Has anyone recently upgrade from Brisque to Prinergy?

Was it a good transition? Did you realize a cost savings? Did you consider alternative competitive products? For an apples to apples comparisson of capabilities did your realize a cost savings in out of pocket costs (specifically maintenance)?

Why did you upgrade?

What additional capabilities did you add?

Hey Rugby, I've got some Brisque questions, I'm assuming that's what you are running.

Do you output from Brisque to the iGen (DocuSP)? If so, what format is the file, is it already RIP'd, or do you do a PS out?

We are getting our first press (a KBA 74 Karat) in two months and I'm trying to decide the best workflow solution between it and the iGen. The boss has some money to burn apparently, so I might try to suggest a Brisque/Director or Prinergy workflow for both machines.

Any input you have would be appreciated.

silversurfer,

First off, stay away from Brisque! Kodak either has or will be shortly announcing no more Brisque sales. Currently we do all of our offset work through the Brisque workflow; however, it definately leaves alot to be desired. It is still supported; however, updates are coming slower and slower. Compatibility issues exist with newer design capabilities of Indesign and Quark that require alot of file re-working.

Prinergy is possibly a good alternative; however, it does come at a hefty price tag. I will not support the investment in a workflow that does not provide functionality for both digital and offset. In both areas there will always be special exceptions; however, I believe the workflow should encompass 95% or more of your work.

I have worked with the Igen and other Xerox color devices with DocuSP and really like most of what DocuSP offers; currently the Igen we have has a Creo Spire which is also pretty good; however, for me it is like a mac vs. a pc. I need to get used to it.

Prinergy (Kodak) is doing a lot of talking about unified workflows and communication with all devices and MIS packages. They are talking the right talk, but we need to wait and see how they deliver.

Recently Xerox announced some DocuSP / Freeflow connectivity with Prinergy, but I haven't heard much more about that.

Yeah, I know Brisque's days are numbered.

It wasn't our idea to get a Brisque, it just comes with the 74 Karat. My boss did manage to get them to upgrade it to Brisque 5, so that's good.

My inclination is to recommend Prinergy Evo. It's a stripped down version of Prinergy with a smaller price tag. It will probably work fine for what we want to do, we don't really need much of the functionality. Apparently the registration on the Karat is so good you can run with no trapping at all

I've also heard that you can submit jobs to the DocuSP with Freeflow, we'll have to see. There's not a lot of information out there on this kinda thing. I found a guy on another forum that is outputting to the iGen from a Heidelberg Prinect workflow, but I think he's doing like a 'PS out' kinda thing. Simply being 'possible' isn't really going to be good enough, we are going to need this to be fast and efficent as well.

We also did not get a proofer for the press (they like to try and sell the Veris), so we will have to work out a way to output files for our inkjets, or proof on one of the Xerox machines.

Should be interesting at any rate. They are digging up the slab right now, it has to be repoured 9 inches thicker since this thing weighs 12 tonnes. Sweet...

For the low, low price of $20,000 US you can get the connectivity from Printergy to DocuSP via Freeflow. I saw the "integration" at Print '05 last year and it is a serious work in progress. It is basically a simple XML file import and export plus postcript file passthrough to the docusp. It just simply communicates with the Printergy server for status of the job after it leaves printergy.

For free, you could create a print path that outputs to PDF or PS and just drops it on an NFS mount and manually update counts. But if you want the automation, it comes with a price tag and the patience and trust that Xerox will work with Kodak to get it right...