Digital printingAt the Hunkeler Innovationdays 2005, which took place from February 14 to 17, 2005 in Lucerne, Xerox presented a new black and white system for the entry-level segment in production printing (print volumes between 80000 and 350000 pages/month) for the first time in Europe. The Xerox 4110 is a copier/printer combination that can produce 110 A4 pages per minute. The system is therefore particularly suitable for the production of booklets, brochures or direct mailings.

Advertising market A cold shower after the holidays: Television advertising has lost the momentum of the previous months and has started the new year with a minus, according to the Goldbach Electronic Media Index (GEMI). It shows a decline from 304 to 303 points for television in January. From September to December, the index had climbed by five points. The weak advertising expenditure in television also pulled the overall index for electronic media down by one point to 301. The unabated success of radio advertising, which rose by three points to 261, was unable to compensate for the decline in TV. Neither was online advertising, which lost considerable momentum in January and only managed to grow by one point. As in December, the Teletext Index fell by two points.
The index for the advertising market as a whole remained constant at 161 points. Printed media compensated for the decline in electronic media. However, the growth in the print sector is largely due to the fact that the editions of the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten for Basel, Berne and Lucerne were included in the index for the first time.
Monthly UpdateAdvertising Week now presents the Goldbach Electronic Media
Index (GEMI). It shows the monthly development of advertising expenditure in the electronic media and in the overall market since the
Introduction of the first advertising window in 1993.
The GEMI is calculated by advertising marketer Goldbach Media. It is based 100% on the Media Focus survey of gross advertising expenditure in Switzerland. Monthly seasonality is filtered out of the time series in a two-stage process.
Stefano Monachesi

Construction Keller Ziegelei, one of the last brick companies in Switzerland, wants to underpin its technical expertise with a campaign by Content & Form. If you take a look at the reference projects of the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects SIA, you will see that brick architecture is not very popular. Even the loft-style trend and the diverse architectural design possibilities of brick have had little effect on the widespread use of plastered external thermal insulation. The proportion of exposed brick construction in the total volume of building construction in Switzerland fluctuates between four and six percent, due to the high construction price and the additional space required for the two-shell brickwork. "In addition, the exposed brickwork did not correspond to the open and bright glass/steel architectural trend of recent years, which omits any overly strong visual barrier. However, this trend is changing again. "Exposed brickwork is in again," says Ruedi Räss, Head of the Sursee Testing and Research Institute. Unlike in Germany - especially in Hamburg - or in Spain - keyword Barcelona - where there is still a high affinity for this building material today, the tradition and culture of exposed brickwork in Switzerland is mainly limited to factory buildings from the turn of the last century.
In order to increase the topicality and attractiveness of one of the oldest materials, the Brick Award for the best European brick building, worth 21,000 euros, was presented for the first time in 2004. A single-family house in Aargau by Peter and Christian Frei won a special prize for Switzerland.
One of the last Swiss brickworks is Keller AG, based in Pfungen, which has developed from a pure building materials producer into a service and production group over the course of three generations and more than 100 years of company history. According to CEO Christian Keller, the holding company is the undisputed leader in the production and planning of exposed brickwork and buildings, with a market share of around 85 percent.
In addition to its core competencies - the production of bricks, exposed bricks, clinker bricks, noise barriers and façade elements - the Zurich agency Inhalt & Form (I&F) was entrusted with the development and implementation of a new corporate identity in order to communicate the company's other service portfolio - the renovation of brick buildings, façade engineering and the sale of system walls. The task included the modernization of the corporate image, from the corporate design and documentation material to the website and image campaign.
The aim of the revamped advertising campaign was to raise awareness of exposed stone as a building material among the target group of architects and builders. As the knowledge about the qualities of the material is already available there, those responsible, consultant Claudio Zier and CD Serge Riedener, were concerned with the clear, emotional communication of the exposed stone. In full and half-page advertisements, buildings that were photographed in Barcelona were to be combined with people to show the grace and design of such masonry.
Grace and stability: Content & Form shows the advantages of brick.
Luca Aloisi

