Review: photokina 06

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With final figures of over 1,579 suppliers from 46 countries and over 162,000 visitors from 153 countries in attendance, it’s safe to say that Photokina 2006 was a great success. The KIOSK EUROPE team were extremely pleased to discover fascinating range of photo kiosks and kiosk technologies on show, including newly launched kiosks, printers, paper, chip & pin technology and dedicated photo kiosk software.
 
From the hundreds of innovations, improvements and industry moves we learnt about there, I've picked just a few to give you a taster of what went on:

Quest3, a new entrant into the photo kiosk market, have designed a range of photo kiosks to meet different needs, including an entry-level photokiosk which carries out only the most basic functions, is easy to use and requires minimal retailer assistance. In an innovative move, Quest3 receipts are printed directly onto the photo paper. This gives a saving on the cost and maintenance of including another printer, while printing the receipt on only half a sheet of photo paper provides a great opportunity for companies to advertise or offer money-off coupons on the other half.
 
River, a manufacturer of compact photokiosks, has just opened an office in the UK and is providing a new solution for the UK market, consisting of a four-sided standalone kiosk which offers advertising space at the top, a receipt and voucher printer, and additional on-screen advertising potential.

Integrex was showcasing its photo-restoration kiosk, which not only prints digital images but has the ability to restore old photos which have become faded, crumped or damaged.

Kodak has broadened its range of photo kiosk solutions, offering a range of different sizes and capabilities. It has also added Chip & PIN functionality to its photo kiosks, powered by Ingenico’s secure card payment solution.

Noritsu has developed a new input terminal for digital print orders, allowing customers to order remotely and collect from the store more easily.

Signifi workflow solutions were on display at the PhotoIntel Group’s stand, in recognition of their new European distribution partnership. Since Photokina, PhotoIntel has also been appointed as the European partner for Express Imaging Systems, and will be distributing the Europa 10 high speed digital printer within Europe.

Agenos demonstrated a sorting machine in a table format, which is capable of sorting images into piles according to which format the image takes. Mitsubishi and Wincor Nixdorf also presented their ranges of photokiosks, and a host of Chinese manufacturers also attended.

On the software side of things, Lucidiom has developed an enhanced photo kiosk program, which will include the potential for photo kiosk users to create their own virtual photo albums, scrap books and collages and make personalised cards and stationery out of their images. The software is aimed to cater to a wide range of users, from children to grandparents, with the focus being on increased usage by families.

Whitech has released its latest photo kiosk software. Already in extensive use, the Photo.Teller software is also to be used in Whitech’s wide range of Photo.Teller kiosks.

FIT Engineering & Diland have developed their own networking software, which can provide lists to the server administrator, showing how many orders a system is processing at any given time.

Sony, selected by Quest3 as its sole printer supplier, has developed a brand new larger format high quality printer, which is rumoured to be available by December.

HP’s new thermal inkjet printer is arriving in Europe, and is also expected to be available from December. A number of die-sub printers were also on show from companies including Noritsu, Mitsubishi and Sony.

Fujifilm has been working on its remote management which has been widely extended, and now makes use of a ‘heartbeat’ function which synchronises kiosks and checks constantly whether each terminal is functioning correctly, thereby speeding up fault reporting.

What we found particularly telling during our time at Photokina, was that the focus of the photo kiosk market seems no longer to be on explaining what a photo kiosk is, but on what additional services can be provided in a photo kiosk. In other words, people are now aware and excited about photokiosks and want to know more about what they can do; a major step forward for everyone involved in the industry! The array of kiosk-related products on offer proves that the photo kiosk market is, without a doubt, not only here to stay but is set to grow enormously in the coming years.