Contex

HD Ultra X is the fastest large format scanner series on the market. With a top speed of up to 17.8 ips, you can increase your workflow tempo significantly. You can also switch between three different speed levels directly on the scanner's intuitive operator panel.

Chantilly, VA — August 23, 2019 — Contex, the world leader in large format scanning,  announces the 15-year anniversary of Contex customer and reseller DataXport. Based in El Paso, DataXport is a state-certified Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) and a minority- and women-owned enterprise. The company opened in 2003 as a service bureau and began using Contex large format scanners the following year. Today, DataXport offers document imaging, electronic document management, business process outsourcing, and contact center operations. The company also resells Contex scanners and holds four cooperative contracts that streamline the buying process for public sector organizations throughout the U.S.

The cooperative contracts include the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR); Education Service Center Region 19, Allied States Cooperative (Region 19); The Interlocal Purchasing System (TIPS); and BuyBoard Purchasing Cooperative.

“When we started our business, we knew we wanted the best solutions. We wanted something reliable, that we trusted and could recommend to clients. Once we found the Contex scanners, we didn’t want to switch to any other,” comments Beatriz Fernandez, DataXport Business Development Director.

“DataXport provides a great service to their customers, and one of the ways they achieve this is with Contex’s high-quality scanning solutions,” comments Steve Blanken, General Manager, Contex Americas. “State agencies, universities, counties and cities, among others, benefit from DataXport’s expertise and their efficiencies, and we are happy to celebrate this notable milestone with them.”

DataXport provides scanning services to customers using two Contex HD Ultra wide format scanners. The services range from one-time backlog conversions to recurring scanning projects, averaging more than 100 million pages a year.

For more information, visit a www.contex.com or send email to salesamericas@contex.com.

About Contex
As the world’s leading developer and producer of large format imaging solutions, Contex leads the market with innovative technology and advanced scan and copy software applications. Sold worldwide in more than 100 countries, Contex solutions are recognized in a wide range of industries for reliability, value, high performance, and superb image quality. For more information, please visit www.contex.com.

2017’s Hurricane Harvey was one of the costliest tropical storms ever to hit the U.S. But the city of Houston is rebuilding, and like every city and small town across the U.S., the Houston Permitting Center plays an important role in building safety and infrastructure planning. With each new rebuild or remodel, city staff reviews the project drawings and maps — submitted by landowners, architects, engineers, and contractors — to ensure the projects meet the city’s building code regulations and infrastructure design requirements.

CHALLENGE

What makes the city of Houston different from most cities is its sheer size, scope, and diversity. Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States by population, the eighth largest in miles, and the most culturally rich with more than 140 spoken languages. The city’s Permitting Center was already one of the busiest in the nation. Now in disaster recovery, the city is processing building permits at rates never before imagined.

On average, the Permitting Center’s imaging team receives around 40-50 building construction projects per day and about 30 infrastructure projects per week, each of which can include anywhere from 2 to more than 1500 drawings and maps, depending on the size and scope of the build. Unlike the building projects, which are on paper, the infrastructure projects are on mylar.

SOLUTION

As the city of Houston rebuilds, homeowners and developers must get their plans approved before commencing any new project, large or small.

The city of Houston implemented a Contex IQ Quattro large-format scanner to scan maps and drawings up to 44” wide. Its speed, quality, and reliability enable the staffers to process the high volume of documents that come into the Center. Expedited projects are easily facilitated thanks to the IQ Quattro’s four-second scanning, and CIS technologies, which deliver high-quality results. The Nextimage scanning software also gives a boost to productivity by automatically removing shadows caused by creases and folds. If a document is old or faded, the Center staffers can easily manipulate settings as needed to further improve imaging results.

The Center processes mostly 24”×36” documents. Occasionally, staffers may receive documents that are 18”×24” or 36”×40”. These plans are easily accommodated, simply by changing the orientation of the documents.

RESULTS

Although the city of Houston accepts online plan submissions, most customers submit hard-copy plans to the Permitting Center. Two sets of plans are required for the review process. Once the plans are approved and stamped, one set is kept by the city to be archived and the other set is returned to the customer to be kept on the job site for inspections.

As the city of Houston rebuilds itself, the Contex scanner is a vital tool to speeding the recovery. The Contex IQ Quattro large-format scanner is an investment that the city of Houston can benefit from for years to come. From speed and reliability to image quality and performance, the IQ Quattro exceeds expectations.

Source: Contex

History Captured in High-Res Makes for Eye-Catching Displays

Chantilly, VA — July 23, 2019 — Contex, the world leader in large format scanning, today announces that the College Park Aviation Museum recently installed a Contex IQ FLEX flatbed scanner. The College Park Aviation Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, is a top aviation destination in the Washington, DC area. Located at the College Park Airport, the world’s oldest continually operating airport, the museum boasts a vast collection of local aviation history dating back to 1909, including over 10,000 documents, photographs, and other historical materials.

The museum staff acquired a Contex large format flatbed scanner to preserve that history and make its collection — especially fragile materials — easily available to visitors, researchers, and other interested parties. The assets are also used for museum displays and marketing materials.

“Our museum collection has a large number of photographs, maps, handbooks, and newspapers, among other items, some of which are not on display because they are too delicate. With the Contex scanner, we can digitally preserve these valuable pieces and make them available online for interested parties,” comments Laura Baker, Curator of Collections, College Park Aviation Museum.

“Many museums choose Contex scanners for the important function of preserving history,” comments Steve Blanken, General Manager, Contex Americas. “In addition to producing museum-grade images for preservation, the scanner is also one of the most efficient, even with the most delicate material.”

