The Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival is a highlight for fans of jazz. This year, Xerox is adding to the music with some colorful club passes printed on its new Xerox Iridesse Production Press.
 
The Xerox Iridesse Production Press prints metallic, color and clear dry ink in a single pass, which is unique. Using these capabilities, Xerox is customizing the club passes, adding the patron’s name and photograph. To battle against counterfeits, Xerox is adding special security features, including infrared and microtext specialty printing, to its club passes.
 
Security is one of the most important aspects of every festival, and counterfeit tickets can drive festival costs up. Infrared print and micro text imaging are key methods to protect the authenticity of the passes.
 
“Fraud-resistant specialty imaging effects ensure that only those who have paid for tickets get in and counterfeiters are kept out,” Lori Francis, Xerox’s director, global sponsorships, global experiential marketing, said. “To prevent counterfeiting, the club passes are individualized with customer photos and include Xerox special security technology that prints variable text that can’t be read under normal light but can be read when exposed to infrared light. In addition, Xerox scientists developed a font so small that you need a magnifying glass to read the words. The MicroText Specialty Imaging Font is just 1/100th of an inch high.”
 
Launched in early May, the Xerox Iridesse Production Press is the world’s only digital press that can print metallic gold or silver dry ink, the standard four colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) and clear dry ink in a single pass, giving print providers an immediate competitive edge in the growing digital print enhancement market. Francis added that the Iridesse’s one-pass capability, workflow automation for incorporating metallics and varnishes combined with run-time quality control technology is a differentiator for Xerox.
 
Francis noted that were a number of hurdles that Xerox had to overcome to create these passes. “New this year, the club passes are personalized with a patron’s name and photograph. The personalization is made possible through the company’s XMPie software. XMPie technology is used widely by a variety of enterprises and industries across the globe to transform customer communications. Coordinating the personalization, the software for the special security features and making full use of the printing capabilities of Iridesse made the club passes an outstanding printing project and a delightful experience for the customer.
 
“Not everyone, however, is comfortable with submitting their photos online, so we also created an onsite process,” she added. “We took a patrons photo on a tablet, submitted the photo to our pass design template using XMPie and printed the pass on 7.7mil never-tear paper on the Xerox C60/C70. These passes also include specialty security imaging – microtext and infrared.”
 
Francis said that the club passes are indeed special items that festival attendees will want to keep.
 
“The Jazz Fest club pass is really a work of art,” Francis said. “The colors and metallic inks make this a standout collectible and adding photo personalization makes it a keepsake that patrons love.”