NEXPO '98 recommendations

Quark Inc.: The new Digital Management System is a true client-server environment, with the clients running on 32-bit Windows or a PowerMac system and the server running on Sun Solaris or Intel/Windows NT; the database is Oracle.

T/ONE Inc.: The Boston Globe's new dual Merlin servers are shown in staging; The Globe is replacing its current Merlin server with dual Compaq Proliant 6500 servers with dual Pentium Pro 200-megahertz central processing units, a 90-gigabyte redundant disk array and a 15-tape backup library.

51. Publishing Connections Inc.: Now well established as a systems integration firm, PCI continues to be the North American agent for Britain's Press Computer Systems, makers of Quark XTensions and other publishing systems infrastructure. New this year is PCI's representation of DynaBase, Inso Corp.'s integrated web content management and dynamic publishing system. DynaBase is one of the leading products in this category (recently adopted by the Dallas Morning News for its web site) and is a must-see for anyone looking to run a sophisticated web site. (301) 951-1014.

52. Publishing Partners International: From maintaining old Hendrix and Hastech systems to becoming purveyors of one of the leading classified systems in five short years is just part of the PPI story. Another piece: PPI integrates accounts receivables and other financial applications into the classified system, so that all data are available across the enterprise. A good story all around. (603) 644-3339.

53. Quark Inc.: The folks who brought you XPress and Quark Publishing System (QPS -- the front-end that provides you with 100 percent accuracy when estimating story lengths in XPress) say that they have a whole new way of thinking about client-server database technology. They are proving it with Quark DMS -- a digital asset management system -- which uses Oracle database technology with clients running on Windows or Mac and the server running on Sun or Windows NT. The DMS product could undoubtedly be used as an ad tracking system -- when it is released later this year. (303) 894-3518.

54. SAXoTECH: Bursting onto the North American scene for the first time at last year's NEXPO, SAXotech quickly wooed Morris Communications and its 31 newspapers into picking its products, instantly propelling the company to the forefront of editorial front-end suppliers. Part of the appeal is the company's agnostic approach to systems -- Mac or Windows; Oracle, Informix or SQL Server. New this year is the company's @cess suite, which provides web browser-based access to the editorial environment, including pictures, graphics or pages. (011) {45} 98163100.

55. Smart Storage Inc.: Certainly one of the most complex pieces of open systems is storage -- how much backup do you keep on fixed magnetic media, how much on removable media? This company, exhibiting at NEXPO for the first time, has a couple of solutions in the CD-R (recordable compact disks) arena, including CD-R jukeboxes (large arrays of compact disks) that run under Windows NT, but that have "transparent" read/write access for Macintosh clients. Also being shown will be the company's Duplicator software, which allows for the production of a medium number of CDs for distribution. (978) 623-3300.

56. SOFTEK: New for this longtime provider of Atex terminal emulation software (MacText, WinTex, OSTex, SolTex and Aixtext) is BabbleText, a system for remote filing, tracking and translation of news stories. More than just a bulletin board, BabbleText (installed at the New York Times) provides translation to rich text format (RTF -- or even Atex) and once an editor has finished working on the story, reconverts it to the format the reporter originally filed it in so that editing changes can be seen easily. Also being shown will be a web-based classified ad order entry system. (972) 980-2890.

57. Software Construction Co.: Finally, a front-end system for photos. SCC's MediaFactory is a 99-channel batch processing application running under NT in which each channel can be configured in any of these modes: image conversion (from Reuters, AP or AFP into standard JPEG files with Iptc headers); file routing (including multiple copies of the same file); Gpib listener (for those with an AP Leaf Picture Desk); FTP transfer (files dropped into this directory can be copied anywhere on the Internet), and file insertion (putting the picture into the MediaServer database). The company will also show the aforementioned MediaServer, as well as its PhotoGrid web browser applications, which display thumbnails of pictures, and its line of Photoshop plug-ins. (770) 457-7661.

