NEXPO suppliers emphasize incremental enhancements
NEW ORLEANS -- Though it was alleged that there was no innovation at NEXPO '97, virtually every supplier was able to show some sort of incremental advance somewhere in its product line.
Herewith is a rundown -- assuredly not all-knowing -- of the improvements we saw on the show floor:
AccuWeather Inc. is adding a personal weather page. Users can set up their own page for free now; the service is expected to cost $5 a month in the future. The State College, Pa., supplier says it intends to partner with newspapers and share the revenue.
No word on how your personal weather will differ from everyone else's in town, though.
The Macintosh and a neat scheduling feature have come to Agile Enterprise Inc. of Nashua, N.H. Agile began adopting the Mac platform in 1996 when Newsweek magazine, which bought an Agile system, requested the Mac OS. Available to users: A feature for attaching scheduled triggers to documents, automating such things as sending e-mail, exporting a file or outputting a job.
American Computer Innovators has opened a new book in its OpenPages publishing system, with OpenPages WebAccess library. The Amherst, Mass., company said it's working on read/write access, but its Java-based text editing client already extends any user's reach because he or she can use a web browser at any machine -- such as an airport kiosk -- to gain access to a text archive over the 'Net.
The Associated Press of New York rolled out the APServer for ad and photo delivery. It includes some long-sought improvements, such as true auto-routing based on header fields, full text searching (on captions, for example) using Personal Librarian's PLS engine, and security levels linked to user profiles.
Another AP product, the digital ad delivery system AdSEND, just deployed Acrobat 3.1, with its composite color improvements.
The biggest change in AP's Preserver photo archive is its frames-based user interface and added convenience features, such as bookmarking and history of searches, customizable directories for search results and search options related to user log-on.
AP has reworked The Wire, its web content service, to include push technology to parry with PointCast and other rivals.
Atex Media Solutions of Bedford, Mass., showed the 2.0 version of DewarView. Users will save steps in the tighter layout integration between Quark XPress and Microsoft Word.
On the ad side, Atex has paved a path into the Enterprise system for text from the Web and has improved Contact Manager's features for gathering customer information.
Two new components stretch the scope of PC Architect (now running on NT): Space Reservation allows ad reps to see and claim ad spots on pages, prior to Architect's batch stacking, and a press configuration module helps with plate planning.
Baseview Products of Ann Arbor, Mich., now offers real-time fail-over for mission critical systems. Multiple machines are configured as a single server; if the main machine dies, a second replaces it seamlessly. The newsroom will never even know there has been a crisis.
Cascade Systems Inc. of Andover, Mass., is building on MediaSphere and its W3 implementation by introducing an information-sharing system for photo assignments, dubbed MediaSphere NPS. Editors, reporters, photographers and image specialists can keep track of "what to do" and "what's the latest status," even reaching shooters in the field through an Internet browser interface. With the caveat that it relies on individuals clicking buttons to freshen info (and you know how reliable they are), this is a nifty add-on for MediaSphere owners.
Cascade also showed a system for delivering ad proofs from its DataFlow/W3 system, which was a daydream last NEXPO. Using a web browser at their offices, advertisers can tap into the DataFlow system, retrieve a PDF and run information, then annotate with corrections or approve the placement.
CE Engineering Publishing Systems of Loomis, Calif., showed TransGen, which provides a flexible translation table on the Decade side of conversations between SII systems and PCs or Macs. This additional feature can run on every Decade-equipped station or on a single desktop computer that feeds a networked text server.
CompuText Inc. of Houston brought Version 5 of its classified system, CompuClass, and Version 3 of its editorial solution, Comet III/Capture Editorial, to the show. Although both products are about a year old, it was the first view of the products for NEXPO-ees and -ettes.
Digital Equipment Corp. of Littleton, Mass., unveiled the one enhancement no one ever seems to get enough of -- raw power. The latest DEC Alpha chips thunder along at 600 megahertz. The chips are available now in test quantities, and are due to ship in volume in the fall.
DEC is touting them for servers, but, hey -- you know you want one on your desk.
Imposition is something no one wants to do in polite company, but is a task done in print shops every day. It's the way you place (impose) the pages of your publication on the press used to produce it, and takes into account the size of press, registration, space between pages and many other pressroom concerns.
