DISC PUBLISHER GOES PRO

It's fun and practical these days making your own CDs and DVDs. But making them one at a time can be a bit tedious if you plan on making more than a few at one time. A little over two years ago, I reported on the Bravo from Primera. It was a new disc publishing product that automated the entire process of creating a finished disc. The Bravo was a single device that could both burn an optical disc and print a full color image directly onto the disc's surface. And it was small enough to fit on your desk. The next version of this system to appear was the Bravo II which came out last year.

The Bravo II added several improvements including an increased capacity that let it create up to 50 discs at a time, up from 25. Other improvements included an increase in the printing resolution from 2400 to 4800 dots-per-inch, and the introduction of the AccuDisc technology. Basically AccuDisc is a suite of hardware and firmware enhancements that uses advanced LED optics instead of mechanical components to help eliminate the misalignment of the little robotic arm that picks up and positions the Bravo II's discs in the drive and printer. It also prevents the feeding of double discs into the recordable drive which continues to be a common problem with other picking systems.

And it looks like Primera (www.primera23.com) has improved the device once more with it's BravoPro model. It doesn't replace the Bravo II but rather offers additional enhancements for those who need even more publishing power. For starters, the BravoPro's loading capacity has been doubled once again, this time to 100 optical discs. The number of discs you can produce per hour has also been increased by enhancing the BravoPro's robotics, printing speed and even how fast the disc tray can open and close.
According to Primera, the BravoPro burns, prints and transports around 22 percent faster than their closest competitor.

Also added is the new Afterburner Print Technology (APT) that utilizes a special Lexmark print head that doubles the width of the head's printing area in a single pass. A wider printing swath means the images will print out more quickly since less passes are needed to cover the disc's printable surface. Another component of APT is special firmware that produces a 4800 dpi resolution using a very tiny 3 picoliter droplet size. The smaller the ink droplets, the smoother the printed image will appear to the eye. Plus the technology also makes the process of aligning the ink cartridges you replace completely automatic.

Finally, we all know that two of anything is usually better than one and that certainly goes for the number of disc drives. The BravoPro incorporates two high-speed Plextor CD-R or two Plextor CD-R/DVD dual-layer plus-minus R drives for volume disc production.

For Windows, Primera includes CD/DVD mastering and duplication software by Sonic. This is the same burn engine software recently selected by Microsoft for inclusion in Windows XP Media Center and by Adobe Systems for use in Photoshop Elements 3.0. For the Macintosh, Primera provides CharisMac's Discribe Mastering Software. This application includes many advanced features utilized by video, audio and graphics professionals. Disc layout templates for Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop are also included.

And if your needs require further specialization, Primera provides you with a Software Developer¹s Kit with easy to integrate APIs based upon the same Sonic burn engine. Also included with every unit is their Windows-based PTBurn Network Software that allows multiple users to access the BravoPro from client PCs.

It's nice to see a good idea evolve into an even better one. With the BravoPro, Primera has most definitely taken the concept of self-publishing to the next level. You can literally produce thousands of professional-quality optical discs right on your own desktop. Depending on the configuration, the BravoPro CD version sells for $3495, the DVD model goes for $3995. Check Primera's website for other additional options.

www.primera23.com