Editor-in-chief Res Strehle describes the strengths of Das Magazin in the Berner Zeitung, which has been adding the magazine to its pages again since the beginning of the year: "Reading time is becoming increasingly scarce during the week, which means that daily newspapers are no longer publishing complex stories. At the weekend, people have a bit more breathing space - and definitely want to read. Our market research has shown that a strong cover story is read by up to three quarters of all readers. (...) We are also supported by a phenomenon that sociologist Kurt Imhof calls lemming behavior. Although there is free competition for opinions among newspapers, the thrusts are becoming increasingly similar. One medium writes after the other. This opens up a wide field for us."
...
The Münchner Weltblatt jokingly says "Television was yesterday" and portrays the first television series for cell phones:
"An episode lasts just over a minute, the screen is barely eight centimeters big and for Twentieth Century Fox and Verizon it is the TV format of the future: '24 Conspiracy' is the title of a series that has just been completed by the creator of the real-time show '24'.
The little sister of the award-winning anti-terror series has already been launched in England and the USA and can be received on mobile devices. (...) Each of the 24 mini-episodes can be downloaded to your cell phone individually or as a subscription. The episode price is one dollar, the entire season costs 19.99 dollars. (...) In Germany, the series in bonsai format will be available in summer at the earliest."
...
In the Swiss media magazine, SDA Director Bernard Reist complains about the shrinking solidarity among Swiss publishers:
"The German-language basic service makes a profit, but the services in the Latin languages make an annual loss of over three million francs. These deficits are ultimately covered by the publishers in German-speaking Switzerland. I can understand them wondering why they should cross-subsidize Edipresse or Corriere del Ticino. I don't agree with them, but we will have to look for new models. One possible solution would be to make the publishers in French-speaking Switzerland pay a little more in future."

Newspaper The NZZ is expanding its service for regional newspapers and thus wants to strategically strengthen the industry.In connection with the Zurich newspaper deal between the NZZ and PubliGroupe, a company has been mentioned time and again whose purpose has hardly ever been examined in greater detail: Freie Presse Holding (FPH), until now a 100 percent subsidiary of the NZZ. The company came into the public eye because PubliGroupe wants to acquire an as yet undetermined minority stake in it - in exchange for the stakes it is ceding to the NZZ in the Zürichsee Zeitung and the Zürcher Unterländer. These negotiations are currently underway. It is known that FPH serves as a kind of depository for all of NZZ's holdings in regional newspapers (see box). Less well known is that FPH also houses FPH Services, which provides a range of services to regional newspapers. "FPH Services came into being when we analyzed the situation of regional newspapers in more detail," says Beat Lauber, a member of the NZZ Group Management and Managing Director of FPH Holding. He continues: "Our industry is facing major challenges: The classic value chain is dead, media genres are facing cut-throat competition, and political and competition law restrictions are looming."
That's why regional newspapers in particular are faced with the question of how they can still ensure their quality. "This is only possible in a cooperative model; you can't do it alone," says Lauber. This is exactly where FPH Services comes in: "Through them, we want to take more care of the industry and help it look for new solutions, get discussions going and strengthen regional newspapers."
FPH does this by initiating the so-called press network, through which editorial teams can exchange their articles. It is currently running in test mode. Then, together with the St. Galler Tagblatt, an Internet-based reader survey tool was developed (see WW 44/04), there is now an idea pool at www.fph-services.ch (see box), and finally, FPH Services wants to get involved with consulting and training. The key words here are quality assurance, customer loyalty and networking.
The managing director of FPH Services is the former Bund publishing director J. Pepe Wiss. Lauber did not want to disclose what the commitment costs, only this much: The preliminary investment for the press network amounted to CHF 150,000, and participation is currently still free for an editorial office. And the customer dialog system is to be refinanced through license fees.
But why is FPH Services so involved? Is it to lure other regional newspapers? "On the contrary, with our network we want to strengthen them so that we can cooperate with healthy and independent regional newspapers," says Lauber. "Because only if the regional publishers are strong enough do they not have to sell and don't end up in foreign hands. After all, we can't buy up everything."
The FPH portfolioIn addition to FPH Services, NZZ has accumulated the following shareholdings in FPH: 70 percent in St. Galler Tagblatt, 40 percent in Bund Verlag, 40 percent in Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich, 57 percent in Buchs Medien (Werdenberger & Obertoggenburger) and 51 percent in LZ Medien Holding (Neue Luzerner Zeitung).
The portfolio also includes the 97 percent stake in Radig AG, the advertising marketer for Radio BE1. Soon to be added are 20 percent of Zürichsee Presse (Zürichsee Zeitung), 37 percent of Zürcher Oberland Medien (Zürcher Oberländer) and 40 percent of Akeret (Zürcher Unterländer). (mk)
Bring in good ideas!Recently, the website www.fph-services.ch launched an idea pool for "good ideas and concepts that have been tried and tested at regional newspapers around the world". Anyone who has come across a good idea, developed one themselves or even tried it out can enter it there according to a certain grid. Conversely, it is also possible to browse and view existing ideas. "Individual newspapers often have very good ideas that could actually benefit the entire industry," says Beat Lauber. And because regional newspapers rarely compete with each other, the exchange of ideas is hardly ever a problem. Lauber: "That's why we now want to institutionalize the exchange." (mk)
FPH CEO Beat Lauber (left) and J. Pepe Wiss of FPH Services.
Markus Knöpfli

