WHEN JIM LUCANISH, ceo of O’Neil Data Systems, first saw the HP high-speed inkjet web, it was the size of a conference table and was known by its development name – Tinkerbell.

That was in 2006. He had been invited to HP’s labs in San Diego, having shown an interest in what HP was up to. He says he had to endure a day of presentations before the final reveal, adding that it was worth the wait. At the end of the day came the lab model of what is now a giant 30in wide press. Tinkerbell was rather smaller, but already had the distinctive hump, Lucanish says.

By the time the press was taken to Drupa for its world debut, O’Neil Data Systems was one of a number of companies that had been involved in the development. “HP wanted a printer’s perspective into what they were doing,” Lucanish recalls. “I told them ‘Get rid of the click charge’.” Speed and workflow were also on the agenda, as was quality: both printer and developer continue to work to improve colour, but accuracy of image placement is not an issue. One of the first tests O’Neil presented to HP as a typical job was a Rip-crunching, data-intense page with fine text picked out in highlight colour. HP did not put a pixel out of place.

The Exstream workflow, able to create pages from the database and send them to either the web or Indigo presses, is considered vital, as is the HP Blade server array and Rips. “Ripping on the fly does not work for volume personalisation, where every page is different,” he adds.

The outcome of “many, many meetings” during 2007 was that O’Neil became convinced the press would fit the business. HP agreed and in December last year began assembling the first beta in a cleared building on the O’Neil site. By the third week of January it had produced its first job, the hefty O’Neil Database, a directory of every quoted share in the world with data charts and small print that every serious investor needs.

The printing operation had begun as an adjunct to this data-intense publishing business when it started the Investor’s Business Daily, a rival to the Wall Street Journal, but described by vp sales and marketing Mark Rosson as “a database that happens to be published daily”. Slowly the subscriber base has migrated to the internet where the associated web site can present share information according to the profile of interests of the individual subscriber.

The company is looking to see how this can be used to create customised newspapers, each presenting company information according to a subscriber profile. As the paper is currently printed at different locations in the US, what is in Santa Monica would need replication elsewhere. “Yes,” says Rosson. “We believe that we would need five of these HP webs across the US over the course of the next 24 months.”

But the press is more than a newspaper machine. “The sky’s the limit,” he continues. “We have one customer talking about personalised magazines and catalogues where the content is tailored to the reader. We are also looking at the potential in government ballots. Some states will have two elections a year. It is highly complex work with every one personalised, which means high-margin work and high volume. For example the general election for the Philippines is 22,000 hours of digital printing.”

Closer to home, O’Neil is producing personalised mailings and packs for a wide range of customers. The fulfilment bays for pick and pack mailings are being reduced by the transition from litho to digital print, while O’Neil is encouraging others to move from mono to colour digital printing. “A lot of our clients don’t use colour because of the additional cost,” says Rosson. “We have been concentrating on showing that the value is greater and have been giving colour away to some key accounts, which doesn’t affect us because the cost of colour on the HP web is close to black and white.”

The cost issue is crucial, both for HP and O’Neil, where the days of buying litho presses are at an end. “We therefore need digital to be more closely aligned with offset pricing,” he says. It’s too early to be certain on that point as not all costs are known. The Drupa price was put at $2.5 million for the twin-engined press without the front end, while ink is $8,000 for a 200 litre barrel so coverage may be an issue. Manpower is another interesting area. “When we committed to the project we posted the job for all 600 staff here to look at. We had an applicant from the shipping department. He was excited and enthusiastic so we gave him a go and he is now one of the best guys on the press,” Rosson says.

It mirrors HP’s experience with its customer. O’Neil had the enthusiasm and commitment to secure the beta and is now the best advert for the game-changing nature of its high-speed inkjet web. As Lucanish puts it: “This is a game changer for most people.”