Violet FasTRAK installation in Ireland at Connacht Tribune

Rolling Meadows, IL June 9, 2005 — The Connacht Tribune Group, based in Galway since 1909, publishers of the Connacht Tribune, City Tribune and The Connacht Sentinel, have placed orders for a full end-to-end system from IPA Systems Ltd.
The front-end order comprised of an 11-seat Sales.WORKS_Lite system for advert order entry. Sales.WORKS_Lite has evolved from the highly successful Sales.WORKS advertising booking system and after stringent investigation proved to provide all the requirements of the Connacht Tribune Group at a highly competitive cost. A bi-directional interface to the Input accounts system will also be provided in a joint project with Trojan Ltd of Boyle, Co. Roscommon.
MEIs AdForce and PageDirector CLS, supplied and installed by IPA will be used for RoP and Classified pagination. Using the IPA QuarkXtension FlowWORKS, plans created in AdForce will be automatically separated into individual Quark pages to be worked on by the production and editorial departments. As booked RoP advertising is completed it will automatically be tracked into the planned position. View.WORKS will be used by production and editorial management to monitor the progress of page production.
The 30-seat Edit.WORKS system will provide the workflow for Production staff, Editors, Sub-Editors and Reporters. Edit.WORKS provides the ideal solution for the automation of the collaborative work-group operation that already exists between the departments, and will streamline the current operation.
IPA's PrintExpress production workflow system is being installed in the pre-press area to handle the RIPping, pairing and output of pages.
To conclude the production cycle Connacht are installing a Panther FasTRAK with Autoloader, it will be the first installation of the 65mw Violet Diode machine and will be imaging Fuji Brilla Violet LP-NV polymer plates.
Operations Manager for the Tribune Group, Mr Declan McGuire said "the main objective of the IPA installation was to provide software solutions to reduce duplication of tasks, automate and streamline workflow to increase accuracy and create extra time to devote to creative and innovative newspaper design. IPA afforded us the opportunity to install a one-stop shop, end-to-end system, which will coincide with the installation of our new colour printing unit which gives us an extra 24 pages of colour per week."
IPA are delighted to be able to supply systems to the Connacht Tribune Group to add to the ever growing list of satisfied customers in Ireland, including the Sunday Tribune, Wexford People Group, The Clare Champion, The Irish Independent, Sunday World, The Kerryman, Irish Examiner and The Andersontown News.

alfaQuest Technologies, Inc., a member of the IPA Group of companies, designs, integrates, and supports powerful cost-efficient, newspaper workflow page processing and imaging systems for the publishing industry. The number of worldwide installations now exceeds 10,000.

ENDS

For more information contact: John Lally, Senior Vice President, Group Sales
at 847-427-8800 ext. 102. or jlally@alfaQuest.com