Interview: Bruno Turcato, Epson Australia

Which technologies do you think will be game changers in 2018?

Absolute game-changing technologies will unquestionably be linehead inkjet and continuous ink systems. Current inkjet technology now allows you to print faster, at better quality, for lower costs and ‘cleaner’, with much less impact on the environment than inkjet ever did before. And continuous ink systems simply give you the freedom to print as much as you want at reduced costs.

Which innovations are your customers telling you they are most enthusiastic about for the year ahead?

Our customers are excited about the incredible progression in projectors and projection technology, particularly in the education sector. Recent research showed that more than 50% of students found content displayed on 70″ screens was difficult to read, with more than half writing down at least one item incorrectly. But current projectors and projection technology means you can now have crystal clear images well over 100″ in size for a fraction of what a flat panel display of that size will cost. Smartglasses, too, are now very much mainstream and key to a wide variety of applications, including drones, aerial photography, medicine, AR learning, emergency services operations, urban planning and much more.

What will be the biggest growth opportunities for your sector in 2018?

Without question the adoption of the newest linehead inkjet technology across the board in commercial, professional and office printing and production, and printers that use continuous ink systems. Inkjet for the office has grown up. It is inherently superior to the incumbent technology in almost every respect, especially speed, cost and energy efficiency. Moreover, it has a lot of potential for further refinement in the future. The other key growth area is in digital label printing, where you can now do a short run of very high-quality labels at extremely competitive prices.

What’s on your tech wish list for 2018?

Epson is committed to promoting a zero-waste society, so it would be great to see more products such as the PaperLab A-8000, which is the first office papermaking system to employ a dry process to securely destroy used documents and produce new sheets of paper. Epson’s dry fibre technology enables paper to be produced without the huge volumes of water that ordinary papermaking requires. Since no plumbing is needed, it can be installed in a back office or anywhere else with available space to upcycle used paper.

Aside from your own, which ICT companies will be the ones to watch in 2018 and why?

It’s not hard to see that the companies that will continue to dominate in 2018 will be the ones that see the opportunities in ICT, create the infrastructure to support these opportunities and the software and hardware that will make them a reality for everyday consumers and the business world. My personal prediction would be to watch what comes out of Google, Apple, Facebook, Samsung and Microsoft, to name just a few. It will be the ones who can take, combine and integrate the worlds of AI, AR and mobile technologies that will truly lead the way next year.

A law graduate with a finance background, Bruno Turcato is Managing Director of Epson Australia. Having joined Epson in 1990 as financial controller, Bruno was appointed as the first non-Japanese managing director in the Seiko Epson Group in 2003, seen as a testament to the confidence the parent organisation had in his leadership and management abilities.

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