70 TECHNOLOGY JUST THE TICKET NEW EPSON RETAIL PRINTING TECHNOLOGY HAS IMPROVED CHECKIN EFFICIENCY AT SOUTHAMPTON AIRPORT n Southampton Airport aims tobe ‘the local iport you can breeze throagh’, With almost two milion passengers passing through cach year, achieving this no mean feat Delivering a smooth and efficent eheck in experience is intgral to the airport's succes, Traditional technology Southampton Airport had beca using traditional ‘ATI boarding pass printers at its checkin desks for many years. However, the devices were unreliable and printer downtime was threatening the effceney of the airport's chek in proces. ‘With budgets taking a it from the related fssuc of high printer maintenance costs, Southampton Airport decided it was time to replace its specialist boarding ass printers with ‘ore reliable and costeffctvesalution POS printer revolution Like Southampton, most airports had been tied to dedicated printing technology for to Passenger Terminal Word | Showcase 2013 ecades. The unique requirements of the airport environment dictated the use of specialist printing equipment and this was usualy expensive to buy and maintain. However, the past two years have seen seismic changes in airport regulations and printing technology, With wallet style boarding ‘ards no longer required, and costly m strips replaced by simple 2D bareodes, airports are now free to abandon proprietary devices and take advantage of more cost-effective options, ‘One of the ley trends in aeport printing the adoption of pint ofsale (POS) printers ‘thermal devices traditionally used i retail ‘environments for receipts and labels, With ‘their overall robustness and long lifecycls, OS printers are ideally suited tothe tough demands of the airport environment. Other benefits of PS printers include ease of use superfast print speeds and a small fotprint. Most importantly they are very affordable and deliver faster return on investment than proprietary peripherals Perfect solution For Southampton Airport, POS printers wer the ideal solution. The airport tasked BSP, an IT passengerterminaltoday comThe airline industry has Been, for many years, stuck with using specialist printer devices that ‘are expensive and unreliable compared with other industries ‘support specialist forthe travel industry, with finding the right model, andthe company selected the Epson TML00 —a thermal printer from Epson's retail product line wp. ‘Ascne of the world’s top POS printer manufacturers, Bpson was the obvious choice for BSP andthe airport. And with a ‘mean characters before failure rte of 70 nillion, Epson's TM-L90 offered the reliability Southamnpton needed, In addition, the TM-L90 prints at speeds of ‘up to 150mm/se, and features jam-proot paper feeding with drpin paper loading, helping airport staff serve passengers more quickly [SP felt assured that the Epson TNC-L90 was the right choice as it had sea the printer's successful implementation a fv other UK airports: Belfast Internationa, Robin Hoo, Humberside International, Leeds/Bradford and Durham Tees Valley, Since the 20 TML90 printers were installed in 2011, BSP and Southampton Airport have been elgited with their reba. “Over the past two years, these Epson devices have been the most reliable T have ever experience, ith o hardware fallures ofthe devices we support,” says Paul Secker, head of airport solutions at ESP. assengerterminaltoday.com a Sourargion Aiport 92011 Baggage tags Southampton Airport wanted to replace its baggage tag printers atthe same time as its baring pass printers to further reduce saintenance cots. Once again, BSP tuned to Epson, this tine selecting the company's ‘TAELSOOA. The printer uses Epson's POS technology to provide Southampton with fast, highly rable baggage tag printing in an alr compact package, Created to mect growing demand for simpler, more affordable passenger processing technology, the TMC1S00A incorporates & Windows driver for easy printing from any Windows application. However, the printer supports all atin communication protocols and TATA standard, enabling aizports to ‘ake a gradual swith from legacy systems to moder platforms “The ain industry hasbeen for many years, stuck with using specialist printer devices that are both expensive and unrehiable compared with other industries, The Epson products help to bringin reliable, proven hardware tecinology from other industries, and provide Nexblity within the hardware to operate in a legacy airline or standard mode,” says Secer. TECHNOLOGY 71 The new standard ‘Many airport ike Southampton have been able toimplement POS printers and othe non specialist technology a8 a reslt of the introduction ofa new standard called CUPPS. (common use passenger processing systems). ‘An open architecture software platform jointly developed by airlines, airports and hardware ‘vendors, CUPPS enables moder printing technology tobe use. Inthe process of defining CUPPS, similar situations and examples were studied, including UnifedPOS ~the POS technology standard that enables retailers to easily change frm one smanulactire’s device to another ‘Asa menber ofthe board af the Assocation for Retail Technology Standards, whieh founded the UnifedPOS standard, Epson drew on its expertise in dfining industry standards to help set the new passenger processing standards. The ‘TACLSOOA ist theforetont ofthe new generation of peripherals compatible with these standards ‘Using its experience in POS, Epson is erating ffth shelf soltions that make expeasiv, dedicated airport equipment history. Southampton {is one of many airports that wil benefit rom this passenger processing evaution. ‘Por more details visit wovw.epeon cok Passenger Terminal World| Showouse 2013