Recording and electronically duplicating services or sermons is an effective way for a church to expand its ministry. For this reason, duplication systems are becoming ever more popular with churches of all sizes and denominations.
And while the humble audiocassette remains the distribution medium of choice, the plummeting cost of CD burners and blank CD-Rs is making CD duplication a practical option for many churches. Consider the benefits of CDs: high-quality sound, no degradation over time, nearinstant access to any section of the program... The list goes on.
MediaFORM is one of the leading manufacturers of small-run duplication systems suitable for church use. Their line of automated loaders, duplicators and printers aim to make CD (and DVD) duplication an efficient, hassle-free process. Near the middle of MediaFORM’s product line is the Scribe EC series, which delivers flexible features and high output volume at a reasonable price point. This issue, we put the Scribe EC 9004ec-CD duplicator and Spectrum 2 printer through their paces.
The Helpful Robot
As tested, the Scribe EC 9004-ec CD system ($5,999) has four recorder
bays capable of burning at a speed of 40x (new models are already up to 48x).
Other configurations are available, including those with two duplicators, smaller
capacity spindles and DVD capability. The Spectrum 2 printer ($3,499) uses
a film-style ribbon and monochrome thermal transfer system to quickly print
crisp, dark graphics or text on plain CDs. A color inkjet printer is also available.
At the heart of the Scribe EC is a motorized transport tower (or “loader”) surrounded by thin aluminum spindles. These spindles hold up to 600 CDs in three columns; a fourth output spindle holds up to 200 finished CDs. The Scribe EC’s loader mechanism rotates through an arc of around 300 degrees, dropping down from above the spindles to pick up the CDs. Opposite the spindles sit the CD recorders and optional CD printer. When first setting up the system, you have to carefully position the duplicator module and printer next to each other so the Scribe EC can drop CDs into the open trays.
CDs that fail the burning or verification process are detected and discarded in a designated stack just in front of the duplicator bays.
Scribe EC works from front to back, grabbing blank CDs from the first stack of discs and later depositing the finished CDs on the output spindle. Then it loads from the second stack of CDs, and deposits the finished copies in the now-vacant first column. With input and output spindles, CDs in various stages of completion, duplicator and printer trays opening and closing and multiple master discs in play for some modes, Scribe EC has a lot to keep track of. Thank goodness robots never get tired, and don’t blink.
Thank goodness, also, that Scribe EC has a good head on its shoulders. The real smarts of the system come in the form of a PC computer (not included), which connects to the Scribe EC with a handful of cables. Two FireWire cables run to the stack of drives, while an RS-232 serial cable links computer to loader. A standard parallel printer cable carries print files to the Spectrum 2 printer, while a serial cable sends automation commands. If you want to manually load and unload the CD printer, the second serial cable is unnecessary. The Scribe EC hardware bundle includes all necessary cables and two PCI FireWire cards.
The Scribe EC software requires a sturdy, fast computer with a generous amount of hard drive space. The software is also RAM hungry, requiring a full gigabyte of RAM for certain operating modes (though I had success running the software on less than half that amount). An 800 MHz Pentium III is the minimum processor; free ports must include at least one serial, one parallel and two FireWire. Scribe EC is choosey about the operating system used, working only with Windows 2000 or XP.
In Use
Hardware setup of the Scribe EC system is relatively simple, with
just a bit of care required to get the duplicators and printer lined up directly
beneath the loader arm. Attach four or five cables between duplicator and computer,
and you’re halfway there.
Unfortunately, the software side of the installation didn’t turn out to be nearly so easy. Snag number one hit with the installation of the FireWire cards—turns out MediaFORM does not provide the required “IP over 1394” drivers. This meant a somewhat involved process of manually extracting them from the Windows XP CD.
When first turning on the duplicators, more drivers turned up missing. Back to the XP CD I went to extract drivers for the FireWire CD-R drives. The manual and quick start guide are completely mum on the topic of drivers, which all but guarantees a call to MediaFORM tech support for most users. Thankfully, loading the actual Scribe EC application and Spectrum 2 software/drivers went without a hitch.
