Features

Stephanie Gutnik, marketing and business development manager ?at digital signage software company

Although business lore is full of lone geniuses, sustained corporate success is rarely a one-person show. Here business consultant Walter Hale offers some guidance on the factors to consider when trying to build a strong team of leaders.

The University of Sheffield is purifying the air around a poster it is displaying for a year. What’s more, it says the technology used to do it could be cheaply applied to other printed billboards.

A 20m x 20m printed banner hanging on the side of the University of Sheffield’s Alfred Denny Building is cutting pollution thanks to the use of a new technology that its developer says could be applied to other billboards.

John de la Roche explains how a partnership with South Cheshire College is stimulating wide-format interest and creativity among young designers.

With an array of Mimaki printers at its fingertips, distributor Hybrid Services is no stranger to demonstrating unusual and inspiring large-format digital print applications, but a desire to engage with designers and specifiers as well as potential future printers recently prompted a project that married the company with South Cheshire College. The end result turned Hybrid’s Mimaki showroom into an application showcase, having got young designers actively involved the process.

…could be the start of something big. Nessan Cleary brings you up to speed on cutting tables for finishing rigid materials.

The Korean built Jetrix printers appear to offer good value for money, so how did this Jetrix model fare on test? Nessan Cleary reports.

Inktec, which was founded in 1992 in Korea, is best known as an ink manufacturer but has also developed its own range of Jetrix UV flatbed printers. It has a European office, based in Witney, Oxfordshire, which has installed some 35 printers in the last three years. Last year Inktec launched the first of its KX series, which now include the compact KX3, the mid-range KX5 and the much larger KX7, which we've tested this month. 

The Onset S40 promises high productivity but does it justify the cost? Nessan Cleary asks the question.

Until a few years ago people thought of digital printing as being only for short run until a couple of high production flatbeds appeared on the scene to challenge offset and screen printing. This month Image Reports looks at one of these, the Onset S40i, developed by Inca Digital but sold by Fujifilm. 

Can the software subscription model work for large format/sign providers? Jurgen Verhulst, applications specialist at SAi, explores the issue. 

In April this year, SAi introduced a subscription model for its signmaking software package Flexi. The ability to subscribe to powerful software programs on a monthly basis, funded from revenue rather than the capital investment required for an outright purchase, is becoming both more common and popular says SAi’s applications specialist Jurgen Verhulst. With advantages for large-format print/sign providers, software developers and dealers alike, this method of software delivery is seen by many as the future business model, but does it really make economic sense? Here Verhulst argues the point. 

How the company is driving creativity and innovation in the interiors and fashion industries.

When MTEX burst onto the wide-format print scene three years ago it was with a view to presenting a direct-to-textile printer series that would meet the demands not only of the sign and display market, but which would also appeal to designers and creative professionals in the fashion, textiles and interiors

markets. 

Why consumables suppliers like Contra Vision are spending more time in collaboration with you  - and your customers.

With their expertise printers can add value to almost any project, if only they seize the opportunity. Of course many jobs require fast turnaround and low costs and it’s not always in a printer’s interest to up-sell solutions but, then again, thinking about unusual materials and novel applications can result in truly striking outcomes. Yet so often the focus is on price when it comes to print companies quoting on jobs, and that can really limit creativity – and the sales of higher end specialist media. Which is why some consumables suppliers, like Contra Vision, are turning their marketing and sales attention to end-users.

Nessan Cleary looks at how new inks developed for wide-format printers highlight the printer vendors’ growing interest in industrial printing and what that means for you.

This month Nessan Cleary tests the latex printer that marks Ricoh’s first foray into wide-format printing.

The market for latex printers has been completely dominated by HP, despite a challenge from Mimaki. Now Ricoh, which supplies the Gen5 heads used by Mimaki, has entered the fray with the L4100 printer, available in 1.3 and 1.6m widths. Ricoh has rebadged Mimaki's JV400 LX series, and there's no discernible difference between the two apart from the sales and servicing, with Ricoh targeting its existing customer base of commercial printers and corporate print rooms.