TDK, Sony sign licensing deal for PD-RE23CN media

TDK Corp. has reached a licensing agreement with Sony for TDK to begin manufacturing and distributing TDK Professional Disc (PD-RE23CN) media, rewritable optical discs that provide compatibility with Sony's Professional Disc system (XDCAM). The TDK Professional Disc media will launch worldwide in June 2005.

The TDK Professional Disc, which uses a blue-violet laser with a short wavelength for recording and playback, boasts a capacity of 23.3GB - about five times that of DVD media - as well as a rapid transfer rate of 72Mbps. The company has incorporated technologies specifically developed for use with the advanced blue-violet laser. The technologies include the recording materials and recording layer. Through high-precision spin coating technology, discs are manufactured with an extremely smooth 0.1mm-thick transparent cover layer.

In the future, demand for optical discs in professional broadcasting applications is expected to increase further, TDK believes that its Professional Disc for broadcast use will assume a key role in the areas of transferring images to IT systems, high-speed editing and random access.