IPEX 2010 Blogs - Andy McCourt Number 4
One of the things about big trade show first days, for writers anyway, is that you get shoved from pillar to post into press conferences, executive briefings, private rooms, sometimes taken to the stand before the show officially opens and then someone walks up to you and asks "Hey have you seen the Gizmoid-o-tron in Hall 5?" You answer "No mate, I haven't even be around the show," and you can see the puzzled look as they walk away, thinking "Lazy bludger … what's he been doing?"
Well, let me tell you my brain has been assaulted with so much information, corporate mission statements, statistics, techno-speak and paradigm-shifting. But let me filter and try to interpret all this for you; that's my job I think.
The stand-out observation at the close of day 1 at IPEX is that not one of the press conferences was put on by an offset supplier! Let's be clear - the day prior to the opening Heidelberg held its customary press event and a very good session it was too but, until KBA on Wednesday afternoon UK time, all the confabs have been from digital and allied suppliers. Wassup? Don't the offset suppliers with the exception of Heidelberg have anything new to say to the world media yet? After Heidelberg and KBA, I can only see Hans Grohni, Ferag, Muller Martini, manroland, Print City and Goss as offset-oriented suppliers hosting news-breaking presscons. Food for thought.
Andy McCourt stands out from the crowd at IPEX.
So if you are wondering why my day 'A' blog is all about digital, that's why!
Let's look at some of the news these vendors felt the need to bring to the world media:
KODAK kicked off with an early start and a standing-room-only presscon chaired by CEO Antonio Perez. Where was arch-showman Jeff Hayzlett? He's been the frontman for so many of these events in the past. Never mind, it was a slick polished affair that focussed heavily on the Prosper 5000XL which sat purring away on the booth. Perez revealed Kodak has its sights on 100 installations worldwide over the next 1-2 years. Unveling a paper strategy similar to the Nexpress "approved stock" program, Kodak said it was dealing with 10 major mills worldwide to produce new papers optimized for Prosper/Stream inkjet technoology.
This in itself is cause for minor concern and SCREEN and Fujifilm announced their new inkjet (sheetfed) presses will work on any offset stock. Perez gave confident reassurance about Kodak's financial position and major Private Equity backer KKR; they are rock-solid, amply backed and in it for the long haul. Quizzed by me on whether we would see a major announcement of an OEM deal on Nexpress (yes, I was fishing to see if Heidelberg' s stated digital strategy would include re-adopting its baby), he and other Kodak execds were fairly non-committal, but confirmed the company sees supply chain partnerships as an effective way of widening their technology reach. Ricoh Europe, for example, resells Nexpress models.
The Kodak display is impressive, one of the few I've seen as their presscon was on the stand. This company takes IPEX and its position in the industry very seriously and, as film, plates, CTP and workflow become less profitable, digital pressews are a focus of intense effort. Has Kodak staked the farm on Prosper/Stream? I don't think so but if it does not fire up the market against very still opposition, KKR might get a little nervous.
Oh and there was something called thew 'K-Zone' there but I didn't really understand what it was ... maybe a place to leave your kids if you take them to IPEX?
RICOH, wow what can you say about a company that was a bit player at Drupa 2008 and two years later is one of the major industry suppliers? Ricoh is about to get a whole lot bigger when it assumes IBM's 49% stake in Infoprint from July 1st. Infoprint is already world market leader (at 30% claimed share) in web- feed inkjet colour, having placed around 150 of the SCREEN-manufactured Infoprint 5000s, mostly into transactional and DM accounts. It also claims second spot in cut-sheet colour, at 20%, but this was disputed as a global figure; maybe in Europe. Ricoh's revenues were $20 billion (US) last year, so they are right up there in the top tier of all-digital suppliers. With Sydney's SOS Printing singing the praises of its C9000, it looks like Ricoh will soon be on a roll in Australia too, where production colour is concerned.
GMG Color, the savvy German colour management whizzes represented by Kayell in Australia, have rolled holus-bolus into wide format ripping and colour management with partnerships including Roland DG, Canon, HP, Mimaki and more on their traditional proofing side. A smart partnership with Sun Chemical for spot colour ink matchinmg is sure to pay dividends. The world's biggest producer of gravure cylinders – China's Yuncheng – also signed up with GMG for colour management. Upgrades to existing ColorProof and ColorServer engines and GMG's mission that: "Wherever a colour goes, it stays that way," wraps up the news from this highly profficient company. Begs the question "what if the colour was crap to begin with?" Sorry guys, I know you'd fix it up!
XEROX, a bit of a damp squibb was the Xerox presscon. The much-rumoured new inkjet press turns out to be based on the old Techtronix Phase Change solid ink/hot-melt technology, not aqueos inks. Xerox tried to persuade the world media that aqueous was inferior, subject to curling, yielded better ink 'spots' etc etc. C'mon guys who are you kidding? Look around you ... aqueous inkjet is king of the ballpark and you are not in the game. I got the impression that this machine, while doubtless applicable for transactional-promotional work, bills and utilities, is a forced product introduction to say "we have inkjet" while still being 99% a toner company. There was very little else of substance from Xerox but as always, some nice stats such as their projections that in 2018, digital print output will be on a par with offset, at 34% of total print. Xerox also announced that the iGen4's connectivity has been expanded to work seamlessly with Heidelberg's Prinect workflow. Hmmm .... Heidelberg looking for a digital partner ... am I speculating too much here? Let's wait and see.
SCREEN, the "Your wish is our Print On Demand" company fielded an experienced team of execs to the world media and presented a convincing, chummy and often hilarious intercourse with the audience. How this company has changed is exemplified by the fact there are seven SCREEN working digital presses at IPEX and two CTP devices. The new Equiosnet universal workflow ties it all together – offset and digital controlled by a single automated workflow. The Truepress JetSX was launched in duplexing mode and the results look very impressive on ordinary offset stocks, aqlthough they were coy about letting samples be given out. The SX is not due for commercial release until January 2011. The Truepress520 range has been exctended to include a mono version for books and a slower but higher resolution model the 520CP, which brings the entry price for we feed digital down below 1 million Euros, but allows full upgradability to a twin engine duplexing 128 metres a minute model. SCREEN is a marvellous example of how a clever company can re-invent itself, survive and prosper with new thinking, new products, different markets and always with its bedrock of precision manufacturing as its blueprint.
That's my day one take, I'll let Simon fill in the gaps as he did the HP presscon later on.
Once more unto the breech today and this time maybe I'll get a chance to see around the show!
Until then friends ...
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