The Scribe EC application consists primarily of three major sections: job manager, data image editor and audio image editor. The job manager is where you set up new duplication jobs, check on the status of in-progress jobs and view completed jobs.
Duplication jobs can be started in several different modes, pulling source data from either a master CD or an existing image file on the computer (a single file that holds all the CD data). If duplicating an existing data or audio CD, Scribe EC first extracts the data into a temporary image file before beginning duplication.
The standard job mode prompts you to specify either a master disk or image file source, then the number of copies you want. Select from a few other options (write speed, test-only mode, verify after write, print on/ off, optional print file, etc.) and the job begins. More flexible is the relay mode, which allows you to load in as many blank CDs as you want duplicated, then the master CD on top. Scribe EC loads the data off the master disc, and begins burning copies until the blank CDs are gone. You can stack up multiple jobs in this fashion; the system will detect each new master CD and make copies of the corresponding blank CDs. Very clever.
The data image editor is where you drag-and- drop data files to create a new data CD. The audio image editor works in a similar fashion, though the files added must be audio data in WAV or MP3 format. The audio image editor allows you to add or remove silence between CD tracks, as well as add sub-index markers to individual tracks. When you’re done compiling a data or audio CD, you have two options: create an image file, or proceed immediately to the job manager to start duplication. The latter still builds a disc image from which to burn CDs, which is more reliable than pulling from the source data files on the fly.
The Scribe EC software is handy for building a common data or audio CD, but it won’t create enhanced, hybrid, cross-platform or other CD formats. For these applications, you’ll need to create a CD image file in a dedicated package from the likes of Roxio, Nero, CD Everywhere or similar. Note that this limitation of the software is only for creating new CDs—Scribe EC will duplicate pretty much any format if given a master CD or image file.
The Spectrum 2 printer includes a graphics application for laying out CD label artwork. You can draw shapes, import pictures and graphics and place straight or circular text on the CD. Basic CD graphics are a snap to make with the software, and you can either print directly to the printer or print to a file for later use in a duplication run. Depending on CD coverage, a single thermal-transfer ribbon will print between 2,000 and 6,000 CDs. Results are crisp and, in contrast to the MediaFORM color inkjet printer, permanent even when subjected to moisture. The Spectrum 2 printer can turn out a finished CD in about 30 seconds.
In use, the Scribe EC software offers no-frills control over the duplication process. The interface has a few quirks, but the basics can be learned relatively quickly by someone with average computer skills. Online or context-sensitive help would be a welcome addition; in its absence, I’d recommend new Scribe EC and Spectrum 2 users print up the PDF manuals from the software CDs and keep them handy.
Is the CD duplication process entirely handsoff? Not necessarily. On longer runs, someone needs to occasionally feed blank CDs into the system, and at least keep an eye on the job progress. I checked in on one job to find that the CD loader hadn’t rotated far enough to pull a finished CD from the drive, and was stuck on the top of the CD. I had to shut down the loader and re-start the job. Soon after, the printer’s ribbon snapped and had to be re-attached to the take-up spool. These may be flukes—part of the initial set-up process—but they underscore an important point: no system is foolproof, especially during the break-in period.
However, I was very impressed with the build quality of the MediaFORM system, especially the loader and printer. This equipment is built like a tank, and I expect Scribe EC users will enjoys years of troublefree service from the system.
Burning Fast
The burning question you may have (pardon the
pun) is how many CDs will the system crank out? The answer depends on the length
of your program or quantity of data, whether you verify each disc, whether
you’re printing each CD and other variables. I found the 40x drive system
to be capable of turning out around 60 30-minute CDs in an hour. With label
printing, that number should fall closer to 45. That’s roughly one finished
CD dropping onto the output spindle each minute. Not bad at all.
In the world of duplication, however, speed costs money. With a list price approaching $10,000 without the computer, the Scribe EC system as tested may be beyond the reach of some churches. Less expensive options are available from MediaFORM and other companies, however, with a corresponding trade-off in speed.
Whether you need 10 finished CDs per hour or 100, MediaFORM’s
Scribe EC line may be just the ticket for churches interested in taking the
step into CD duplication.
