Otari Corporation announced it has sold its first CDP-64 industrial CD-R duplicator to Video Duplication Services.

For more information visit: www.otari.com

Unedited press release follows:

OTARI ANNOUNCES VIDEO DUPLICATION SERVICES (VDS) AS THE FIRST PURCHASER OF THE NEW CDP-64 LARGE SCALE CD-R DUPLICATOR

— Installation of Otari’s CDP-64 vastly increases VDS’ short-run/fast-turnaround capability and capacity —

REPLItech NORTH AMERICA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, February 20, 2001 — Opening a new chapter in the fast-changing landscape of media manufacturing, Video Duplication Services (VDS), one of the largest VHS video duplication facilities in North America, has become the first purchaser of the new Otari CDP-64 large-scale CD-R duplication system. The CDP-64 was installed at VDS’ Columbus, Ohio manufacturing facility in December, which allowed VDS to significantly expand its growing custom optical disc business. VDS is now able to market its services to more customers, offering faster, more efficient turnaround of orders, with complete reliability.

Celebrating 15 years of growth, VDS duplicates millions of VHS videos per year at its facilities in Columbus, Dayton, Cleveland, and Youngstown, Ohio, as well as Detroit, Michigan. They chose the new Otari CDP-64 based on a number of factors, including VDS’ long-time experience with Otari’s media manufacturing equipment: VDS currently operates 20 Otari high-speed video tape loaders and 8 thermal magnetic duplicators. The addition of the CDP-64 is a new chapter in VDS’ foray into new media formats. “We’ve been working with Otari for many years. They understand what we do at VDS and are responsive to our needs. This in turn, helps us serve our customers better,” stated VDS President Peter Stock.

With its CD-R duplication division a little over a year old, Stock saw the need to expand to meet changing market conditions, such as declining unit pricing for CD-R discs and increasing customer requirements for larger orders and faster turnaround.

“The difference between duplicated CD-R pricing and pricing for replicated CDs has diminished considerably in the last year,” Stock explains. “Yet CD-R remains an excellent format for run sizes below those usually placed for replicated CDs, as well as for custom data products whose information has to be constantly updated. These changing market conditions indicated we needed to expand our CD-R duplication capacity, and do so in the most efficient manner possible. The Otari CDP-64 is exactly the right solution for this scenario. It dramatically increases our CD-R throughput, as well as reduces our per unit cost for manufacturing. The CDP-64 is tremendously efficient as well as cost-effective — I’m glad we were the first company to put it to work for us.”

Installed at the 48,000-square-foot plant in Columbus, Ohio, the Otari CDP-64 was quickly up and running three full shifts per day. This increased VDS’ CD-R capacity up to an additional 30,000 units per day. That, says Stock, will allow VDS to not only better service its existing client base but also more assertively market this service to new customers. The customer base for the CD-R format is potentially huge and wide-ranging: Stock notes that VDS is seeing CD-R orders come from both existing VHS clients and from an entirely new customer base which recognizes the benefits of the recordable optical disc for data, software and entertainment products.

Stock points out that only the Otari CDP-64 was capable of providing such a comprehensive solution to a changing market. “It’s the only one with sixty-four drives,” he says. “But more importantly, the advanced robotics of the CDP-64 keep those drives working at maximum efficiency. That’s where the CDP-64 really shines.” The CDP-64 offers VDS other efficiencies that translate immediately to the bottom line in a business where margin is everything, including the ability to move finished discs from duplication to printing on the spindle versus individually. “That saves tremendous amounts of time,” says Stock. “We can place the whole spindle with finished discs right into the screen printer.”

Using advanced 12X drives, the Otari CDP-64 Large-Scale CD-R Duplication Unit is designed to provide increased productivity more cost-effectively. Disc supply and master data acquisition are done on an 8-drive line unit basis to minimize drive idle time when changing discs. The CDP-64’s utilizes Otari’s unique Automatic Disc Loading Mechanism, combined with a double feed prevention/detection system, enabling fast and reliable disc handling. In addition, the CDP-64 utilizes an enclosed, shock-floated chassis construction to keep CD-R drives free from dust, and the system is fully stand-alone, requiring only AC power and compressed air to operate. One operator can easily handle as many as eight CDP-64 systems simultaneously. Data acquisition from a master disc is done at a maximum of 40X speed. And these drives support various disc formats including CD-DA, CD-ROM, Video CD and CD Extra.

“The key to profitability in the disc business is efficiency,” observes Stock. “And the key to efficiency is the Otari CDP-64.”

Otari, Inc., established in 1965 in Tokyo, Japan, first specialized in the manufacturing of high-speed audio tape duplicators. The company’s research on magnetic recording resulted in a series of renowned master recorders, most notably — the MTR-90 and MTR-10. For 35 years, Otari has been a leading manufacturer of professional audio products for the broadcast, post-production, music recording and live sound markets, including: analog and digital recorders, mixing consoles, as well as high-speed industrial audio and video cassette loading and duplication systems.

– For more information on the full range of Otari products, contact: Chris Steinwand, Otari Corporation, 8236 Remmet Avenue, Canoga Park, CA 91304. Tel: 818-598-1256 Fax: 818-594-7208

Otari will be exhibiting at Booth #1649 at the 2001 REPLItech North America show in Los Angeles, CA.