Shanghai Epic And Sony DADC Begin Blu-ray Disc Manufacturing In China

Sony DADC and manufacturing joint venture Shanghai Epic Music Entertainment Co., Ltd. (Shanghai Epic) today announced the opening of the first ever BD50 replication facility in China. In celebration of the new facility, an opening ceremony was held in the Shanghai Epic factory this afternoon with hundreds of guests including high ranking government officials. Mr. Zhijing Zhang (Member of Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal Committee and Vice Minister of Propaganda), related officials from General Administration of Press and Publicity of P. R. C. and hundreds honored guests from both China and overseas participated the opening ceremony. Mr. Zhang delivered an enthusiastic speech and started the BD line.

It is Sony’s fourth Blu-ray disc plant after sites in the U.S., Japan and Austria.

“Shanghai Epic is seizing the opportunity to lead a breakthrough in the entertainment industry during the global economic and financial crisis.” said Mr. Ruigang Li, CEO of Shanghai Media Group and the Chairman of Shanghai Synergy and Shanghai Epic, “I believe that the investment in technology upgrading and industry innovation is important as well.”

The start of Blu-ray production line not only fills the gap of high capacity and high-tech Blu-ray Disc (BD25 & BD50) manufacture technology but also 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.

Mr. Dieter Daum, President of Sony Disc & Digital Solutions and Board member of Shanghai Epic, stated that “more and more excellent A/V entertainment products will be introduced to China’s market with the coming of the BD era, also, Chinese movies and TV programs will be exported overseas by the BD format.”

Mr. Xiao Wu, Managing Director of Shanghai Epic, commented, “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).”