HP rocks MTV Asia awards

» I want my MTV book
» Star quality printing production
» Cutting edge products that deliver on printing debut
» Star mementos for fans
» Unlike any other
» Related links

HP printing technology was put under the spotlight recently, when the company achieved a printing first by producing a full-colour commemorative book for the MTV Asia Awards — within 12 hours of the ceremony.

It's a Saturday evening outside the Singapore Indoor Stadium and thousands of screaming fans have gathered beside the red carpet to cheer the biggest stars of Asia's popular music scene. They're here for the 2004 MTV Asia Awards, the premier music event in Asia. Several hours and 20 awards later, a performer takes to the stage for the evening's grand finale. It's 10.00pm and around 7,000 fans and over 150 million viewers throughout Asia have shared in the excitement and theatre of a production that was quintessentially MTV.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, an HP-led design team works at fever pitch on an offset quality, full-colour, 36-page commemorative book for journalists, which, for the very first time in Asia, will be designed and printed within 12 hours. That's 300 copies, each personalised for delivery to every journalist attending the Awards ceremony.

A sponsor of the Awards, HP delivered and with a level of quality never before achieved in such a short timeframe — especially as the printing process usually takes around two weeks.

According to Major Wong Wing Kwong, President, Institute of Printing (Singapore), this is the first time that such a feat has been accomplished by anyone in the Singapore printing industry.

'It is an excellent feat that is well accomplished and certainly sets a remarkable printing standard within the printing industry in Singapore and Asia. It hits timeliness to market and communicates instantly to the masses,' he said.

According to Michael Hoffmann, Senior Vice President, Imaging and Printing Group, HP Asia-Pacific and Japan, the MTV Asia Awards gave HP the opportunity to really showcase what their digital publishing solutions could do.

'In a first time collaboration with MTV Asia, we were able to provide a unique value proposition — to create a book within 12 hours which was highly personalised for the 300 attending journalists. And that has never been done before,' said Hoffmann.

In such a high pressure environment and faced with such a short turnaround time and the need to personalise each copy, success relied on the power of the HP Indigo Digital Press 3000, the only complete digital offset printing quality solution available on the market.

Designed for high-productivity commercial and publishing applications, the six-colour HP Indigo Digital Press 3000 was used to print the pages of the book at 812 x 2400 dpi resolution and at speeds of up to 4,000 A4 full-colour images per hour. The HP Indigo Digital Press 3000 combines the robust performance and print quality of offset press architecture with the speed, management and instant drying capabilities of digital printing, setting the standard for high quality, high-productivity digital printing.

The HP Indigo Digital Press 3000 utilises HP ElectroInk, a unique liquid ink that combines the advantages of electronic printing with the qualities of liquid ink. HP ElectroInk contains charged pigmented particles in a liquid carrier, and enables digital printing by electrically controlling the location of these particles. It is this unique ink formulation that allows for full colour ink printing at tremendous speeds and offset press quality prints.

The final layout of the book began immediately after the Awards ceremony was over. Digital shots of Asian music's 'beautiful people' on the red carpet and on stage were captured by MTV and HP photographers and progressively downloaded to the design centre located within the Stadium. Designers then selected and stripped in the photographs according to each page layout ready for proofing. Pages were colour proofed with the HP Color LaserJet 9500 and finally printed on the HP Indigo Digital Press 3000.

Print production began around 2.00am. Unlike traditional offset printing that prints in page-by-page batches, the HP Indigo Digital Press 3000 prints one whole book at a time, seamlessly handling the electronic collation and personalisation of every book. The pages were wire-bound and packed into specially designed PVC boxes ready for exclusive distribution to the journalists, MTV Asia celebrities and other VIPs.

But it wasn't just the journalists or the artists who were winners. Recognising that not all fans would have the chance to get up close and personal with their music heroes on the night, HP also gave away 2,000 free A2-sized posters printed on the HP Designjet 5500, a high-end 60-inch commercial printer. Using an intuitive kiosk system linked to the HP Designjet 5500, fans, via a touch-screen and web-based interface, could choose a photo of their favourite star — including Michelle Branch, Vanness Wu, Stacie Orrico, Blue and more — and less than five minutes later, the selected poster would be printed in vivid photo-quality. Needless to say, the posters were a huge hit.

So while the paparazzi may have captured all the glamour and excitement of the awards, and some of Asia's best pop and rock artists walked away with the MTV 'cupids', the unanimous vote for 'best performance of the night' went to HP and their extraordinary printing technology.