It was the 26th edition of the exhibition which brought brands of signage and POP, outdoor advertising, retail and shop display and advertising essentials on a common platform.

There were 132 exhibitors at the exhibition. Companies that displayed equipment at the event included UV flatbed and digital textile printers, wall papers, self-adhesive vinyl, laser engravers, inks and etching machines among others.

There were four theme pavilions, each dedicated to four major areas relevant to the signage industry –the green zone, textile arena, UV studio and vinyl wrap.

Many environment-friendly applications were showcased in the green zone by HP, Yupo and Gita & Co. The UV kid’s room, the UV living room as well as the UV live studio showcased applications for UV printing. Apsom Technologies took over the textile arena and exhibited varied products such as saris, scarves and umbrellas rolled out by their textile machine.

More than 30,800 visitors came through the three-day exhibition and visitors included advertising professionals, architects, brand managers, designers, and sign makers, marketing professionals, corporate, FMGC companies, government planning authorities and others.

The Sign Summit covered presentations by companies such as Mimaki Kanphor, Apsom Technologies, Roland DG, HP, UV Printers, Ess Dee Nutek and Mehta Cad Cam, with interesting follow-up Q&A rounds.

An interesting presentation was also made by Ralph Wordon, technical services manager, Avery Dennison on Vinyl wrapping and installation. The workshop on 3D lenticular printing for graphics arts industry was successfully conducted by Ben Denon of HumanEyes, Israel.

MEX Sign awards took place on the second day of the exhibition.

Agfa Graphics
Agfa displayed Anapurna M 2050, a high-end wide-format inkjet printer for indoor and outdoor applications with white ink printing facility at the show.

Lucknow-based MJ Advertiser has picked up the M2050 at the show while Agfa confirmed that around six more leads are in the pipeline for this "top of the line product in the Annapurna range," said Manesh Shetty, manager, marketing and sales. That said the company is also pushing its entry level machines. "We are also focusing on pushing the entry level printers in the metros as well as smaller cities," said Shetty.

Apsom Technologies
Apsom Technologies had on display Mimaki’s range of wide-format printers like CJV30-160, UJF 3042, UJV 160, JV33-160A, JV33-160BS, JFX Plus, Flora LJ320P and KSI heat transfer machine at MediaExpo 2011. Some of these machines are capable of printing metallic silver ink.

The show was very encouraging for Apsom Technologies with the company reporting visitor footfall and enquiries from far off places like Siliguri, Himachal and from printers in South India. "We did struck couple of deals in terms of machine sales for Mimaki and Flora," said Sunil Purohit of Apsom Technologies. He added: "The dye-sublimation printer and heat transfer machines were the new products showcased at the event and they generated huge interest from visitors."

Apsom’s principles, Mimaki Kanphor India were also present at another stand displaying Mimika’s other range of UV printers.

"Our printers are price tagged from Rs 14 lakhs to Rs 75-lakh, depending upon the applications it can execute. The demand for UV is definitely on the rise," said Sanyam Kalia of Mimaki.

Caldron Graphics
Caldron Graphics displayed HP Latex and UV printers, Seiko printerhead 510 35pl, flat bed printer, laser, router, inkjet printer, laminating machine and consumables.

Rajat Mitra, director at Caldron, said: "We received good response from the MediaExpo. Some of our deals are in the pipeline and we would not like to disclose our deals." He was in circumspect in his opinion on the number of exhibition being held, saying, they are good if you are getting business out of it.

Epson India
Epson India displayed large-format plotters from its array of wide-format offerings.

Gopal Krishnan of Basis Systems, an Epson representative in India, said: "There were around 37 queries during the show, and we hope to convert a large number of them in the next three to four months. We are certainly excited at the number of queries received from visitors in the north and west part of India."

Ess Dee Nutek Infinities
Ess Dee Nutek Infinities displayed Microjet 3208, Innovajet 3208, Fortunejet 2512-4, Multijet E IV3208/3212, Multijet V 3204/3208, Prime, Ecojet, banner printing and punching machine. The company’s stand, according to Rajni Kanth, RSE for north, was one of the heavily populated, on all the three days. "The response was overwhelming for all our products," he said.

HP
HP displayed L25500, the entry level wide-format printer and Z6200, the heavy duty photo printer at the MediaExpo.  The company’s representative in north, Insight Print Communications, however, reported the show as disappointing.

"We are passing through tough times. The exhibition was below average for us and we got around five inquires only," said Sanjay Bora, business development manager at Insight Print Communications.

Macart Equipment
Pune-based Macart displayed wide-format digital printer, cutting plotters, special purpose digital printing machines.

Atul Gandhi, managing director, Macart Equipment, said: "MediaExpo 2011 was the best of all the shows in the country. Approximately 400 visitors visited our stall and we booked 11 orders in the show and 35 are in process of finalising."

Macart is one of Xaar’s partners in India and instrumental in Xaar reaching the 21-million printhead delivery mark. Gandhi said: "Wide format printers are getting faster and can produce very high image quality even at high speed. Inkjet will remain the most popular technology for wide format printers as print heads are getting faster as they can easily fire drops at 10 KHz to 20 KHz and now have more nozzles in the range of 512 to 1024. Inks manufacturers are also now manufacturing various types of inks for these heads which can be used on various substrates."

Monotech Systems
Monotech Systems displayed Pixeljet Xaar Proton, Pixeljet Spectra Polaris, GCC UV Flatbed and Konica Minolta digital printing press. The company was able to sell three Konica Minolta C6000 digital colour production printers and three Pixeljet Xaar Proton machines at the show.

"A was a sold out show," said Utpal Raina, national product manager at Monotech Systems, adding "we still have around 30 inquires to follow up."

RSG Solutions
RSG Solutions displayed wide format printer from Epson, lamination machine, creaser/perforator, four in one punching machine, electrical punching machine and digital gilding machine.

According to SS Saine, vice president for digital and post-press at RSG, was happy with the show and the response it received. "Wide-format printers from Epson; laminate and punching machines from China-based Supa; and gold foiling printing machine from China-based Adulay were bit hits," he said.

Strategic Printing Solution
Strategic Printing Solution displayed solvent and eco based wide format printers and lamination machines from Kala, France based manufacturer.
 
Namrata Vimal Kumar, business head, said: "We have sold wide format printer Shark I to Ludhiana based Omways and a laminator 1650 to a Sri Lanka-based customer."
 
The firm, which will be present at the Ipex South Asia show in Mumbai, will be launching a printer for the textile printing, said Kumar.