Business - Applications

With over 35,000 visitors per day during Wimbledon, unmissable printed graphics were the latest wayfinding development to keep the fans and traffic safely on course at the event.

The unique Applied Media floor applied graphic system has been adopted as part of an experimental signage scheme designed to contribute towards continuous safety improvements. The scheme enhanced pedestrian, wheelchair and vehicle movements in and around the world famous venue in South West London.

The large format graphic panels were printed using an efficient digital flat-bed with flexible UV cure inks which proved ideal for the polymeric base media. The printed graphics were then protected with a propriety laminate and incorporated crystalline aggregate.

Championship manager Matt Crawcour said: “Providing the best possible visitor experience is hugely important to us. A big part of this is to provide information for everybody to move safely and efficiently with minimum queuing and delays.”

The answer at Wimbledon has been to utilise this innovative floor applied graphic system for their various temporary signage requirements. The system, which is more usually employed for high impact advertising campaigns, provided clearly visible route markings to help the large visitor numbers enjoy even more of the Championship experience.

The Applied Media full colour graphic system, which can be tessellated to any size, was not only instated within the Wimbledon campus but thanks to the product’s unique properties the London Borough of Merton also approved this system as temporary signage on the macadam footpaths around the perimeter of the complex. The signage safely guided the ‘Queue’ for tickets and the authority were impressed with results and performance and are assessing potential for future events in the borough.

Business development director for Applied Media, Larry Walsh said: “This is a great use of a home grown product and we are pleased to be involved in this prestigious British sporting event which is the oldest tennis tournament in the world.”

“This innovation has been specifically developed to facilitate branding, advertising and signing opportunities in new and sometimes difficult to access locations. Sports fans will be familiar with the Applied Media graphics which were also adopted to provide branding in the challenging tidal environment at this year’s BNY Mellon Boat Race in London. Last year our parent company also worked closely with Transport for London using similar technology to apply and remove 120 kilometres of temporary games lanes for the Olympic and Paralympics games.”

Ideally suited to sporting and events stadia the panels can be printed with any creative design, sign or message. They are designed for use in areas with heavy pedestrian activity and can be overrun with vehicular traffic. The panels are easily laid on any sound surface and then quickly lifted without damage to the substrate or leaving adhesive residue.

Early successes for the product came at the Sports Business and Marketing Conference and the North West Football Awards at Lancashire County Cricket Club in 2011. Both here and high profile branding for the Sports Merchandise and Marketing Exhibition at Wembley Stadium the power to revolutionise sports and events marketing was quickly recognised.

The highly durable, slip resistant graphic panels were also recently installed at London’s Oxford Circus tube station where they wowed commuters with a highly visual campaign for Warner Bros. Great Gatsby movie.

“Following the success of this year’s trials we may consider further opportunities to roll out Applied Media at Wimbledon next year,” added Matt Crawcour.

For more information, please visit www.appliedoutdoormedia.com

[Photo caption: Applied Media’s revolutionary graphics kept fans and traffic safely on course at Wimbledon.]

London's largest family restaurant, the Rainforest Cafe, has introduced a new level of interactivity to its immersive jungle experience with the introduction of two floor-based Living Displays, giving young guests a stunning opportunity to play with moving fish, leaves and frogs.

Described as 'a place for discovery', Rainforest Cafe offers an authentic tropical forest experience in the heart of London's Piccadilly Circus. With animatronic elephants, gorillas, snakes and jaguars, a thunderstorm every 29 minutes, Amazonian foliage, live fish and of course rainforest-themed food, General Manager Brendan Lucey says he was 'thrilled' to install the Living Floor systems offered by i-Sub Digital Solutions.

Using an infrared tracking system, a video projector and a graphics PC running bespoke software, the Living Floor enables children and adults alike to fully interact with digital images, to play games and change the display with their hands and feet.

Lucey chose two systems for Rainforest Cafe, one placed at the foot of the steps down into the restaurant area, giving diners a glimpse of the forest floor – complete with shimmering leaves and Rainforest Cafe's mascot, Cha! Cha! the red-eyed tree frog – as they arrive. On entering the projection area, the leaves blow around with the movement of feet, while frogs hop away. With guests surrounded by the flora, fauna and sounds of the rainforest, an authentic leafy floor completes the atmosphere.

A second Living Floor was fitted deeper into the 'forest' to create a ground-level fishpond. The digital fish, designed as replicas of the live fish in tanks around the restaurant, swim happily until the projection is walked over when they dash away.

The leaf floor and fish pool have been enormously popular with the thousands of guests hosted weekly by Rainforest Cafe since their installation ahead of the school holidays.

Simon Yandell, Sales and Marketing Manager of Rainforest Cafe London, comments: "People with young children have to tear them away from the Living Display to have dinner. It's such a mind-blowing experience for them."

