On Demand 2011: Digital Innovations
 in D.C.

Now in its 18th year, the On Demand Conference and Exposition tried something new this time when it moved south of the Mason-Dixon line to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. Not everyone was happy with the results.

Though some exhibits were packed at intervals, others were not so busy. Perhaps the absence of key companies like Xerox, Kodak, Presstek and Standard caused some potential attendees to skip this year's event. Or maybe D.C. was too far for the Northeast day trippers who attended previous years' shows in Philadelphia, Boston and New York.

IPG spotted fewer in-plant managers than usual this year. Most of those were there to see specific equipment they were hoping to buy. Unlike past On Demand shows, the educational program (called the Publishing Xchange Conference) did not have an in-plant track this year, possibly contributing to a smaller in-plant attendance.

Still, those who made the trip had more than enough to see—once they found their way to the back of the convention center, down two levels and past an unrelated expo. Canon USA had the commanding booth this year in terms of size and location, followed by Konica Minolta and Ricoh/InfoPrint Solutions.

Other exhibitors that anchored the show floor included GBC, MGI USA, GMC Software Technology and Graphic Whizard. HP also could be included in the latter group, but it again elected to be located in the co-located Association for Information and Image Management's (AIIM) info360 Expo portion of the hall. The exhibitor list topped 90 companies, down slightly from 2010.

Much of the exhibit hall had the feel of the tabletop displays at Seybold Conferences in the early years. Some larger pieces of equipment were displayed, even several high-volume inkjet presses.

Some of the Highlights

Canon USA used the event for the U.S. introduction of the DreamLabo 5000 seven-color, roll-fed printer with a 12˝ width and 2,400x1,200-dpi print resolution. The device is positioned as an alternative to silver-halide technology for retail photo printing applications—including prints and photo books—due to its dense, nearly continuous imaging. Canon also sees the DreamLabo 5000 as a solution for high-end print-on-demand products because of its high-definition text printing capabilities. The printer has a 12˝-wide print head that uses Canon's proprietary FINE inkjet technology to apply CMYK plus photo cyan, photo magenta and gray dye-based inks. It can output 40 single-sided sheets of 4x6˝ photos per minute (with internal automatic cutting).

For in-plants, though, the most interesting piece of equipment in Canon's booth was the new imagePRESS C7010VPS production press—the first solution developed jointly by Canon and Océ (which is now a Canon company). It integrates the Océ PRISMAsync controller with Canon's 70-ppm color print engine. (The companies are also planning to incorporate Océ PRISMA–sync into other Canon devices targeting high-volume and production printing applications.)

The C7010VPS introduces productivity-boosting features, such as an intelligent job-scheduler accessible through the PRISMAsync controller. The new controller's open workflow connectivity enables the C7010VPS to be seamlessly integrated into industry-standard workflows. It can work with an expanded array of media types (from 16 lb. bond to 120 lb. cover), and new sensor technology enables better humidity controls resulting in more accurate toner distribution.

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A. announced the availability of the new bizhub PRESS C70hc color printer, a 70-ppm version of its color print engine running eco-friendly High Chroma toner for an extended color gamut. Toner particles are consistently sized and smaller than conventional toner particles for a smoother finish and sharper text. The C70hc reportedly generates less waste and emits less CO2, NO2 and SO2.

To mark its new partnership agreement with Screen (USA), which was announced at the show, Konica Minolta displayed a Truepress Jet520 inkjet web press in its booth. To highlight its partnership with Kodak, a Digimaster EX150 was also on display.

Ricoh, InfoPrint Combine Forces

On its half of the combined Ricoh/InfoPrint Solutions booth, the latter again displayed the InfoPrint 5000 inkjet production printer at the expo. New from InfoPrint Solutions, a Ricoh company, was its Managed Automated Document Factory Services offering, a turnkey, cloud-based or onsite-hosted workflow solution for transactional document production with compliance requirements, such as HIPAA or Regulation Z for healthcare, financial and insurance documents. It is positioned as a solution for mid-market companies that reduces their IT requirements and converts the capability from a capital expenditure to an operational one.

Ricoh also touted the implementation of the new CREO C-81 Color Server with the Ricoh Pro C901/C901s Graphic Arts Edition. The C-81, will provide open connectivity to digital workflows. It features built-in qualities such as SMS and e-mail notification, support for the ADOBE PDF Print Engine 2, advanced built-in variable data printing (VDP) capabilities and JDF connectivity for integration within Graphic Arts workflows.

