GITEX TO HOST THE NEW GENERATION OF STAR POS PRINTERS

At Gitex 2004 (3^rd 7^th October, Dubai) international, brand-leading manufacturer, Star Micronics is demonstrating its range of POS printers developed to suit the requirements of retailers and restaurateurs, regardless of their applications or budgets.

On its stand B1-41/43, Star Micronics will be showing its flagship TSP700 thermal printer, that combines unrivalled application versatility with a new generation AutoLogo facility, enabling even inexpert users to create advertisements, coupons and vouchers for output onto receipts at POS in less than three minutes. In addition, the Star TSP600 will exhibit how entry level pricing can accommodate sophisticated thermal printing functionality and the new SP500 will be available to show exhibition visitors a low cost, feature-rich matrix printer designed specifically for hospitality environments.

Undoubtedly the star of the show, the new wizard-driven Windows^TM-based AutoLogo is fast becoming recognised as a facility that transposes the printer from a checkout component to a powerful marketing tool. The latest version complements this sophisticated functionality with simplicity of use by incorporating a new printing wizard (ALP) which enables the use of preset templates and style guides as well as instruction prompts to quickly and easily develop coupons and vouchers that are output to receipts according to relevant product sales at POS. Up to 15 marketing messages can be assigned at any one time to one or several user-selected products by simply attributing a two-digit code to the product description in the users normal database.

Essentially, AutoLogo provides a means of implementing marketing initiatives that were responsive to external market forces, customers buying trends and stock movements. Using the new ALP, striking marketing promotions can be developed and implemented in less than three minutes with the added bonuses of requiring no IT support or expensive system software changes.

Like its predecessor, the new version of AutoLogo is included within the TSP700 printer as a standard feature free of charge, bringing to its users a powerful marketing facility in addition to the versatility of outputting labels, tickets, barcodes and receipts at the high speed of 180mm per second.

Described by Star Micronics as offering thermal output for a matrix price, the TSP600 is aimed at any organisation looking for fast reliable mono or two-colour receipt printing, at a budget price.

Outputting at 100mm per second, the TSP600 will be demonstrated at Gitex in both autocutter and tear-bar versions and accommodating a choice 80mm or 58mm paper widths. Its unparalleled price/performance ratio will be further underscored by its Logo Store facility, 2^nd Copy Raster, near/paper end sensors and power switch protector option,

Aimed primarily at catering and entertainment establishments, the SP500 matrix printer offers users high speed printing to multi-part paper and perhaps more importantly, has a splash proof design including rain channel, sealed control panel, cable and power switch covers as well as internal guttering to protect the mechanism from food and beverage spillages in the kitchen, at the bar or food counter.

Compact in design, the new SP500 is available with a wall mount option ideal for kitchens and can be used in an alternative, vertical print position, further reducing its footprint to occupy just 163cms x 140cms of counter space.

High speed printing - up to 7.5 lines per second (16 col) combined with logic seeking technology allows the SP500 to output at over 15% faster than any would be competitors, assuring users of faster customer throughput. Unusually for an entry level printer, the SP500 is available in both tear bar and autocutter versions as well as incorporating a six-position back mark sensor and offering users a choice of receipt paper widths and weights.

Pioneering a low cost alternative to colour printing, Star Micronics has developed the SP500 to enable hospitality users to easily emphasise text with the options of reversed print (white out of purple), boxed text, double height characters or a combination of double height and reversed output.

Also on show at Gitex, Star Micronics will be showing a wide range of printer mechanisms for kiosk applications and its ground-breaking TSP800 compact thermal printer, offering wide-format output (112mm) output at high speed: 150mm per second, scalable raster driver and application versatility.