"It's a perfect addition to the intention of Rainforest Cafe as a brand," Yandell adds. "We offer a unique experience, and the Living Displays meet our priority of providing interactive engagement and immersion."

The nature theme of the two Living Displays reflect Rainforest Cafe's charity partnerships, with tropical bird care organisation the Society for Conservation of Aviculture and the Aspinall Foundation, an elephant and gorilla conservation charity. Working with the World Land Trust, Rainforest Cafe has also protected 3.2million sqm of Ecuadorian rainforest so far since 2001.

Emma Plant, Director at i-Sub Digital Solutions, explains that her team worked closely with the Rainforest Cafe to ensure that the Living Floor systems would be complimentary to the experience already enjoyed by diners.

"High-end projectors and bespoke software applications were specified to meet the requirements at the Rainforest Cafe: a 3m ceiling height, fairly bright ambient light and a final image area of 4m x 3m dictated that a normal system would not suffice," states Plant. 

"In addition, the final Living Floor was shaped to emulate a typical rainforest pond and stream, to make the effect as realistic as possible and fit in with the whole theme of the restaurant's interior design and functionality. There was also a prerequisite to mould it around the permanent layout of tables and chairs in the restaurant area and the waterfall structure in the bar area."

"It was a challenging project that required plenty of planning and attention to detail but the final result is fantastic," she concludes.

Living Display can turn floors, walls, ceilings or tables into interactive touch surfaces responding to the movements of all participants. For further information on purchasing or renting the Living Display systems, please visit www.livingdisplay.com.

Allen Signs has been appointed by SimSpot to help brand its new Nottingham-based flight simulation business. Based on the top floor of The Cornerhouse in the city centre, SimSpot offers flying experiences and pilot training in a state-of-the-art Boeing 737 Next Generation simulator.

The company employed Allen Signs to design and manufacture the exterior signage, window graphics and wallpaper.

Commenting on the project, SimSpot’s Managing Director Mark Wright said: “Allen signs went beyond our expectations in terms of the service they provided and the quality of their work... We greatly appreciated their creative input and their help in turning our ideas into something practical.”

Allen Signs Managing Director David Allen adds, “This is the only next-generation flight simulator in the East Midlands and only the second one of its kind in the country, so we were really pleased to be involved in this exciting new business from the early stages.

“For maximum impact we manufactured the exterior signage out of built up aluminium letters with LED halo illumination. The wallpaper, which was designed to look like the sky, was printed on latex, which is non-toxic and doesn’t give off any fumes and is ideal for inside spaces which don’t have much ventilation.

“We wish SimSpot every success with their new venture and look forward to watching the business take flight!”

Aura Graphics of Lowestoft, Suffolk, has used its HP Scitex TJ8350 Industrial Press to print graphics displayed on two First Great Western power cars running daily on some of the country’s most popular business routes, as part of a major experiential campaign for the new HP ElitePad 900.

The two train wraps were printed and installed in just three days and formed the centrepiece of the HP ElitePad 900 campaign targeting business travellers. The vibrant graphics will be displayed for the entire six-month campaign and be seen by passengers and bystanders as the branded train cars travel over First Great Western’s rail network from Paddington to South Wales, the West Country, and large parts of southern England.

The HP ElitePad 900 campaign is aimed predominantly at business travellers, which account for the majority of First Great Western’s customer base. In addition to the train graphics, it also incorporated social media activity and direct customer engagement with live demonstrations of the new HP ElitePad on board the wrapped trains.

“The campaign has many different elements but the train wraps create the first, big impression on the target audience so, although it required a quick turnaround, the print quality couldn’t be compromised,” said Mark Rowland, regional business manager Greater Western Europe & UK&I, HP Scitex. “With the two wrapped trains operating an average of three routes a day, that’s 12,000 people per day who will have the opportunity to see the train graphics. This initial impact is key to creating an immediate buzz around the new product, helping the HP ElitePad teams to then start direct communications with passengers during the journey. This campaign perfectly demonstrates how high-quality print can play a crucial role in the success of an integrated campaign.”

Aura Graphics is a European leader in delivering graphics, signage, paint and refurbishment services for transportation, retail, promotional, architectural, events and petroleum markets. The company’s core business is to provide large, high-visibility graphics such as public transport vehicle wraps, fleet graphics, and large scale displays at major public venues including airports and railway stations.

“There are often many challenges when producing graphics for high-profile, blue-chip brands and turnaround times and print quality are always among them,” said Andrew Pritchett, key accounts manager, Aura Graphics. “We have two HP Scitex TJ8350 Industrial Presses. We’ve had the first one for eight years, and the second was installed in 2012. The speed, print quality and reliability of these printers make them ideal to meet these challenges and deliver high-impact graphics within a short deadline. This particular project was printed in just one hour and installed on the trains over three days.”