MGI USA showed its Meteor DP60 Pro multi-substrate color digital press and JETvarnish digital inkjet spot UV coater. The DP60 prints on paper, plastics and envelopes and can print up to 3,900 A4/letter sheets per hour, with no click charges. MGI's toners are oil-free and silicone-free, which means that they are also laser-safe.

Envelope Printer Draws In-plants

Xanté, which always draws in-plants at shows with its Ilumina digital envelope press, introduced a top-loading, continuous-feed option at On Demand. Called the TL-30, the feeder holds up to 500 envelopes and allows for easy reloading. Adjustable feed belts let users customize the feeder for every piece. Xanté also showcased its popular iQueue Pro software.

Riso touted a new dynamic tray-pull capability on its high-speed inkjet ComColor printers, which pulls and prints up to four different paper stocks on-the-fly. Working with partners GMC Software Technology, Arcis Digital Security, Kirk-Rudy and The Solutions Group, Riso also demonstrated single-pass transpromo MICR printing, eliminating the need for pre-printed security check paper stocks. Using plain or pre-perfed white paper means the entire job can be done at a savings of 70 percent or more. Riso also touted the fact that its printers are certified to work with Solimar's transactional document conversion, re-engineering and electronic delivery solutions.

ECRM showed the DPP 1200 color printer, which can be driven by a customer's existing RIPmate workflow or purchased in a configuration with the Harlequin-based RIP. It prints up to 31 ppm (letter-sized) in color with conventional offset screening to 175 lpi and a maximum 12x18˝ sheet size.

Kirk-Rudy showed its WaveJet inkjet system for printing variable text, barcodes and graphics on coated stocks, plastics and foils. It was shown with a 1.18˝ print head, but a 21⁄2˝ head will be introduced soon.

In the Neopost booth, the new RENA Mach 5 digital color printer was on display. The full process color printer is powered by Memjet Technology and can print on materials up to 91⁄2x17˝ and full bleed up to 81⁄2˝ wide. It prints full sheets at 3,600/hour and #10 envelopes at 9,000/hour.

Magnum Magnetics showed off its Portable Desktop Magnetizer. Users can print small jobs like business cards, calendars and car signs onto un-magnetized Magnum products, then run them through the Desktop Magnetizer to magnetize them.

Rochester Software Associates (RSA) demonstrated WSPR (Web Service Printing Remotely), a new technology to allow RSA's Hosted WebCRD customers to securely print to local production print centers without IT involvement or fire wall changes. The WSPR client is a small footprint PC-based application with a simple interface. When the PC is connected to the Internet and running, the WSPR client automatically retrieves print-ready files from RSA's hosted WebCRD OnDemand and submits them to a local production print devices or workflow software, releasing them exactly as they would if WebCRD was installed locally.

Avanti Systems discussed enhancements and integrations to its Graphic Arts Management System, which was honored last year at On Demand for the integration of its CRM module with Microsoft Outlook. This provides automatic synchronization of e-mails, contacts, tasks and appointments bi-directionally between the MIS system and Outlook. Avanti also discussed its new partnership with Gimbel & Associates, which will give customers access to sales training, business development consulting and solution selling.

EFI highlighted EFI PrintSmith, EFI Digital StoreFront and EFI Pace. Its Pace print shop management program offers iPad and iPhone applications to let Pace users estimate jobs, track shipments and review job status and customer accounts from the palm of their hand.

CGS demonstrated its ORIS Press Matcher // Web, which allows completely different printing processes to be colormetrically aligned to one common repeatable standard, international or custom. The latest release has been redesigned to include a Web-based, wizard-assisted interface with integrated soft proofing.

XMPie, a Xerox company, released PersonalEffect 5.2, which enhances its tracking and analytics technology with more advanced reporting features and major speed improvements. PersonalEffect Analytics' tracking capability allows for recording all relevant campaign data, including values for variables defined in the campaign-creation brief. This allows marketers to compare campaign performance with their defined goals.

GMC Software Technology unveiled GMC Inspire, an end-to-end Customer Communications Management (CCM) platform. It allows businesses to automate and control the entire communication cycle from capturing personal buying motivators to leveraging customer insight to the production of multichannel communications and the management of customer responses.

In our June issue we'll take a look at the new bindery technologies shown at On Demand.