NEW YORK, June 2, 2008 - HudsonYards, a leading provider of visual media services to all markets, has introduced an extensive array of advanced ad management production services specifically for magazine publishers provided through its Studio Services Division.

Publishers Management Tools (PMT), an advanced software suite developed by HudsonYards, is the nucleus of the system now being used to efficiently manage the start-to-finish ad workflow of their prominent consumer magazine clients.

Diane Romano, president and chief operating officer of HudsonYards, points out that Studio Services actually initiates the ad workflow process for magazine clients.  "Publishers instruct their advertisers to ship materials directly to HudsonYards," she says. "We do the file conversions for each publication, and add all the metadata associated with each job in a PDF and JPEG, then release the final files to printers. At every point in the workflow, our clients can log in across the Web and see the status of their ads. They can approve or reject them on-line from the PDF they see."

PROOFING SOLUTIONS

Accurate remote proofing is a critical part of ad management workflow. Neil O'Callaghan, executive vice president of technology and operations of HudsonYards notes that the company offers publishers three PMT solutions for providing color-accurate soft proofing.

ICS Remote Director is a third-party SWOP-certified solution used with Eizo monitors finely calibrated for SWOP-certified proofing. O'Callaghan considers them the most accurate monitors available.

SoftView is another proofing solution. Developed by HudsonYards' Nashville production facility, it employs the same hardware and appropriate calibration software, but has an important added feature – a Java script installed on the client's workstation to keep track of monitor calibration. When the client is ready for a color markup session, a   high-res PDF with an embedded job descript is sent to the client to take advantage of Acrobat as a markup tool. When that PDF is opened by the client, the Java script checks to see if the monitor has been calibrated within an established time threshold.

For example, if a magazine has established a 21-day time threshold and the system sees that that monitor hasn't been calibrated in 22 or 30 days, it closes the Acrobat file and doesn't allow the client to view or edit it. It's a built-in safeguard that prevents proofing markup mistakes that can occur when a monitor is not appropriately calibrated.

Once past the calibration timegate, clients use Acrobat to go through corrections and provide HudsonYards with the markup. Only the client's markup annotations go back to Nashville, not the whole high-res PDF. The annotations are then married to the high-res PDF and given to HudsonYards operators so they know exactly what color corrections to make.

HudsonYards' third soft proofing solution basically uses the same hardware and monitor calibration process. Working in a totally calibrated environment with Eizo monitors, Studio Services retouchers and color operators can drop a file, or hit a key, and get an accurate ICS Remote Director proof. HudsonYards' customers who don't want to work with ICS Remote Director or SoftView, can actually mark up their corrections on a layer in Photoshop that can be turned on or off.

"The remote proofing options in a calibrated environment anywhere, makes the HudsonYards process much more spontaneous, more interactive and much more efficient," O'Callaghan says. "Rather than lose time by dropping proofs, retouchers can look at a monitor and quickly simulate a number of different conditions. They can actually see it as a SWOP proof, or in a packaging or newspaper format. In fact, they could work on an entire campaign without ever leaving their chairs."

Industry Without Walls

O'Callaghan observes that viewing jobs on monitors in a color-calibrated mode, while technically possible a few years ago, was not actually executable with the reliability and protection against mis-use now available. "Today, HudsonYards can calibrate to the specifications of SNAP, GRaCoL or SWOP or simulate the profiles of an individual printer and provide interaction to achieve highly specific results.

"It's possible for us to even calibrate at the client's site so that they can view accurate proofs anywhere," he continues. "This capability essentially makes ours an industry without walls, for those who choose to practice it. That's a big reason why being upstream, as well as downstream in the ad management workflow, will really benefit HudsonYards moving forward. And Studio Services is positioned exactly where our publishing clients want us to be."