Ppi Puts printnet in Two Sites, Works with IBM

By: E&P Staff Two German newspaper printers are automating digital workflows with printnet from ppi Media, which now offers integration with IBM's NICA asset-management system.

Ppi will install its printnet OM output management system to control prepress workflow at Wetzlardruck GmbH, publisher of Germany's Zeitungsgruppe Lahn-Dill. The printnet workflow comprises transfer of digital newspaper pages, RIP control, calculation and transmission of ink presets, platessetter control, and soft proofing.

By fall, Zeitungsgruppe Lahn-Dill's nine regional editions (approximately 75,000 total circulation) are to be processed through printnet OM. Ppi Media is integrating all prepress and press systems via existing interfaces for optimized production workflows. Systems include Multicom's NGen publishing system, Harlequin RIPs, two Kodak Polychrome output devices, and ABB's MPS control console.

The integration project allows printnet OM to create automated, priority-driven output -- from arrival of PDF pages through RIPing, imaging, and calculating ink presets. The workflow also includes ppi's ProofStation for automatically soft-proofing all bitmaps.

At Wetzlardruck, printnet relies on optimized production plans generated the Multicom system's data and from the MPS control console. Start times and production catalogs are transferred from MPS to printnet OM. Production orders for printing forms are not placed in the random order in which digital data enters the systems (first in, first out), but according to start-of-printing time (first needed, first out). The calculated production plan is then used to monitor the actual process, with printnet evaluating status and error information on each process, and graphically alerting users to existing or likely problems.

Berliner Verlag GmbH & Co. KG also will use printnet to produce the 188,000-circulation Berliner Zeitung and 120,000-circulation Berliner Kurier. Modules to be installed are PlanPag edition planning, AdDispo/WebDispo ad-space reservation, AdMan for ad production, and AdPag and ProPag pagination.

With PlanPag, Berliner Verlag will have its first automated digital planning system, creating a database-centered, end-to-end workflow for both dailies. PlanPag defines main runs and pre-runs, volumes, and book structures, as well as editorial and ad part-pages. To automatically check the color requirements, PlanPag interfaces to EAE's Print4 control console.

Berliner Verlag's Cicero ad system is integrated online via printnet's standard interface, adport. With AdDispo/WebDispo, operators may access a page dummy directly from within Cicero and reserve required ad space. Booked and reserved ads are automatically entered in printnet's database and available to AdMan. With AdPag, ad pages can be paginated automatically before the ads are produced, releasing the page-planning process and allowing early press configuration. ProPag then automatically assembles all produced ads, ad part-pages, and ad pages and forwards pages for imaging.

Ppi Media also announced that it and IBM offer a joint editorial workflow solution that combines IBM's NICA (Networked Interactive Content Access) media-asset management system with ppi's printnet production-management system and provides a "corporationwide" database for editorial and production workflows.

Integration of publishing systems is performed by a standard interface for a transparent exchange of all editorial information between ppi's PlanPag planning module and the publishing system, offering the opportunity for overlapping page planning for different newspaper and magazine issues. Pages and page elements are tagged with a unique identifier for automatic transfer to the publishing system. Users can load and locate objects in the asset-management system using NICA plug-ins. Ppi's ProPag page assembling system then will collect these elements and automatically compose to a whole page.