Mirado’s latest capabilities enable multi-channel and multi-platform publishing. The connection to several shop systems allows the distribution of paid content."
Schwägerl said: "India is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing markets for newspapers and we expect this trend will continue. We have opened a subsidiary in Gurgaon last year for Indian market."
ABB
Steve Kirk, head of marketing, said that we have been present at most Wan-Ifra India including the previous event in Chennai in 2009.
Kirk said: "Wan-Ifra India helps us to raise awareness in India about ABB solutions for the newspaper industry and our local presence in India."
He added: "We do not expect to take home orders as the lead times in the investment process are much longer. However we expect to be able to show many Indian companies the advantages that can be gained by using ABB's production management systems and how our press retrofit solutions can protect their existing investment in newspaper presses."
ABB production management and workflow systems that will be on show in India for the first time. One example is MPS Cockpit, ABB's solution for managing and optimizing the entire newspaper production process from plate-making to distribution across one or more print sites.
The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 130,000 people. ABB has been supplying drives and automation solutions to the newspaper business since the 1920.
MPS Cockpit and MPS Production are ABB's press management system. Both greatly reduces start-up waste with its detailed press presetting functionality. It also includes extensive product and production planning functions, has a fully graphical imposition generator, optimises sequences of production runs to reuse as many web leads as possible and has a range of ink and dampening management functions that improve the print quality on the press.
MGE
MGE India is two years old. At Wan-Ifra, MGE will push its range of ancillary products to complement their web presses enabling printers to get the best out of their presses whilst reducing associated costs.
MGE’s own ‘PressMate’ brand of chillers will be on display at the show offering solutions both for single tower web systems right up to large multi-tower high speed web presses.
This year has included a few first installations of PressMate chillers on web systems. This includes MGE’s first fully Indian built 24kW chiller which was recently installed on a multi-tower Orient press in Noida.
In addition to chillers, MGE will also be showcasing Hydair’s range of ink pumps and ink distribution systems for the first time at Wan-Ifra.
ppi Media
Gerhard Raab, Vice President International Sales, said that ppi exhibits at Wan-Ifra Europe almost since the company exists and at Wan-Ifra since the beginning.
Raab added: "We expect Chennai to generate attention for cross-media solutions."
There will be a multimedia solution for the first time at the event from ppi. mediaPreflight is a flexible solution suitable for interpreting and checking ads for print, online and mobile in all media channels.
ppi Media will also be presenting Content-X, a solution which creates a streamlined, effective editorial workflow. This solution links the DC-X CMS and Adobe InDesign, allowing easy and intuitive editing. Media-neutral texts can be published in different output channels in just a few steps.
The company has its headquarter in Hamburg, Germany and subsidiaries in Kiel, Germany and Chicago, USA. Times of India, Hindustan Times, Sakal, Mathrubhumi, Sun TV, Malayala Manorama and The Hindu are among ppi's Indian customers.
ppi Media will be presenting a publishing software with maximum ease of use. From integrated advertisement processes to multimedia editorial solutions and innovative pre-press products, all the solutions presented at Booth 1540 have three things in common: intuitive operation, high automation and a broad range of functions.
AdX, ppi’s ad reservation solution, combines different media channels on a central planning board. The integration of SAP IS-M/AM enables users to enter, book and manage ads for Print, Online and Mobile in AdX. As the front-end for the ad booking system, AdX has reduced the number of input fields to an essential minimum.
QI Press Controls
QI Press Controls will introduce automated Intelligent Density System (IDS) to the Indian market. Using the TIFF data as a reference the IDS system measures and controls the colours in the image itself without any additional colour bars on the newspaper. The result is colour control within the ISO 12647-3 standard combined with reduction in operational costs.
There will be a live demonstration of the mRC+; a system that combines automatic colour register, cut-off and side-lay control into one system. It will also help to reduce the waste as the mRC+ brings the different colours automatically into register while starting up. The system is also based upon a very precise and accurate scanning of printed micromarks, hardly visible for readers’ eyes. That’s a gain for readers and advertisers: a colour quality improvement without any disturbance of visible CMYK-marks.
In the first half of 2011,QI Press Controls India has seen a growth of 27% in the number of installed systems. To-date the company has installed over 400 register systems in India for which the contacts were made during Wan-Ifra shows