58. Syntellect Inc.: This longtime provider of telephone call-management systems has brought its technologies into the open systems world (including Windows NT and Java) with Vista, which provides all your phone management needs in one package: interactive voice response, interactive web response, predictive dialing, computer telephony integration, fax on demand and speech recognition. (770) 587-0700.

59. System Integrators Inc.: The long climb back for SII has not been easy, but the company seems to have come into its own again in recent months (see The Cole Papers, May 1998). In addition to the Coyote XA and XE products that put a graphical user interface on the popular Coyote text editor (finally), the company will be showing its WebRunner product, which brings the Coyote text editor to a web browser. New at the show will be OpenSFA, a sales force automation tool that will be demonstrated in conjunction with Coyote XA, and a new version of the company's OPI server, Scoop II, which will correctly parse color and bounding box information from a PDF, then generate an EPS. (916) 929-9481.

60. T/ONE Inc.: It's interesting how T/ONE, which started as a company providing remote picture transmission systems, has evolved into a full-fledged provider of archiving solutions. With the addition of the one-millionth item into the text and image Merlin database at the Providence Journal in Rhode Island, T/ONE has proven that its solution is robust. New at the show will be the latest release of the Merlin software, which includes expanded picture desk functionality as well as full support for PDF files, with all text indexed and searchable. (617) 328-6645.

61. Thomson Interactive Media: The high-quality software used by Prodigy's newspaper partners to publish classifieds on-line seemed to have disappeared when Prodigy got out of that line of business a couple of years ago. Thomson, a division of the newspaper publisher, purchased that software and is now actively marketing it to the industry. The company has solutions for Internet classified advertising, on-line display ads, yellow pages and guides, web site building -- and training. (203) 425-1139.

62. Ultre: These solid imagesetters always gave the impression of being "small," as the first generation of systems was barely 13 inches across. The latest in the product line -- the Ultre 5800 -- has an 18.1-inch width and offers imaging speeds of 22.4 inches per minute at 1000 dpi. Packaged with the unit is the UltreRIP 4.5, which accepts PDF files, and an optional automatic punch. The company will also show its 5400dri product, a machine that uses Imation's DryView film materials. (516) 753-4756.

63. Unisys Corp.: The new Big Dog on the block, Unisys has had a good year -- sales to News Corp.'s London papers and Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. yielded a total nearing 2000 seats -- with its Hermes editorial system, WireCenter for routing of incoming wire copy and DocCenter multimedia archiving system. New at NEXPO will be these products running under Windows NT servers (provided by the hardware end of the company, natch) as well as traditional Sun servers. There have been bumps along the way (see The Cole Papers, May 1998), but overall Unisys has had a good showing for the first couple of years in the U.S. market. (215) 986-4080.

64. X-Rite Inc.: Color reproduction is hard, yet simple: just measure everything from beginning to end and fix it along the way. Good measurements rely on two devices: a densitometer (which measures the density of ink) and a colorimeter (which measures the hue of ink). For the first time, X-Rite has combined the two into a single-use instrument, the 528 Spectrodensitometer. In addition, the company will be showing its award-winning, $145 ColorShop 2.5 software, which helps evaluate whether on-screen colors will reproduce accurately. (616) 534-7667.

65. Xitron Inc.: Once a supplier of typesetter switching devices, Xitron has thrived as a division of, first, Triple-I and, most recently, Autologic, providing output solutions to smaller papers. The company now offers a full line of products, including RIPs from Adobe and Harlequin as well as an OPI server. New at NEXPO will be the Sabra RIP, which interfaces to the Scitex Dolev line of imagesetters, Archetype's MediaBank archive -- and, returning to its roots, the SciSwitch, an electronic A/B switch that allows two inputs to share one port on the Dolev recorder. (313) 913-8080.

-- dmc

From THE COLE PAPERS, June 1998, Copyright © 1998, All Rights Reserved.