Outdoor advertising In Leipzig, the world's largest panoramic image attracted half a million visitors. When the "8848 Everest 360°" exhibition was opened in Leipzig on May 24, 2003 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of the world's highest mountain, nobody could have guessed that the huge public response would lead to the exhibition being extended until the end of January 2005. The "magnet" of the exhibition in a huge disused gasometer hall was a 360° panorama showing Mount Everest and the surrounding eight-thousanders from the perspective of a valley floor 6000 m above sea level, the starting point for most climbs. Using digital airbrush technology, the company Big Image Systems transferred the circular painting by Yadegar Asisi (see box) in strips onto several 33 m long canvases, which were then sewn together to form a 105 m circumference.
Digital airbrush versus inkjetThe character of Yadegar Asisi's painting is retained in the panoramic image, even if you step close to the sprayed fabric and search in vain for halftone dots. In contrast to digital inkjet printing, digital airbrushing is not based on stochastic or even autotypical screening. Bitmap and vector graphic data can be converted into large output bitmaps to scale. The advantage lies in a halftone-like image reproduction.
The family business Big Image Systems (www.bigimage.se), founded in 1987 by Werner Schäfer, a Swedish general agent for an American airbrush system manufacturer, specializes in spraying large-area flexible materials. Scaffolding advertising, balloon covers, sails, stage and studio backdrops, trade fair stands, flags, banners and the like are among the "print" orders, which are often one-offs. The production is an unusual mixture of high-tech, craftsmanship and art.
As the airbrush systems could not grow in line with customer requirements, Schäfer decided to develop and manufacture its own airbrush systems. Today, three Big Image Digital Printers are available at both the Swedish headquarters in Täby and the German production facility in Berlin-Stahnsdorf (www. bigimage.de), which was founded in 1995; in Täby, a Vutek UltraVu 5300 wide-format inkjet printer with a print width of over 5 m complements the range of services. Big Image's "own brand" has won several awards, including the Swedish Design Award in 1996.
The drums of the digital airbrush systems with a man-high diameter have working widths of 5 and 12 m respectively. As with inkjet systems, which do not reach such widths, however, the drums only "rotate" very slowly; the enlargement of the Mount Everest circular image was sprayed in line-by-line increments of 3 mm across the format width. "We don't calculate in dpi; for us, the line spacing represents the resolution of the motif reproduction," explains Manfred Müller, Production Manager in Berlin.
Ink is sprayed onto the material from commercially available spray guns, which are combined into digitally controlled, continuously operating spray heads in a freely selectable number. Tapestry tulle, silk, flag fabric, Trevira, image paper, projection film, Rolltex, nettle, painter's linen, canvas, felt carpeting and PVC flooring as well as mesh vinyl, transparent and opaque vinyl are the most frequently sprayed materials. The environmental compatibility of the materials used and their recyclability also play a role here. The fact that Mount Everest was depicted with solvent-free ink is in line with the artistic objective.
