Scientology In-plant Prints Wide-Format at an Epic Scale
The Church of Scientology celebrated the 40th anniversary of the International Association of Scientologists with a major global gathering at Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, England, drawing nearly 10,000 attendees. To create a fully immersive environment, the Church’s Dissemination and Distribution Center went all in to produce every graphic element for the expansive venue. In all, the in-plant printed more than 100,653 sq. ft. of materials on its HP Scitex XL1500 grand-format printer.
Among the many components manufactured in-house were 12 massive facade panels for the Grand Marquee, 12 additional interior wall panels, and 34 ceiling panels measuring 16x104' each, all forming a starry-night theme later illuminated by 2,000 installed LEDs. The in-plant also produced two 30-ft. ceiling medallions and eight 104-ft. hanging banners featuring international flags. For the two adjacent seminar tents, staff printed exterior facades, interior banners, and stage backdrop graphics — more than 16,200 sq. ft. in total.
One of the biggest challenges, notes Pressroom Manager Jud Posner was “dealing with pieces that are over 100' long and having to get all your measurements exactly right so that everything lines up. It has to look like one continuous image.”
The graphics created by the in-plant were an impressive site to behold at the International Association of Scientologists' 40th anniversary event.
12 Days and Nights
Printing and finishing all those graphics took Posner and his team of five 12 days and nights.
“I actually did a lot of the sewing myself,” he says, using a Juki double-needle high-speed industrial sewing machine. Banners were welded with a Miller welder, and a Monroe grommeter put in thousands of grommets, he says. Working day and night on the project with Posner were Val Ferris, Ryan Lahara, Jeremie Talbot, Kevin Wittenburg, and Alex Struchkov.
Church of Scientology Dissemination and Distribution Center team members produce one of many large graphics on their HP Scitex XL1500 grand-format printer.
By handling all design, printing, finishing, and quality control internally, the in-plant ensured flawless visual continuity for the church’s largest-ever wide-format project and saved an estimated $140,000 in production costs. Doing the job in-house was crucial to its success, Posner says.
“I don’t think anybody could have done it as fast,” he says. “Everything had to fit perfectly because of the timing. We had no second chance on this project. It’s a live event that happened in in the U.K., so everything had to be perfect the first time. We just couldn’t trust it to any outside printer.”
The graphics were installed by the church staff in Scientology Media Productions, and they held up well in England’s October winds. The project was a huge success, Posner says, and brought lots of recognition to the in-plant.
“It was so successful that we were asked to do it again,” he says.
Posner encourages other in-plants not to shy away from complex wide-format projects their parent organizations are planning.
“You just need to go for it,” he urges. “You just need to figure out how to do it and do it. The value that you will have as an in-plant will just grow exponentially as soon as you pull off a successful project like this.”
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited 200 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
