Lion park chooses Epson to print special moments

The Lion Park, one of South Africa’s top tourist destinations offers visitors the opportunity to engage with some of the continent’s most majestic wildlife. And what better way to capture these memories than with a photograph, printed on site and taken home as a memento of a remarkable experience?

Originally, the Lion Park had subcontracted a mobile photographer to capture photographs for visitors and print them on site, however, its management team thought of a more comprehensive solution that would be a value-added service for visitors, offering them top-quality prints of their visit, as well as giving them the opportunity to choose from different photo products.

The potential for an added revenue stream to contribute to the Lion Park’s ongoing running costs was also a consideration.

In consultation with ImageMed, an Epson accredited specialist reseller, Andre Lacock, project manager of the new Lion Park Photographic Centre, chose to install an Epson SureLab SL-D3000 and has placed an order for the Epson SureLab D-700 printer.

“The Photographic Centre needed a robust, reliable and easy solution to print post-card and jumbo sized photos, but it also needed one that could print larger than usual prints to include in photobooks,” says George Rosa of ImageMed. “As a conservation organization, the Lion Park team also sought an environment-friendly printer that would be energy efficient. These two devices responded directly to all their requirements to offer a sustainable solution.”

The Epson SureLab SL-D3000 uses Epson’s UltraChrome D6 six colour ink set that achieves a wide colour gamut, offering long-lasting prints that are vivid and lifelike, with excellent black density – factors that are vital to consider when printing a photo of that once-in-a-lifetime cuddle with a lion cub! The printer can print on glossy or matte paper, providing more options to print photos, greeting cards, calendars or photo books.

The SureLab SL-D3000 offers a print quality and colour consistency that is comparable to Epson’s professional graphics printers, as well as being able to produce images on a wide range of media sizes and print runs. 

The SureLab SL-D3000 makes it possible for visitors to the Lion Park to order prints on media that is between 10cm and 30cm wide, and between 9cm and 121cm long. This means that they can print photos, cards, invitations, flyers and leaflets on glossy, lustre or matte paper.

The Lion Park is a conservation site, and as such, placed an emphasis on energy and water efficiency of its new photo-printer, as well as on limiting any impact made through the use of chemicals.

The SureLab SL-D3000 uses significantly less energy than a wet lab, and does not need a water supply. Furthermore, it does not use any processing chemicals, and it does not need air filters – reducing impact on the environment, and naturally, on the total cost of ownership.

The Lion Park is within reach of main urban hubs, but by its nature, is fairly removed from quick access to consumables or maintenance suppliers. Therefore, the team setting up The Photographic Centre sought a solution that requires little or no maintenance, and that is easy to operate.

The SureLab SL-D3000 is simple to operate, and users do not need any specialist skills to print daily runs, with the only regular maintenance required being the simple replacement of the consumables.

Lining up print jobs is easy, with the optional ‘Order Controller’ software, which includes basic photo retouching to get rid of those unfortunate red-eye moments.

Even though the Lion Park is out in the open countryside, the Photographic Centre is in a restricted area. The SureLab SL-D3000 was an appropriate choice for this environment, because it is compact, can be operated from dual sides, and can be moved around on its castors – making it versatile within a confined space. 

The Photographic Centre at the Lion Park has proved so popular that Lacock felt the need to expand its capacity. In consultation with ImageMed, the Centre took delivery of an Epson SureLab SL-D700 printer – a six colour compact printer that will provide additional capacity for peak periods at the park.

The SureLab SL-D700 has the same media capabilities as its big brother, the SureLab SL-D3000, but it is more suited for small to medium runs, or kiosk printing. It combines high quality, great flexibility and an impressively low cost of ownership.   

“The Epson SureLab SL-D3000 and Epson SureLab D-700 make it possible for the Lion Park to stand tall alongside other world-class tourist facilities worldwide,” says Lacock. “Visitors are now able to take home printed images and beautifully bound photobooks as mementoes of their time spent with us. For us, this means that they will share their experiences with their loved ones and friends, providing insight into the wonderful animals that we work with, as well as sharing the importance of wildlife conservation in Africa.”