AlfaQuest Technologies Inc. sold FasTrak and NewsXpress violet computer-to-plate systems to a number of newspapers, including the Tribune-Review in suburban Pittsburgh and the Daily Camera in Boulder, Colo.

The Daily Camera will use a NewsXpress V-100 with a TrakMate autoloader to produce commercial work and inserts at its plant in downtown Boulder. The daily itself is produced at the Denver Newspaper Agency’s production facility in north Denver.

 

The Tribune-Review, meantime, installed three FasTrak 150s at its NewsWorks facility in Cranberry, Pa., followed by two units at its Greensburg, Pa., facility. The publisher (Monday-Friday, 150,911; Saturday, 159,613; Sunday, 192,423) will install two separate PrintExpress servers to manage workflow and provide Web-based soft proofing, page pairing and disaster recovery.

Photos: alfaQuest
The prepress area at the Tribune-Review’s suburban NewsWorks facility was the first of the publisher’s two sites to go into live production with its FastTrak 150 machines.

 

“We will share information back and forth,” said Dick Webb, assistant director of operations. “We have it narrowed down that the servers can output to any of the CTP devices at either location.”

The Tribune-Review also installed TrakMate II autoloaders at each site.

Webb said the publisher was able to generate a live product on the second day of installation at the NewsWorks facility.

“It looks great — so far, so good,” he said.
 

2 in Ill.

Other papers purchasing alfaQuest CTP equipment were the Daily Chronicle in De Kalb, Ill., which just completed installation of two NewsXpress units and one NewsMate autoloader and alfa CTP software to manage workflow, soft proofing and page pairing; Casa Grande (Ariz.) Valley Newspapers, which last month installed a NewsXpress V 100, one NewsMate autoloader and alfa CTP software; the Cadillac (Mich.) News, Newspan Media Corp. in Houston and the Daily Journal in International Falls, Minn. The Daily Journal purchased one NewsXpress V 100 with a NewsMate autoloader and alfa CTP software.

Left to right, the Tribune-Review’s John Hemminger, Bill Lieb and Justin Knavel work with Garry Forman of alfaQuest on placement of 4-up tabs for the daily.
 

Meantime, alfaQuest said its FasTrak and NewsXpress product line has been converted from 65-milliwatt violet lasers to 120-milliwatt devices in an effort to allow customers to more easily transition to chemistry-free and process-free plates.

All currently installed alfaQuest CTP units will be field-upgradeable to the new laser, if necessary, for future plate processing capability, alfaQuest said.