The graphics are printed on an opaque white self-adhesive vinyl film and laminated with a clear film. For jobs like this, Aura Graphics carefully measures the train units, digitising them and creates templates for the graphics in this case, specific to First Great Western’s Class 43 HST power cars.

“With First Great Western’s distinctive rich blue livery, it was essential that the wrap was completely opaque as the graphics’ design was predominantly white,” explained Pritchett. “The TJ8350 prints from roll-to-sheet, and the wrap was assembled from panels with a total area of about 75m2 for each set. The excellent coverage and colour reproduction achieved with the HP printer, plus the combination of substrates used, ensured that the white background was sufficiently dense and the end result met the expectations of First Great Western and the HP ElitePad team.”

In addition to the requirement for opacity, the ink and media must be able to withstand wind, rain and sunlight as well as adhere to the train at high speeds for the duration of the campaign. Print quality was also of prime consideration as text and images will be viewed from station platforms to distant horizons.

The versatile HP Scitex TJ8350 Industrial Press uses a rotating drum to print at speeds up to 480m2/hr (5166ft2/hr), or 80 165 x370cm (65 x 145in) sheets per hour, making it capable of 24,000m2/month (260,000ft2/month) production. This unique drum technology also applies up to six colours simultaneously, delivering high output quality without compromising speed.

“Over the years, the TJ8350 has proved itself a reliable workhorse, suitable for a large percentage of the jobs we do,” concluded Pritchett. “The HP ElitePad campaign is just the latest of the colourful and eye-catching initiatives we create with this powerful press.”

More information is available at www.youtube.com/hpgraphicarts

PxartPrinting has ordered three new HP Latex 300 printers off-stand on the first day of FESPA 2013.

On the triple puchase,PixartPrinting's Alessandro Tenderini says, “One of the true innovations of the London exhibition, the world premiered HP Latex 3000 is the solution that we have been searching for a long time.”

PixartPrinting was particularly impressed with new stabilised inks which provide a constant image quality at high speed, the wide versatility of printable media – even heat sensitive media - and the industrial productivity that the solution offers.

Strong partnerships with technology producers are an asset in the Italian web-to-print strategy.  Tendorini explains, “HP has been our partner for a long time. The Indigo department is the digital core of our small format supply. Latex technology is an ally for vinyl and wide format paper. But our productivity needs require industrial systems, and a while ago we started a constructive cooperation with HP R&D department to express these needs and give our contribution for the finalisation of better performing solutions.”

[photo shows PixartPrinting's Alessandro Tenderini alongside HP's Latex team]

Mimaki has announced it is sponsoring two important activities taking place at FESPA 2013 - the Wrap Cup Masters Series London event and the Promotional Product Business Academy (PPBA).

Mimaki is a Premium / Platinum sponsor of the Wrap Cup Masters Series London event – one of FESPA’s most animated and exciting features – which again takes place during the show, featuring a host of vehicle wrapping superstars. Numerous contestants will battle it out through several rounds across three days, to be crowned the FESPA Wrap Cup Masters Champion. All wraps will be printed on a Mimaki JV400LX printer.

In addition, Mimaki is a partner and co-organiser of Promotional Product Business Academy (PPBA), designed to showcase the range of garments and promotional products available to printers who are looking for additional revenue streams and to expand their businesses. Printers will learn how easy it is to print and/or personalise garments and promotional products for a value-added customer experience through case studies of successful practitioners. In addition, visitors will also be able to collect a complimentary one-month subscription to europeansourcing.com, an online hub for traders in the promotional product arena. The Mimaki UJF-3042HG is amongst one of the printers chosen for the production of these promotional products.

Mike Horsten, general manager, marketing, at Mimaki EMEA, explains, "Mimaki is selective about its sponsorships and these two important activities were deemed to be an excellent use of our sponsorship funds. Both will not only be fun and educational, but will also demonstrate the versatility of Mimaki printers in creating a wide range of innovative and unusual applications. We are also proud of the fact that FESPA has selected Mimaki printers to produce media for use in the Wrap Cup Masters Series competition and the PPBA.”

As exclusive distributors for Mimaki in the UK & Ireland, members of Hybrid Services Ltd’s team will be present at both events, alongside representatives of its specialist resellers to offer advice and information to visitors.

“Being able to see these Mimaki printers producing relevant output at these exciting events within FESPA will be of real value to companies seeking to appreciate how they can assist their business,” says John de la Roche, Hybrid’s national sales manager.

Both activities are key FESPA features that are expected to draw large audiences. For more information about the Wrap Cup Masters Series, please visit http://www.fespa.com/wrapcup/london/sponsors/. To learn more about the Promotional Products Business Academy, please visit http://www.fespa.com/london/en/features/promotional-product-business-academy

Mimaki will be on stand J5S at the show.  More details about Mimaki products including its full range of printers and cutting plotters can be found at www.hybridservices.co.uk.