Distortion-free motifsThe development department in Sweden has written software that makes it possible to reproduce complex motifs accurately and without distortion, even on curved surfaces. The Digital Balloon and Sail Printing System breaks down the motifs, e.g. for mainsails, spinnakers and balloon envelopes, into segments - so-called panels - and "projects" the motif onto the sail shape, which is calculated from the sail manufacturer's data. The result should be that the inflated sail largely compensates for the perspective distortions so that the viewer thinks they have a flat poster in front of them. Sails do not simply form a trivial curve, but end in pillow-like points of tension. The software therefore models a three-dimensional representation, which can be coordinated with customers from all over the world via the Internet. After the "good to print" stage, Big Image Systems sprays the panels onto the canvas. This is then sent to the sail manufacturer, who cuts out and sews the panels using laser cutting systems.
In addition to the actual digital airbrushing, organizing the cutting and sewing together of complicated objects is generally part of Big Image Systems' complete service. For the panoramic picture "Mount Everest", a large hall had to be rented especially and helpers had to be hired for sewing and assembly.
Another in-house development is the FlexiT exhibition system, consisting of black aluminum poles, feet and caps, spots and flexible rails. This allows the large images to be set up quickly and easily without tools and also packed and transported again - a worthwhile alternative to rigid, often non-reusable walls for trade fair appearances and company roadshows.
Standards for original dataWhen it comes to extreme enlargements, where small imperfections can grow into large blemishes, attention must be paid to the correct data type and the quality of the data. JPEG, GIF and BMP are therefore frowned upon. All graphic and image files (TIFF, EPS and PDF as well as native formats from Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Corel Draw! and Macromedia FreeHand) and layout documents (QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign and PageMaker) must be created in CMYK and/or Pantone. The enlargement scale should be 1:10 and have an original resolution of 350 ppi. Stuffit, Dropstuff or DiscDoubbler for Mac and WinZip for PC are the desired compression programs to limit the data volume to a maximum of 300 MB.
When creating 360° panoramic images, Big Image Systems refers photo and video artists to Reality Studio from Panoguide.com, among others. The versatile software package supports the processing and playback of panoramic images as an applet clip on a website, calculates smooth transitions in composite partial images and is also suitable as a basis for designing panoramas such as Mount Everest.
Big Image SystemsBig Image Systems, based in Täby near Stockholm, specializes in large-format artistic, decorative and advertising communication (www.bigimage.se).
The Everest panorama was produced by the German branch in Berlin (www.bigimage.de). Large digital images are produced there for trade fairs and events, for theater, film and TV, for museums and exhibitions, for store design and for façade advertising. (dk)
The architect and painter Yadegar AsisiThe Mies van der Rohe Award winner Yadegar Asisi (49) admits: "Creating panoramic pictures and films is my passion! I want to create illusions."
In 1986, he made a section of the Berlin Wall "disappear" in Kreuzberg by painting on the west side of the Wall the part of a church in East Berlin that was concealed by it.
In 1995, as part of the "Berlin 2005" project, he hung huge panoramas in circular tents - also realized together with Big Image Systems - many of them his own designs, which showed the cityscape in ten years' time at their respective locations.
And in New York in 2002, he developed a panoramic video together with star architect and later winner of the competition Daniel Libeskind, which simulates his plans for the development of Ground Zero. (dk)
Sewn together: A large hall had to be rented to sew the 3,500 square meter Everest panorama (above). Simulated: "Alpenglow" can also be found in the Himalayas (left).
Raised: 360° view of Mount Everest in the gasometer (cross-section and sectional drawing).
The Everest panorama was created using digital airbrushing.
The production facilities of Big Image Systems in Berlin.
Dieter Kleeberg

