Micropress and Fiery together?

[echidna]

Does anyone have a setup that includes both a fiery and Micropress on the same engine? When we got our Ricoh c901 we were told that it would be no problem to run both. So we have been using the fiery since Feb while waiting for Micropress to support the 901... Well now it's out and we're getting it connected, but now all the techs are saying 'no way, it's one or the other'. Basically right now, we have a very expensive fiery connected to this printer that can't be used to do anything, and anything we want to print needs to go through MP... Which as I'm sure everyone here knows that not every type of job needs to go through a system like the mp and sometimes you just want certain functions.

 

[MIBUK]

From dealing with MP and Fiery previously and unless they've changed they configuration with the C901, then the techs are right. Patches are applied to the Fiery to allow MP to communicate to the printer correctly. Then you are unable to use the Fiery directly as a printer controller. Everything goes via MP. This is the way EFI want it to be to standardise connectivity of MP to Ricoh printers. This is probably the same for other printer manufacturers.

MP is targetted at a particular group of customers and maybe you're not the right target. I've seen customers use Adobe CS4 Design Std, which covers a lot of MPs features.

 

[StrikTenn913]

I used to work at an equipment manufacturer and can confirm that it is not recommended to use the Fiery and MP simultaneously or interchangeably on your digital press. In fact, if you try to do this, you are likely to have frequent problems (connection being dropped, fiery queue being cleared, etc). These RIPS are built on entirely different platforms that don't play well together (MP is Harliquin based).

At the moment, both Ricoh and Canon require a Fiery to sit infront of the MP and essentially serve as a pass through. This is the OEM's choice, not EFI. EFI would prefer to connect to the printer directly as this would eliminate many problems. Konica minolta is the only OEM I'm aware of that permits direct connection from MP. In the long run I think the other OEM's would re-evaluate this choice bc it becomes an expensive proposition.

My question is, why would you want to use both interchangeably? Was this only because you were waiting for 901 connectivity? Another choice to MP is EFI's Fiery Central product, which is at least built on the same tool set as the Fiery and thus causes less complications when using both.

 

[Hemlock]

I've been running a Mpress & Fiery E-80 for a year now and can confirm that what StrikTenn says is dead on. You can make it work, but not without issues.