From: Jim Stocker (Original Message) Sent: 5/7/2002 8:08 AM
I recently sent this e-mail to Ray Bauer, thought I'd post it for you to look at, for what it's worth:
4/19/02
Thanks again for allowing me to field test the above controller. As discussed the unit is out for shipment back to you by UPS RED, today. You should receive it Monday morning. The tracking # is 1Z388580014589749, if you need it. The short analysis is that it's fantastic! Finally, after nine years in this business, suffering through the Elesys Dynasty fiasco and the SMA Interim UC6, we have, in my opinion an edge over any competition in the controller arena. I max'd out the memory (total - 160Mb) for my demonstration, but when we got back to the office, I removed it and didn't notice any drop in performance. It's the quickest RIP that I've ever seen. I tested the unit out of PageMaker 6.5, Acrobat Reader 4.0 & Microsoft Word 2K - all on Windows 98 workstations. I utilized parallel and cross over connection (using NetBEUI) with my P2 laptop. I also installed on my NT4.0 server as an LPR port, using a static IP address allocation, rather than DHCP. The network install went flawlessly, taking at most 10 minutes to configure IP address and set-up through the Sapphire op panel to installing shared drivers on the server, pulling them down to the workstation.I was totally blown away with my first test. Just the Realty flyer out of PageMaker, but when I hit print on my work station and started counting, the Sapphire was already cutting the master when I got next door in our demo room. Must've taken all of 3-4 seconds to RIP. I was so excited, I went to the other extreme and downloaded a huge full color 11x17 file (approx 30Mb PostScript print file). It took it just over 75 seconds. That's about ½ Mb / second processing speed. However, a 6Mb PS print file out of Reader took just 6 seconds to RIP. 1Mb/sec. Awesome to behold. The MS Word docs came down in a flash, as well.
My demonstration was such a success, that it took just one download and explanation of the Sapphire and Earl Grey technology, that the prospect wants to sign as soon as we can buy him out of his current Sharp 3062 and VT6000 lease. He did, however, want to see some photos of people to show his administrators to photo quality. All I had was the Publishing House .pdf file from the Ricoh Vertical Market Solutions CD, that I picked up last week in West Caldwell. The quality was great, the prospect happy and excited and I was grinning from ear to ear.
The only problem that I found with the driver, was the inability to control features (speed, skip, etc.) when printing from PageMaker 6.5. The feature control worked fine from Reader and Word. Printing from PageMaker has a definite advantage due to the ability to customize the line frequency of the screen, for photos. It would be nice to include this ability in the windows set-up of the driver (Graphics tab), just like the Pearl PS3 driver for the CPIF-26.
The ability to interface with the Smart Net Monitor really rounds out the solutions approach that we have developed. as discussed, Recovery Printing is a great idea in multiple unit installations. I didn't have a chance to see if we have the Locked Print feature, which I personally feel is tremendously important in any Network printing environment. It doesn't show up in the driver, so I'm a little worried that it wasn't included.
Given more time, I would have liked to test under the following conditions:
Windows XP Pro, PageMaker 7.0, MS Publisher 2K & 2002, Mac OS 10 and Quark Xpress.
I'm really looking forward to the imminent release.I hope that information on compatibility will be addressed immediately, including the process of exchanging main boards on the Sapphire. I will be forwarding the serial #'s of the ones I have in stock, to Mark Ricci and Gene Dudek for advisement.
Lastly here are some ideas and other issues:
1. The need for an affordable network solution on the SilverB and Pink Gold models.
2. Riso still seems to hold an edge over us with their: touch screen display, ability to monitor jobs in the print queue from the op panel, embedded network GDI controllers, Supply Status Detection from op panel and workstation, front loading cassettes on the RP3790, 18 standard colors for RP3790 and 70 standard colors for RN2530 and RP3100 (at least).
3. I will forward onto you by separate e-mail, the information that I have managed to gather on the new Riso RP line and the new RN2530, including pricing sheets and key specs.
4. My idea for monitoring consumable supplies on our product would be to code into the unit the # of masters on a roll for that model (quite easy) and to take our Excel spreadsheet formula on ink yield and code that in there as well, so as it prints and monitors run length, it would calculate how much ink should be left in the cartridge, without the need for a smart chip to be embedded in each cartridge or installing extra hardware in the ink units.
5. I have a concern on the subject of ink units. Are you aware that the JP80L units are being shipped as A3, not DLT? This gives an overall drop in available image length (based on equal margins on lead and trail edge) of up to ½". TSC's fix is to replace the A3 screen with a DLT one. Trouble is, who's going to foot the bill for the labor and parts? After all, we don't use metric sized paper here, so why should we be forced to use metric sized color units?
6. We also need to revamp branded electronic originals designed specifically for duplicator product. A CD might include the great samples that John's been having sent to us, but also to include more photos of people (groups, head shots, award ceremonies, wide umbrella of ethnicity, etc.) I think that the files should be both .pdf (for ease of printing) and .pm6/.doc, etc. (for ease of customization and dealer/branding unique).
7. I have a concern on the availability of the full color offering for the Pink Gold. As far as I'm aware, it uses the same color inks as Silver & SilverB, which is only 10 colors (inc. disgusting Purple). Burgundy, Hunter Green & Reflex Blue are so popular in the Pearl and Sapphire offering, that this should be a consideration.
8. The Pink Gold marketing material is a step above anything offered before, can we issue updates to existing products based on competitive offerings and comparisons. This is critical information for us to use in the field, to limit being out maneuvered by the competition. Give us the edge, not them.
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So, all I got back was an "attaboy" and that it would be shared around RFG dup mktg. No follow-ups yet. Your comments are invited.
Jim.
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