Washington Post Co. unit Post-Newsweek Media Inc. said it would roll out production system management software from PrimaSolve Systems Ltd. in conjunction with its new Mitsubishi Heavy Industries DiamondStar press.

The 4-by-2 press, to be used by Post-Newsweek’s ComPrint Printing commercial web division, is slated to be in production in 2007 (see Newspapers & Technology, April 2005).

PrimaSolve, a unit of Harland Simon, will engineer its Prima app to mesh with the DiamondStar’s CCS control software as well as with workflow, page layout and roll-handling software from ProImage, Mactive Inc. and FMC Technologies Inc., respectively.

“The new systems will allow the sending of data directly from Prima and the capture of events like speed, copy counts and status signals from the Mitsubishi presses, all to be reported via Prima’s reporting tools,” said Shane Butcher, director of IT for Post-Newsweek.  

Meshing the disparate press and press systems together was key, said Frank Abbott, Post-Newsweek’s group president

Smooth transition

“We do a lot of work; we produce 55 (newspaper) editions and have lots of commercial customers,” he said. “What we needed is something that would offer us a smooth transition (from prepress) to the MHI system; Prima will let (the press) communicate data directly to our production systems” and allow ComPrint to manage from a single console its pagination, imposition and roll-handling operations.

“We really want to streamline the process.”

Prima’s Web-based reporting capabilities, meantime, will allow Abbott to monitor production, either on-site or remotely.

The ComPrint order follows the implementation of Prima software in October by The Register-Guard in Eugene, Ore., which is using the app to extend digital preset control from its new computer-to-plate systems to its 15-year-old Mitsubishi press.

“We had an older CCS system and now are able to bring it up to date” with Prima, said Jerry LaCamp, production director.

The software sends preset information from The Register-Guard’s two Agfa Advantage computer-to-plate systems to the press. “We had to have a digital workflow all the way through” with the advent of CTP, LaCamp said.

John Staiano, PrimaSolve’s vice president of sales, said the company has been able to increase its U.S. customer base by more than 20 percent in the past 12 months. “Being able to integrate into third-party systems is the key,” he said. “We have to be flexible enough to allow the customer to use what he considers to be best-of-breed and link those systems together.”