Six Indian newspaper publishers have partnered with WAN-Ifra India to install newspaper simulators at a centre in Chennai.
The Sinapse simulators are at WAN-Ifra's research material testing centre located at the Research Institute for Newspaper Development (RIND). The training programme to be managed by WAN-Ifra South Asia is part of a larger scale effort to increase skill levels and introduce best practice standards in the Indian newspaper industry.
Participating publishers are ABP (The Telegraph), Deccan Herald, Malayala Manorama, The Mathrubhumi, The Hindu and The Times of India.
Magdoom Mohamed, who heads WAN-Ifra South Asia says the group has been associated with newspaper simulators in Europe for many years.
"Installing these in our training centre is a major step forward in our partnership with Indian publishers at this time when Indian newspapers are investing in new printing presses to augment their growth," he says. "As the simulators can run on almost any PC, we have a wide range of training that can be offered."
Sinapse is the only company to offer the product, and most of the publishers in the training consortium it in use at exhibitions and elsewhere, and were convinced of the opportunity to work on developing industry-wide training standards.
"Of course, they all expect to profit from these developments and the availability of the simulators," he says.
Simulator systems at the centre cover the 4x2, 4x1 and 2x1 press configurations in use across Indian installations. They were shown in operation at an open house in July, when visitors saw the 'virtual running of the press'.
President of Sinapse Print Simulators Peter Herman says the cooperation with WAN-Ifra dates to their introduction in the 1990s. "We look forward to the new ideas that are bound to be generated by the Indian installation," he says.
Pictured are (from left) WAN-Ifra South Asia research engineer Anand Srinivasan, Sinapse president Peter Herman and product manager Thierry Mack