Helen Fletcher speaks with Alessandro Lama to find out what makes one of the leading photo booth manufacturers tick

Founded in 1963, 2008 sees Dedem Automatica celebrate its 45th anniversary of manufacturing, selling and operating stand-alone vending equipment.

Dedem, which has a strong corporate identity and has over 10,000 automatic vending machines in operation worldwide including countries where Dedem is present through its sister companies in Spain, Israel, Romania and Turkey as well as its domestic market in Italy, currently has over 300 experienced and carefully selected members of staff working there. This includes over 200 specialised technicians that are fully dedicated to servicing Dedem’s own vending equipment.

The company currently operates both at its central headquarters in Rome, where it has more than 20,000sq.m of administrative, office, production and storage space, and through more than 30 outlets located throughout Italy. From the smallest town railway station to the biggest city, from shopping centres to market squares, from airports to municipal registry offices, Dedem’s network of automated machines is, according to the company, always by the customer’s side just waiting to serve them.

“Our photos are approved throughout the world for use on official identification documents,” said Alessandro Lama. “In Italy, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Transport have granted us this approval since the 60s. Our photos last for more than 10 years, there is no possibility of falsification with electronic equipment and they are designed in such a way so that attempts at de-lamination will actually destroy the picture.”

Lama went on to say that Dedem’s products are also competitively priced while using top-quality thermal-sublimation digital photographic paper, tested in the company’s laboratories.

Dedem machines are some of the most cost effective and rapid and are an accepted way of taking ID photos worldwide. “In Italy alone, our machines are used for 12 million photo operations yearly,” said Lama.
“Projects such as the electronic ID card, ICAO format passports and the electronic driver’s licence, developed together with the Sicilian Motor Vehicle Department, are the kind of challenges we thrive on.

“The introduction of new automated digital printing systems, the expansion of the children’s ride sector and establishment of the new Dinamico stores are natural follow-up success stories for us in a sector where we have always been one of the leaders.”

Dedem’s digital printing systems DigiPrint and PhotoPrint offer the public the full line of photo-store services while only taking up half a square metre of space. Both versions can print from digital cameras, CDs, DVDs and mobile phones. They are equipped with various options and capabilities when it comes to printing formats and customised features.

Also, thanks to the touchscreen and user-friendly interface, the customer is able to operate the machine independently while accessing a quick and confidential printing service.

As well as this Dedem has introduced its photo children’s ride for photographing its youngest customers while they have fun on classic children’s rides. The company’s full range of products includes digital and chemical photo booths, digital photo kiosks, terminals, business card machines and entertainment machines, which it will continue to provide to the ever-growing demands of the international market.

Even after 40 years as one of the market leaders, Dedem Automatica is still looking to grow, though always with respect for the environment, as well as its customers and partners, so as to guarantee a quality product at the lowest price on the market.

To do so, Dedem intends to keep introducing innovative machines and products while providing precise and modern technical assistance - while not losing sight of the ethical and social objectives that are the underlying reasons for the company’s continuing success.

However, at the same time, according to Lama, the company is committed to exploring and manufacturing new systems for recording images as well as advances in the fields of security, live enrolment and bio-identification, investing in research and development and new technologies, ensuring its place as one of the market leaders for another 40 years.