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World-famous wax museum now employs Your
Picture Postcard Kiosk powered by
Mitsubishi CP-9550DW.
May 15, 2007—The magic of Madame Tussauds world-famous
wax museums is in the eye of the beholder. Thanks to Memory
Card Machine (www.memorycardmachine.com) and its Your Picture
Postcard kiosk, Madame Tussauds visitors can take home brilliant photos with
these iconic wax figures, or mail them via postcard to friends and family.
Recently, Memory Card Machine decided to switch the printer
portion of its Your Picture Postcard kiosks to the CP-9550DW
digital photo printer from Mitsubishi Digital Electronics
America’s Photo Imaging Division. According to Mike
Maida, founder and principal, Memory Card Machine, the
switch couldn’t have been easier, and the print capabilities
of the Mitsubishi CP-9550DW have significantly reduced
print times for customers.
“With the previous printers, we had a capacity
of 100 individual flat sheets,” recalls Maida. “But
changing the paper so frequently meant a great chance that
outside factors might jam the printer, especially at the
Madame Tussauds Las Vegas location where dust can be very
problematic. We found that all of our kiosks in the Madame
Tussauds locations were suffering from frequent paper jams.
And with the high volume of traffic that these museums
encounter, this was simply unacceptable.”
Maida continued, “After thorough research, we decided
that the Mitsubishi CP-9550DW had exactly the type of features
that we needed. First and foremost, it integrated well
with our existing kiosk cabinet, so it made it practically
a plug-and-play solution for us. We also liked the front-loading
option that the CP-95500DW offers. This way we can open
our kiosk cabinet door and perform any maintenance or setting
changes all from the front. And that made us very happy.
“Print time has also been drastically reduced, from
around one minute to just 20 seconds per print. That speed
translates into less wait time and greater quantity, which
makes Madame Tussauds and its customers very happy.”
The Mitsubishi CP-9550DW digital printers allowed Memory
Card Machine to move from using two printers in the kiosk,
to a single, 600-sheet capacity Mitsubishi model. Each
roll is ordered with a postcard template on the back, which
includes a pre-printed stamp area and postcard back. Customers
then simply use the Your Picture Postcard touchscreen monitor
to select a photo, a customized greeting and border, crop
the photo accordingly and pay via a bill accepter. Once
payment has been authorized, the Mitsubishi CP-9550DW quickly
prints out each postcard.
With edge-to-edge printing capability, the CP-9550DW enables
Your Picture Postcard kiosks to quickly and efficiently
print 4 x 6 customized postcards. At the same time, the
CP-9550DW also employs 16-bit internal processing and a
unique dual line head technology, adaptive thermal heat
management engine with a 346 dpi thermal head that improves
resolution and ensures longer service life. The result
is greater image quality, detail and texture at superior
resolutions.
The unit also features a feed mechanism combined with
a simplified paper path that delivers the prints at an
exceptional speed, two 32MB memory frames so images can
be stored in memory while printing, a color image control
system that monitors the number of prints remaining and
a high speed USB 2.0 connection that provides optimized
interconnectivity to the store’s system.
“Postcards account for a nearly $1000 of additional
business each month at the Madame Tussauds in New York
City, with Las Vegas doing a comparable amount,” said
Maida. “Therefore it was absolutely necessary that
we keep our kiosks equipped with fast, reliable printers
to keep that business rolling for Madame Tussauds and to
keep their customers happy. In the end, the Mitsubishi
CP-9550DW was the perfect fit.”
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