After a virtual event in 2021, Connect has returned to its traditional Las Vegas location this year.
At Connect’s opening keynote Jacobson, who is poised to celebrate 35 years in the printing industry in April, said: “We’re blessed to be back here again and I couldn’t be more thrilled.”
Rather than make a traditional style solo keynote speech he brought a fun tone to proceedings by hosting a number of guests in the style of an American chatshow.
“A lot has happened in the last two years and a lot of things have changed in our industry and the way we operate,” he said.
“If you look at the pandemic, you look at inflation, you look at employment issues, you look at supply chain issues. They’ve all impacted what we’re trying to do in print and the analogue to digital conversion that certainly EFI is focused on.”
He also said he was pleased that the event had attracted some 600 delegates despite the ongoing pandemic-related travel issues, compared with 800 pre-pandemic.
Jacobson addressed the “elephant in the room” - the recent sale of EFI’s Productivity Software division – with the aid of a printed elephant graphic, and invited Gaby Matsliach the new CEO of eProductivity Software to join him on stage.
Marco Boer, vice president of consultancy IT Strategies, also joined him to talk about the opportunities in print applications such as décor, textiles and ecommerce packaging.
Jacobson said that EFI’s display graphics business was “doing very well”, while building products had rebounded quickly after the initial pandemic impact.
EFI CTO Doug Edwards and vice president of worldwide marketing Ken Hanulec took to the stage to talk about how EFI was leveraging its inkjet know-how.
Edwards said: “We brought out nine new printers last year and we will continue to leverage our technology, not just at the printer level, it’s at the sub-system level – electronics, transport systems, ink delivery systems – we leverage those across the entire platform.”
Edwards also highlighted the potential for water-based inkjet.
He said it was going to be “a big year” for new products with the next generation Nozomi in the works. It will need 50% fewer parts and have a smaller footprint “about ten feet shorter”, and will be able to run faster “from 75 up to 100 metres per minute and maybe even faster than that”.
“The next generation will spur not just packaging but probably five or six new printers from that existing platform,” Edwards added.
A new 3m-wide hybrid LED printer, the EFI Pro 30h, is being demonstrated on the show floor. It prints at up to 1,200dpi in CMYK with two white channels as standard.
Jacobson concluded the session by stating: “In my 35 years I have never seen an opportunity like I see [now]. And when I think about the four segments we have: display graphics, building materials, textile and packaging – I couldn’t be more excited.”
More information on the latest product news will be released later today (19 January).
