Signa Station....any thoughts?

[RMPrepress]

Getting pricing and weighing all options on imposition software.  Just had a demo on Signa and was impressed but of course a demo and use in everyday prepress is something else.  Any advice?

We currently have Preps 5.3 running on 3 Mac Pro's but the time has come to move on to Preps 7 or look at something else like Signa or Metrix.

We run Heidelberg Prinect Pressroom Manager as well.

[Slappy]

Oh boy, let me gather some thoughts. This is the first shop I've been at that uses it, came from a Preps background although I was only vaguely familiar with that, I'll try to throw some of the positives & negatives. We're running the latest version too, updated everything from prepress back to the Pressroom Manager also.

[RMPrepress]

Great ....I will be looking forward to your next post!

[WharfRat]

In your "latest version" (13?) are you running the complete "Business Manager"
with the MIS for estimating and ticket writing interacting with Cockpit and SignsStation and Data Terminals?
I wouldn't mind getting in a chat about that complete workflow.
We are having major problems with SignaStation interacting and translating information coming from Business Manager.
Maybe it is just us - maybe not.
It would be great to hear of some other experiences with the full suite

MSD

[DigiCorn]

Joe, I will remain mum on this subject. My silence speaks volumes.

[Slappy]

In your "latest version" (13?) are you running the complete "Business Manager"
with the MIS for estimating and ticket writing interacting with Cockpit and SignsStation and Data Terminals?

That's a negative, Ghost Rider. Management didn't want to pony up for it, which is understandable given the what, 6 figure price tag?

[RMPrepress]

We would most likely just be purchasing Signa Station as a standalone. Although we do use Pressroom Manager now.

The possible problem for us is that we have an Esko Nexus Rip and use a JDF workflow, writing JDF out of Preps and dropping on Nexus manager workflows.
Not sure yet if a JDF from Signa will go through Nexus.

[Slappy]

Haven't forgotten you, we are just absolutely shit-hammered with political jobs and will be for the next few weeks. I'll try to jot some notes down while I'm slaving away and throw it up here this week though! 

I did see your concern about running Signa JDFs through Nexus, if I can generate some, do you want to give 'em a push and see what happens?

[haushold]

We use Heidelberg Prinect as our primary workflow, previously everything was sent through our Nexus rip. The cip data goes directly from Prinect to our Heidelberg - If we send plates for the KBA - the cip3 data gets generated by Prinect - and dropped into a Nexus hot folder for the KBA. If I recall we had to purchase a special license for this feature.