An audience of 45, consisting of members of SMPTE, AES and guests, were present for the second part of a continuing series of talks on digital recording media presented by Mark Anzicek of ZenTechnologies, a provider of services to the duplication and replication markets. In Part 1, presented in October 1997, Mark discussed the technical and marketing aspects of DVD.
Mark began by explaining the distinction between duplication and replication, duplication being a linear copying process and replication being a "stamping" process where the entire physical media is created in one step. A term he coined, "ruplication", can be applied to the copying of CD-Rs because the media are initially stamped but then are recorded upon in a serial fashion. He said that large-scale CD-ROM duplication systems can still be successful even though individual users can produce their own copies by seeking markets for small runs of CDs that are too small for the injection-molding plants but too large for single-copy users. This is the fastest-growing duplication market. He gave some examples of small-run CD-R applications, such as small audience training and sales, college coursepacks, check copies in publishing, telephone bill detail listings and the like, and predicted that CD-R duplication services would be nearly as common as photocopy services in the near future.
A discussion of the technical details of CD-R disks followed while attendees examined samples of the media. Recording speeds were covered, as well as verification requirements (some applications are more stringent than others) and problems encountered when trying to economically print on small runs of CDs. Security issues were discussed, and it was pointed out that individually unique copies of media (with serial numbers or other authorization codes), impossible to do with injection molding, can be easily done with CD-R.
Mr. Anzicek brought a Microtech Conversion Systems Image Automator, a
robotic system for automatically feeding, duplicating and printing CDs.
During the talk, the machine ran in a loop, entertaining the audience by
continuously loading and stacking CDs. Following the talk, Mark ran a
demonstration by duplicating four different datasets to blank CD-Rs
simultaneously.