German compact disc and DVD equipment company Singulus and Japan’s Sony have teamed up to develop a new technology for music and video discs, Singulus said on Tuesday.
News source: Reuters Singulus and Sony are joining forces to develop mass-production equipment to make Blu-ray discs, one of two competing formats to succeed DVDs as the standard of choice for multimedia discs, Singulus said in a statement.
Blu-ray, supported by Sony and other electronics giants such as Samsung and Philips, competes with rival technology HD-DVD, which has the backing of Toshiba and Hollywood studios.
“With this cooperation with Sony, who is the main technology driver in the field of Blu-ray, Singulus has got itself into an excellent position to participate in the growth prospects of this future optical disc technology,” said brokerage WestLB Equity Markets in a research note.
“Due to its strong technological position, Singulus is very well positioned to participate from the growth of both technologies,” WestLB analysts said in the note.
For Sony, the deal means that it has won the backing of the biggest maker of equipment for replicating DVDs, which will enable production of pre-recorded Blu-ray discs.
“The largest system integrator is ready to introduce a Blu-ray disc. That is today’s news,” said Sony spokesman Taro Takamine.
Sony announced in August that it had developed a mastering system for Blu-ray technology, which uses blue-violet laser light and can imprint more than two hours of high-definition video onto a single 12-centimeter disc. But it needed the backing of a replication machine maker like Singulus to achieve a complete production line for the Blu-ray format.
Sony said in September that its next-generation PlayStation game console would support Blu-ray technology, considered an important announcement because PlayStation 2 played a large role in spreading the use of the current DVD.
