The New York Times is upgrading presses at its College Point facility to embrace closed-loop colour control, nearly eight years after it began investigating the technology.

QI Press Controls is supplying a system based on 64 IDS-3D cameras to improve colour and registration across seven Goss Colorliner presses with folders. Included is the 12-tower two-folder Colorliner 85 installed in 2008, which runs as two presses.

Production vice president Nick D'Andrea says the install - which began this month - will see the first press available by the end of October, with one being brought up every four to six weeks after that.

NYT's closed-loop colour investigations began at DRUPA 2012, it having installed QIPC's IRS system in 2006. They chose the single-camera option on the grounds that "ultimately it would offer us a lower total cost of ownership".

The project also includes damp control and enhanced print default detection.

Increased automation has been a focus for NYT, which also prints USA Today and Newsday on its six presses.