Primera Ships World's First Blu-ray Disc Duplication System

[Dave]

Primera Technology announced that it has begun shipping the Bravo XR-Blu ($5,295) disc publisher. Bravo XR-Blu is the world's first automated burn and print device to support new high-capacity Blu-ray Disc recorders and media. The shipping of the unit coincides with announcements from other Blu-ray Disc content and equipment providers such as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Sony Electronics and Samsung Electronics.

Along with its built-in robotics and full-color direct-to-disc inkjet printing, the Bravo XR-Blu incorporates Pioneer Electronics' new BDR-101A Blu-ray disc/DVD recorder. Blu-ray enabled recording software based on technology from Sonic Solutions is included to provide a complete and professional Blu-ray Disc publishing solution. Recordable BD-R printable-surface media for the XR-Blu is being provided by TDK Electronics Corporation.

As the first automated system to use Blu-ray technology, the Bravo XR-Blu is expected to be used in a wide variety of cutting-edge applications in business, government, military, medical, banking, insurance, back-up and archival, high-definition video, digital movie post-production and more.

The initial release of the Bravo XR-Blu uses single-layer discs to store up to 25 Gigabytes of data. An upgrade will allow dual-layer media, which stores up to 50 Gigabytes of data per disc. Since up to 50 discs can be loaded into the Bravo XR-Blu at a time, this gives a total native capacity of up to 2.5 terabytes of data that can be published in a single session. Blu-ray discs utilize shorter wavelength blue lasers in order to store far more data than any other optical disc technology commercially available.