MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE), Sony DADC and manufacturing partner Shanghai Epic Music Entertainment Co., Ltd. (Shanghai Epic) have opened the first Blu-ray Disc replication facility in China.
This production facility for BD25 and BD50 discs will provide a monthly production capacity of up to 500,000 Blu-ray Discs, handling local manufacturing for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and other companies distributing high-definition entertainment content in China.
In the fourth quarter of 2008, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, through a partnership with Excel media, became the first Hollywood studio to distribute Blu-ray product in China.
In celebration of the new facility, an opening ceremony was held in the Shanghai Epic factory. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment executive vice president, international Matt Brown said, "As the first Hollywood studio to distribute Blu-ray Disc in China, SPHE is thrilled to see the opening of this new facility to meet the growing demand of our discerning customers in the Chinese market."
"The Chinese disc replication industry has reached a strategic milestone with the start of Blu-ray Disc production at Shanghai Epic. Shanghai Epic is seizing the opportunity to lead a breakthrough in the entertainment industry with this investment in technology upgrades and industry innovation," said Shanghai Media Group CEO and Shanghai Synergy and Shanghai Epic chairman Ruigang Li.
The start of Blu-ray production line marks a technological advance in the overall quality of A/V entertainment products. It will play a significant role for the Chinese cultural industry to participate in this dynamic industry on a global level.
Sony Disc & Digital Solutions president Dieter Daum and Shanghai Epic board member added, "Vastly improved A/V entertainment products will be introduced to the Chinese market with the arrival of Blu-ray Disc, and Chinese movies and TV programs will increasingly be exported overseas via the new format."
Shanghai Epic MD Xiao Wu said, "This Blu-ray production line, which is manufactured by Sony, adopts state of art manufacturing technology and is the most popular one in the world, with 70% market share of global BD lines. The production line adopts the most advanced resin spinning coating and embossing technology with a yield rate comparable of that of DVD. Moreover, the installation and trial run of this line has been operated smoothly and the finished products passed every inspection and have been approved by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA)."
Blu-ray Disc replicated by the Blu-ray production line introduced by Shanghai Epic is the new high capacity information carrier. It differs from the traditional DVD in that it encodes high-definition picture and audio. It is named Blu-ray because of its use of 405 nm blue-violet lasers to read and write data.
The BD format allows for a storage capacity up to 50GB (6 times DVD) for a disc of the same size as CD and it also supports full high-definition display in 1920×1080P. Besides crystal clear picture, it also supports 5.1-channel surround sound of 4.6 Mbps stream and even 7.1-channel surround sound, which reaches the professional cinema level. Blu-ray Disc presents the consumer with the best picture and sound quality available.