The Contex IQ FLEX is ideal for digitizing oversized and fragile originals, as well as scanning books, textiles, and artwork. The IQ FLEX also simplifies book scanning with the use of a wizard helper. Users can scan material up to double the size of the A2/C-size glass plate, including A1/D-size originals. With an optical resolution up to 1200 dpi, the flatbed scanner produces sharp images even at large sizes.

For more information, visit a www.contex.com or send email to salesamericas@contex.com.

About Contex
As the world’s leading developer and producer of large format imaging solutions, Contex leads the market with innovative technology and advanced scan and copy software applications. Sold worldwide in more than 90 countries, Contex solutions are recognized in a wide range of industries for reliability, value, high performance, and superb image quality. For more information, please visit www.contex.com.

Wide Format Scanning Whitepaper

Whether you are replacing a current wide format scanner or purchasing for the very first time, it’s important to consider the two basic technologies currently in use for wide format image capture and how these technologies fit into the workflow and business model of your scanning needs.

Wide format scanners today use either a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) or a Contact Image Sensor (CIS) to capture data. Information enters into the scanner through a lens system and a light source that is reflected from the document and captured by the photo sensors.

Overview of CIS Technology: CIS or (Contact Image Sensor) technology was originally developed for small format devices and has been in use for many years on fax machines, check readers and ATM card readers. The technology uses multiple CIS modules that contain lenses and lighting within each module. The modules are placed side by side just under the scanning glass. The self-contained modules typically use low power light emitting diodes (LED) of red green and blue to light up the document. The light is then reflected by the document and captured by a glass rod lens, directing the light towards the image sensors which capture the pixel.

Overview of CCD Technology: CCD or (Charged Coupled Device) technology, commonly referred to as camera technology, has been designed for all types of digital imaging including scanners, video cameras, security systems, as well as, equipment for industrial testing, monitoring and measurement. This technology has been in use for years. Most synonymous with high quality scanning, camera technology employs a linear array of CCD’s or cameras and a sophisticated lighting system to illuminate the image to be scanned. The more advanced systems utilize 4-channel RGB cameras- red, green, blue and panchromatic mono channels that deliver 48-bit color depth at 16 bits per channel.

Now that you have a basic idea of the technology, lets examine our top 5 reasons why we recommend camera over contact image sensor technology.

1) Image Quality and Flexibility: CCD scanning technology produces quality scans for virtually any type of document that will fit through a roll fed scanner. Whether your originals are hand drawn engineering drawings, B&W photos, or maps, CCD scanning technology will capture 16-bit grayscale (64,000 shades of grey) using a dedicated panchromatic monochrome channel for a much sharper clearer image. CIS scanners deliver only 8-bit grayscale (256 shades) and green capture only and have restrictions in some document classes like full bleed graphics and copying to 8 and 12 color printers. If you need to run
GIS maps, blueprints with stiff edges, newspaper, delicate documents or mylars a Contex CCD scanner is highly recommended over CIS technology.

2) Productivity: CCD scanners (Contex only) scan with originals face down. Some might argue that face up scanning allows for better quality control but assuming sheets only take 3 to 4 seconds to scan, quality control is better performed at the software level using Line of Sight Scanning techniques like the National /AZON Zero Turn system. CIS scanners and most non-Contex brand CCD scanners employ face up scanning which requires operators to “double handle” every document to keep them in their original order. Face
down scanning allows for true scan and drop capability which offers the most efficient way to handle documents. In addition to face down scanning, CCD scanning software, coupled with the latest developments in media sensing technology, reads the input media size much faster and more accurately, reducing post scan error correction.

File transfer is another serious productivity feature in Contex CCD scanners. The enhanced utilization of USB 3.0 for file transfer guarantees a much higher degree of productivity as operators will experience virtually zero wait time for file transfer between images. Side by side productivity tests generate a minimum of a 2 to 1 speed increase for
CCD vs. CIS scanning.

3) Color Fidelity when close isn’t good enough: Due to the inherent technical advantage of camera-based technology, the color gamut is much wider, color fidelity is greater and image noise is reduced. Since cameras capture up to 48-bit color, printing and copying to 8 or 12 color printers produces significantly better results than CIS. Color depth and the ability to recognize the nuances of gradients is superior on CCD scanners.

4) Thick Document and folded document Scanning: Scans of mounted originals up to .60” thickness can be done with CCD scanners but not with (most) CIS scanners. The reason is that the lighting system and focal point of the CIS technology does not lend itself well to raised or uneven surfaces. If your document archives consist of a good percentage of any of these two documents, go with CCD. In addition, if you are a print service provider
(PSP) and are at the will of your customer, go with CCD to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction and business retention.

5) Optical Calibration/Stitching: Contex CCD scanners come equipped with 4 to 7 Quad linear CCD’s. These CCD’s are each controlled by an adjustment motor that sets height and width and are accurate to 1/400th of an inch when stitching between cameras. CIS elements are fixed in place or in some cases have a single element across scan widths. Contex CCD scanners offer the only “self-correcting” optics available without a technician being required for adjustment or having an operator physically turning screws inside the scanner.

This factors in when using Closed Loop Calibration which performs the function of printing a wide color target to a customer’s scanner, then scanning that target with a CCD scanner to provide Nextimage Repro copy software with an accurate reading of how the printer is delivering defined colors in its output.

In summary, CIS scanners hold a significant market space and are very well suited to scanning CAD/GIS generated images as well as AEC markups and building plans, they are more portable and lightweight and generally less expensive than CCD based scanners. However, if your outputquality is of utmost importance, if you are a print service provider, if you have an archive full of varied originals, if you plan to scan color graphics, maps photos or thick originals a Contex CCD scanner is best suited to your needs.

Visit AZON.com for more information.