San Diego's DK&A Inc. has been producing Macintosh software that takes Quark XPress pages and calculates the proper press imposition. The upgrade of this software, INposition 2.0, now allows Adobe PageMaker as well as PostScript and Quark files to be part of a single press configuration. At a list price of $2995, it's not cheap, but more than 5000 customers all over the world have found it worth the cost.
If your company happens to be connected to a fiber optic network and needs even more speed than 100-BaseT Ethernet offers, then welcome to Gigabit Ethernet. For all systems that use PCI-based expansion cards, Integrated Technologies Solutions Inc. of Farmingdale, N.Y., offers a way to get those huge data files really moving, with all the boosts to productivity that such speed offers.
A protocol called Serial Hippi (HIgh Performance Parallel Interface) had been the choice for server-to-server connections moving large amounts of multimedia data, because the large size (64K) of the packets of information carried. Now, any computer with a PCI expansion slot can cruise this track.
Although Gigabit Ethernet packet size is much smaller (1.5 kilobytes), the interoperability of the two systems makes for powerful capabilities when combined in a local area network. The cost of the PCI cards is only $2200, fiber optic network not included, but the real expense comes with installing the fiber optic network.
You can't get this speed any other way, so this is an option only for those with deep pockets, or lucky enough to be wired with fiber already.
John Juliano Computer Services Co. of Decatur, Ga., now offers enhanced consulting services, with increased emphasis on providing management consulting and market research to the newspaper industry.
Linopress Publishing Systems of Hauppauge, N.Y., debuted its new ownership by Heidelberg Group, and the splash overshadowed two products introduced to the U.S. market.
MediaBase is a scalable, stand-alone archive system that swallows common desktop formatted files, such as Microsoft Word, Quark XPress, Photoshop and Illustrator, and prompts the creator to enter retrieval information at the first save. Automatic functions help it digest ads, pages, complete editions, newswires, logos -- just about everything. An updated photo or text file bumps the old copy into a history or version archive, not off the disk.
Managing Editor Inc. of Jenkintown, Pa., has a new GUI and Windows client for its Roundhouse ad-tracking system, which was in beta at last year's show. The system uses an SQL database, integrates to a newspaper's off-the-shelf production software, and includes a spreadsheet interface and report generator.
Market Statistics of New York demoed a web version of its survey of buying power. You can soon create, map and rank markets. Cost will be a flat $495 per year, said company representative Peter Goldman.
Conversion is the new thing at Markzware Software of Santa Ana, Calif., maker of FlightCheck, a preflight product that checks for errors in a file before it's output. Markzware software can convert any document created in Adobe PageMaker or Multi-Ad Creator into Quark XPress, providing a common application in which to make changes to content.
The move to Microsoft Windows NT rolled right along, as companies reported having ported their products to the OS. In addition to Atex: New Horizons Team of Pottsville, Pa., audiotext, and Highwater Designs Inc. of Salem, N.H., RIP technology.
Multi-Ad Services Inc. has revamped Creator and launched Creator2, which comes with "Illustrator-type" tools, can handle multiple pages and is geared toward design more than layout or graphics, although all three functionalities are part of the package. The Peoria, Ill., company's beta version was shown at NEXPO; expect the smoke to clear late in the third quarter.
Publishing Business Systems showed its browser-based GUI, available for UNIX or NT systems. As with all the Des Plaines, Ill., company's products and enhancements, this interface draws on PBS's existing relational technology, which, by the way, is Year 2000-compliant.
Quark Publishing System 2.0 should be Quite Pleasing Soon, once all the pieces are in place -- which means that this major upgrade to the underwhelming Qps 1.x still needs the forthcoming upgrade of Quark XPress (to 4.0) to run.
For software that will be available Real Soon Now(TM), the Qps 2.0 demo showed some real improvements, including users logging on to an actual server, rather than a publication; a more robust database, with the ability to track more disparate items of a publication; better query tools and navigation; unlimited header sizes; the ability to change configurations on the server without having to restart the server, and a stronger commitment to Windows (95 and NT).
The new Scoop is very ... European, like a Swedish baked apple that you watch cooking through an oven window. Well, Manchester, N.H.-based Publishing Partners International has announced the first complete U.S. installation of the Scoop Editorial System, at Homestead Publishing in Bel Air, Md.
