Once again, the Media Expo in its 38th edition has proved itself a well-arranged networking platform for professionals coming for indoor and outdoor advertising solutions and signage applications. Organised by Messe Frankfurt, the expo concluded recently in Mumbai had set a new record of visitor traffic as business professionals increasingly rambled on the exhibition floor. It pulled 10,091 business visitors from across the western coast of India—increased from 9,490 recorded in the 2014 Mumbai edition—representing a host of decision makers and buyers from ad agencies, media planners, art directors, event managers, brand managers and business houses.

New arrivals

Participation of 104 exhibiting brands made the expo a perfect confluence for business deals. Among the big launches during the show, Roland DG in association with its India partner Apsom Infotex introduced Versa UV LEF 300 – a desktop UV Flatbed printer, the largest till date, which allows bi-directional printing. Sarah Lyons, marketing manager, Roland DG (UK) Ltd, said, “Every time I come to Media Expo, I see a marked difference in the quality of brands, products and it’s very inspiring as it makes us break confines and innovate more. It is an iconic show for the printing, signage and advertising sectors in India.”

Another big launch at the show was HP Latex 3100, which was sold to Nagpur-based Kashish Ads, at the HP Inc pavilion where showcased the end-to-end capabilities of entire latex series. “The Indian advertising and signage industry has evolved by leaps and bounds. With our latex portfolio, we are constantly innovating to help PSPs answer the end customer’s needs,” said Winnie Kwok, regional category & manager, HP Large-Format Production & Industrial Graphics Solutions Business, APAC & Japan, HP Inc. Siare Technologies introduced Challenger Limojet, a high-speed solution for outdoor graphics, with the showcase of others. And Britomatics unpacked its latest BiteJet E 3208-512i series with KM 572i printhead at the show.

Colorjet made debut of its ever waited Softjet Grand and Polo Turbo textile printers at the expo, redefining a new competency in soft signage printing. “It’s indeed a pride of the country that our indigenously manufactured printers were highly appreciated at the overseas shows like ITMA. And we are happy to see good response to our newly introduced printers,” remarked Smarth Bansal, brand manager, ColorJet. UV Printers drew crowd to its stand displaying its newly introduced The Work Horse, powered by RICOH. About the new printer, Kriti Vijay Sharma of UV Printers said it could deliver the miracles of UV printing.

Big showcases

As always in every edition of Media Expo, NEGI Sign Systems & Supplies did demonstrate its widely popular Valuejet series, among which were Valuejet VJ-1638, Negijet Polariz Plus, all bundled optionally with ONYX Graphics software. “The footfall is tremendous this time,” said Vijay Kandari, sales head, NEGI Sign Systems & Supplies Co.

EPSON showcased its line of SureColor Series, which are designed for signage and most exacting colour proofing. Milind Chavan, manager-sales & marketing, EPSON India appreciated the focused crowd in the show. One of the unique highlights at the show comprised the advanced 3D printing technology displayed by Monotech Systems and Texjet PLUS DTG printer by JN Arora & Co, which Manoj Kumar Garg, general manager, wide-format graphics, Monotech Systems and Vimlesh Arora, MD, JN Arora & Co Pvt Ltd said will define the future of printing. Texjet PLUS DTG is designed for direct to garment (T-shirt) printing with no recoating. Also showcased by Monotech were its ever popular Pixeljet series printers.

Sun Sign & Technologies, an authorised distributor of Starflex materials in India, pulled huge crowd to its stand where put up an array of innovative Stratec LEDs powered by SAMSUNG, textile backlit media and more. “Overall visitors’ traffic at the show is indeed great,” remarked Deepak Gupta, director, Sun Sign & Technologies. Another big crowd attractor in the show was Gita & Company showing five verticals for complete signage solutions: Pioneer flex, Union power supply, GCO backlit vinyl, Inensipix canvas and HeyTex backlit textile.

One of the crowded stands at the show, City Advertising presented Next Gen LED Signage materials. Nitin Srivastava, director, City Advertising, said the products are highly demanded for customisation in various illuminated signage projects. Showing its popular range of printing materials and standies, Pioneer Polyleathers revealed its innovation. “Our focus at the show is to present an updated product range,” shared Vijay Kapoor of Pioneer Polyleathers Limited. Presenter of a whole range of printing materials, including Nova Star with magnetic back designed to easily apply on metal surface and other products comprising 3M Films, Laxmi Sales Corporation presented a full range.

Wonder Signs also presented a wide range of LG Hausys signage and graphic art materials that consisted of gloss monomeric vinyl range, economic calendered films, among others. “Our product portfolio is a mix of all choices of materials,” revealed Ashwin Agarwal of Wonder Signs. Presenting an entire gamut of its modular sign systems for interior displays, Cosign pulled the crowd in full swing to its massive stand. “We participate in the expo to present our portfolio and some brand awareness activities,” said Kapil Purandare, executive director, Cosign. Similarly, a complete range of ink solution from FUJIFILM Sericol India for Dimatix, Spectra, RICOH and other printheads drew big crowd. “We are updating our ink range at this expo,” stated Baibhav Nath, senior executive-marketing, FUJIFILM Sericol India.

UV & Textile

On the UV front, FUJIFILM India put on display its Acuity UV LED 1600, which is a game changer in UV printing. “We are here to present the unique features of Acuity printer and trends of UV printing,” shared Pradipta Chowdhury, manager sales-WFIJ, Graphic Arts Division, FUJIFILM India. Presence of Arrow Digital at the show also drew visitors to the company’s stand. “We are presenting some new prospects of textile printing and others that EFI and MATAN printers could cater,” said Sohel Dalal, PR & marketing manager, Arrow Digital. Visual Displays, presenting its fire-retardant Sun Fabric, showcased a new prospect of textile printing. In this, Deepak Girotra, director, Visual Displays said ‘textile’ is revolutionising the signage printing.

Return of Mimaki to the Indian market was marked with big showcase of the company’s textile printers demonstrated in collaboration with Insight Print Communications, an authorised distributor of the printers in the Indian market. “We are here to revive Mimaki in the Indian market; even we will manage to help those old customers running obsolete machines in the market,” stated Ajay Aggarwal, MD & CEO, Insight Print Communications. On the other side of the show floor, P Vilayaraj, director, Teckwin Sign Solutions said they could interact with right visitors who took interest in their HandTop HT Series GEN5 UV printer shown at the HandTop stand.

Precision cutting

Main showcase from Mehta Cad Cam Systems was its high-speed Erina 100 laser engraver alongside the indigenously manufactured Plasma CNC router, Libra Series laser engraver and imported Gongzheng printers. Shailesh Mehta, director, Mehta Cad Cam Systems Pvt Ltd pointed out Erina 100 as new revolution in metal engraving. AXYZ International displayed its widely installed 5010 ATC CNC router, attracting a huge crowd to the high performance routing system. “It’s a good show with a good number of determined visitors,” mentioned Vinod Srinivasan, directorsales & marketing, AXYZ International. Angel India Cad Cam is another exhibitor showing Mimaki plotters and its line of CNC routers.

Anadi of Angel India Cad Cam said the company is now gearing up to distribute full range of Mimaki cutting plotters all over India. After all, the positive vibe at Media Expo 2016 was that visitors concluded various deals with the brands with which they intended to liaise. The next edition of the expo will be organised from September 29-October 01, 2016 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.