Botany/ On March 18, there will be another Museum Night in Bern. The Botanic Garden will be an important meeting place.botany On March 18, Bern will once again host a Museum Night. The Botanical Garden will be an important meeting place. After Franz Gertsch (2003) and Adrian Frutiger, Rudolf Mumprecht and René Rüegsegger (2004), the university's BOGA is dedicating its 3rd Museum Night to the Bernese designer collective Büro Destruct. Although their works are well known to young Bern, the great recognition has so far tended to come from abroad. Büro Destruct has been the subject of several publications and anyone browsing through the Destruct Guestbook will find entries from all corners of the world. The office's tradition is rooted in its own distinctive graphic style, which ranges from the pop art of the 1960s to the high-tech symbolism of the present day. Büro Destruct operates at the interface between art, commercial graphics, 3D design and advertising. The exhibition in the Botanical Garden will be complemented by live acts by the Bernese duo Fratelli Spinelli. They have produced the BOGA song as well as a CD for the event with the finest Bernese rock with a palm tree sound.

Sponsorship I Swatch has extended its commitment to the International Volleyball Federation FIVB by four years, and the Biel-based watch manufacturer has already been title sponsor of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour for two years. In addition, Swatch will now also act as name sponsor at the FIVB World Championships in Berlin in June 2005 and at a venue to be determined in 2007. The company is also dedicating two new watch models to its partnership with the FIVB.

Pitch Ringier relies on joint discussions when looking for an agency Ringier's business review Cash wants a new advertising agency. However, the successor to Lowe and most recently Seiler is not to be evaluated in a conventional pitch. "We held an unconventional 90-minute interview with nine agencies. The creatives then had to formulate their thoughts on advertising for Cash on a piece of paper," explains Thomas Trüb, Managing Director of Cash Wirtschaftsmedien. After reviewing these notes on the current status, objective and basic idea for a new campaign, two agencies have now been shortlisted. They will be notified on the day of publication of this Advertising Week and invited to meet with the editorial team for an in-depth discussion. The contract will then be awarded. "Without a presentation, because we have no doubt that all of the candidates can stick on and design beautiful cardboard boxes," says Trüb. The only decisive factor will be the chemistry, or lack of it, in the discussions with the editorial team. Euro RSCG, Krieg Schlupp Springer & Jacoby, Publicis, Seiler, Lang Gysi Knoll are among the nine invited - it will be interesting to see who convinces during the talks. At Cash, the publishing house management is "pleasantly surprised" at the quality of the ideas, which were formulated in just a few lines. "The selection was difficult," reveals Thomas Trüb. The papers were anonymized before they were submitted to the management for evaluation. We can expect "something very new" from future cash advertising.
(pan)

Online advertising With an increase of 2.2 to 102.2 points in January, 2005 got off to a good start for the PWA Index, which shows the development of Swiss online advertising and was reset to 100 points as usual at the turn of the year. Although the increase is rather moderate, it underlines the general positive trend, comments Publimedia Webadvertising (PWA).

Pierre C. Meier on Walpen's expenses and the publishers' rampage. In the spring session starting next week, the new Radio and Television Act (RTVA) will be discussed in the Council of States. Last week, the Uvek announced that Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger had instructed the Audit Office to examine the SRG's books. The reason for this was the SRG's planned request for a fee increase and its planned internet activities. This timing cannot be a coincidence. But what are Leuenberger's motives for launching this investigation right now? Specifically: Who can have an interest in the new RTVA being delayed? Realistically speaking, almost everyone involved. Albeit for different reasons. The SRG can live with the current law; after all, it guarantees its strong position and it does not have to pay any license fees to private providers. The SP can also live with the status quo - for the same reasons as the SRG.
The SVP and FDP have always been against the new RTVA because it is over-regulated and leaves too little freedom to private providers. The announced financial audit is therefore a wonderful steep pass to derail the consultation in the Council of States, just as they tried - unsuccessfully - to do in the National Council.
The only people who should actually have a vital interest in the RTVA revision coming into force as quickly as possible are the publishers. After all, they will only receive their ration from the fee pot to keep their loss-making local television stations afloat. But what are they doing? Startled by Walpen's news portal ambitions, they run amok. At practically the same time, Blick and NZZ am Sonntag scandalize the top SRG boss's expenses and car arrangements. So they are happily sawing away at the virtual fee branch that they are not yet sitting on, but would like to sit on as soon as possible.
And who benefits from all the excitement? The SRG, of course - thanks to Leuenberger.
> Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief

Internet TV Under the name "eGadgets", a new monthly video feature can now be seen on the online portal News.ch. In ten minutes, "eGadgets" presents new products on the multimedia market, produced by News.ch and partner site Futurebytes.ch and broadcast online using Streamix technology. Streamix Managing Director Lukas Gysling moderates the video. Advertisers can place classic commercials at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of "eGadgets". News.ch sees this as an attractive and emotional alternative to conventional online formats such as banner advertising.