The product, installed at hundreds of sites in Europe, is being migrated to a Windows NT platform. Right now, the Maryland site is producing editorial matter on Word in a Windows 95 environment and is being laid out using Quark XPress in a Macintosh environment.
Reporters may have an easier time filing their stories thanks to Softek USA of Dallas. Its Atex gateway products for Mac and Windows now are equipped to file from any word processor without first converting text to ASCII. A log keeps track of filed copy, with the sender getting a receipt number -- a vital set of digits that can be used to find delivered copy should other paths fail.
The Software Construction Co. of Atlanta showed the as-yet unreleased Media Grid, which handles archiving and production and enhances its "folder-watching" capabilities so that it can now search entire databases and CD-ROM jukeboxes using Verity search technology. Add MediaGrid to MediaServer and MediaFactory for a multimedia management system.
Software Consulting Services of Nazareth, Pa., displayed Topic, an Open Pre-press Interface (OPI) on a Windows NT server, developed by Terra. Using DCS (Desktop Color Separation) for one-file image separations and PostScript Level 2 for compression, this OPI promises peppy transfer speeds and compact storage.
Its NT origins mean easy integration with the Windows Print Server, easily serving a slew of output devices. A trial version can be downloaded from SCS's web site, http://nscs.fast.net/.
Spanlink Communications of Minneapolis now can handle 17 languages in its call center software, ExtraAgent for Newspapers.
Whether or not it will enhance its newspaper involvement, it is worth knowing that T/ONE Digital Archiving Systems has decided to expand its reach to additional industries. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, T/ONE, of Quincy, Mass., has added text archiving capabilities which include a Quark extraction utility and enhancement application.
Thanks to software development and AppleScript, clients of TV Data Technologies of Queensbury, N.Y., who build their own TV books have less work than ever, as scripts have automated such things as flowing in logs and grids. TV Data's own contribution is an overset detector, which is scripted to reflow until the text is underset, then back up a step to the least overset amount.
An editor need trim only a few lines at this point -- after the automated process cut the overset from as much as two pages.
TV Data also has enhanced its on-line product, ClickTV, to send e-mail reminders to a viewer who has checked a program he or she wishes to see. And, cable system lineups are maintained on TV Data's server, with any changes automatically downloaded with the next request.
Unisys of Irving, Texas, showed the Hermes PageCast system which links the Hermes pagination system to multiple remote printing sites. The Pitcher server lofts complete page files in a variety of formats (PDF, PostScript or RIP files), and the Catcher server updates a Watcher scoreboard of arriving pages so you can see where the edition stands.
With the programs running on Sun SPARCsystem and NT servers, and Windows clients, the system tucks neatly into the Unisys editorial pagination line.
Also new is the Atex Ferry, a two-way bridge between legacy Atex J-11 systems and Hermes systems. The Ferry carries both editing and layout information, in either Atex or Hermes typographical commands.
-- Staff report
AccuWeather Inc.,
(814) 237-0309;
Agile Enterprise Inc.,
(603) 880-6440;
American Computer Innovators Inc.,
(413) 256-3125;
The Associated Press,
(212) 621-1500;
Atex Media Solutions Inc.,
(617) 275-2323;
Baseview Products Inc.,
(313) 662-5800;
Cascade Systems Inc.,
(508) 749-7000;
CE Engineering Publishing Systems Inc.,
(916) 652-5263;
CompuText Inc.,
(713) 480-3494;
Digital Equipment Corp.,
(508) 486-5986;
DK&A Inc.,
(619) 488-8118;
Integrated Technologies Solutions Inc.,
(516) 420-9401;
John Juliano Computer Services Co.,
(404) 377-9450;
Linopress Publishing Systems,
(516) 434-2029;
Managing Editor Inc.,
(215) 886-5662;
Market Statistics,
(212) 592-6288;
Markzware Software Inc.,
(714) 756-5100;
Multi-Ad Services Inc.,
(309) 692-1530;
Publishing Business Systems,
(847) 699-5727;
Publishing Partners International,
(603) 644-3339;
Quark Inc.,
(303) 894-8888;
Softek USA,
(972) 980-2890;
The Software Construction Co.,
(770) 457-7661;
Software Consulting Services,
(610) 837-8484;
Spanlink Communications,
(612) 971-2000;
T/ONE Inc.,
(617) 328-6645;
TV Data Technologies,
(518) 792-9914;
Unisys Corp.,
(972) 541-8059.
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