Palo Alto, Calif. – HP today announced that the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) has installed an HP Indigo press 5500 to produce offset-quality variable-data printing in response to a growing number of print-on-demand requests.

Located in Nairobi, Kenya, the UNON serves as the headquarters of the United Nations in Africa, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT. The Publishing Services Section (PSS) of UNON prepares parliamentary documents and publications not only for these two programs, but also for regional entities such as UNESCO, UNICEF, the High Commission for Refugees and various peace-keeping operations.

"Our parliamentary documents are produced in six languages and are then discussed by delegates, who make amendments until they are able to adopt final resolutions. Once all the amendments and language localizations have been made, we sometimes end up with as many as 500 documents in varying quantities," said Henry Hunt, Chief, UNON Publishing Services Section. "The ability to produce variable data prints, on demand and within a short deadline is crucial."

With a production capacity of up to 4,000 full-color pages per hour, the HP Indigo press 5500 is a complete solution designed to help decrease costs, thanks to extensive automation and reduced operator involvement.

"Working with a world institution like the UNON validates the concept, quality and suitability of HP Indigo technology as a leading digital print solution," said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager, Indigo division, HP.

The HP Indigo press 5500's offset blanket transfer printing method allows the PSS to handle substrates that are not perfectly flat, significantly increasing the capabilities of the service.

"Eighty-five percent of our requests are for coated or embossed materials," said Hunt. "The HP Indigo press 5500 blanket transfer and HP ElectroInk 4.0 have a gripper system that simply handles coated art paper much better than our other digital devices."

Any purchase made by a United Nations office is subject to a competitive bid process to ensure the best and most cost-effective product is acquired, and the purchase of the HP Indigo press 5500 was no exception. Based on the specific technology and capabilities required by the PSS, the HP Indigo press 5500 was the obvious choice.

"Printing has undergone significant changes over the past few years and is now just another part of the output mix, as are RSS feeds. Run lengths are going down but the number of requests continues to grow because people still want hard copies. Printing still serves a purpose and to meet today's demand for quality, short-run products, the HP Indigo press 5500 is the perfect machine," said Hunt.