Stepping from the familiar world of tape duplication into the realm of CD or DVD duplication can be a scary move for many. The benefits of that shiny silver disc are undeniable, but setting up a “digital duplication ministry” involves scaling a bit of a learning curve. That learning curve keeps countless churches distributing noisy, warbly cassettes week after week.
One company committed to easing the transition from tape to disc is Primera Technology. Their Bravo Disc Publisher is a one-box duplicator and printer that makes each step of the disc duplication process as simple as possible, from creating the label to burning the actual discs. With a robotic “picker” arm and plenty of software smarts, Bravo lets you stack up to 50 blank CDs or DVDs into its trays, start up a duplication job (or several) and walk away.
Bravo is available in audio (CD) or video (DVD) configurations, with a list price of $1,995 and $2,495 respectively. (All prices in U.S. dollars.)
Under the Hood
Bravo is a compact unit with a footprint roughly equivalent to a typical laser
printer, though not as tall. Under its tinted, clear front cover sit all the
moving parts of Bravo. You lift this cover to access the discs and printer,
but Bravo is too safety-conscious to operate with the cover open.
On each side of the duplicator sit two disc trays that hold 25 discs each. Between these trays are Bravo’s single disc recorder and inkjet printer. The recorder is a standard computerstyle unit, but the inkjet printer that sits above it is not. Bravo’s full-color printer is optimized for printing right onto the surface of the discs, and won’t do regular paper or even jewel case inserts. Far from being a drawback, this specialization allows printing to be integrated seamlessly into the disc duplication process.
Above the disc, recorder, and printer trays floats a robotic arm. This arm picks up discs to move them through the duplication process, gently grabbing them by their center hole. In normal operation, Bravo picks up blank discs (up to 25 of them) from the right-hand tray, moves them to the center for duplication and printing, then deposits the finished discs into the left-hand tray. In “kiosk” mode, a center slot normally used to jettison failed discs instead carries finished discs out of the machine. This frees up the left-hand tray, which usually holds the finished discs, to hold another 25 blanks. Rig up some graceful way to catch the finished discs as they slide out of the machine, and Bravo will happily run a full 50 copies per job.
Running parallel to Bravo’s robotic arm is the inkjet print head assembly. Bravo uses one black and one color inkjet cartridge to create a full spectrum of colors. Print resolution ranges from 600x600 dpi (dots per inch) up to 1200x2400 dpi, the latter being capable of true photo-quality output. Bi-directional printing is an option, though its reduced print time can bring with it a slight drop in image quality.
Bravo works with PC or Mac computers, and its system requirements are modest. PC computers need Windows 2000 or XP, 256 MB of RAM and a 700 MHz processor. Macs have similar CPU and RAM requirements, and need to be running OS X version 10.2 or later. In addition, the host computer needs one free FireWire and USB port. The FireWire connection carries the actual data to the recorder, while the USB cable controls the printer and robotics. If you forego simultaneous duplication and printing, you may be able to get by with a less powerful computer.
Slick Software
Though there are discs to shuffle and inkjet cartridges to change, disc duplication
is, at its essence, a software-driven process. Bundle the greatest duplication
hardware with bad software, and you’ll still have a miserable experience.
Thankfully, Bravo ships with excellent software that makes the duplication
process smooth and easy. (Mac systems ship with Charismac’s Discribe
and Magic Mouse’s Discus software packages.)
Bravo’s main software package comes from Sonic Solutions, a company that knows a thing or two about disc mastering and duplication. Called PrimoDVD, the software allows creation of most standard disc formats – data CD, audio CD, Video CD, CD-I, DVD, and others (depending on the drive configuration that is purchased).
PrimoDVD supports many different disc formats, and also gives you many options for where you get the data for the disc. Disc copy allows copying straight from a drive on your computer, via a temporary image file on your hard drive, or you can extract the data on the source disc to a “keeper” file on your drive and burn from that.
You may copy specific audio tracks from one audio CD to your new CD, or extract tracks to the hard drive. Normally extracted audio tracks come in as Windows .WAV format; PrimoDVD will also let you pull these tracks to your drive as compressed MP3 files at any of three different quality levels. Want to build audio CDs from multiple audio files on your drive? No problem — simply add the files, adjust their order and set the silence between tracks. You can even import MP3 files, and PrimoDVD will de-compress the files automatically before writing the disc.
The other half of Bravo’s software suite is SureThing CD, a package that allows for easy creation of professional-looking disc labels. Wizards and templates simplify the process greatly, and the software includes dozens of attractive background images: textures, gradients, abstract splashes of color, repeating patterns and more. Text handling is intuitive, with text boxes holding standard text or “artistic” text treated with perspective, bevels, drop shadows and the like.
The nicest feature on SureThing CD may be its ability to quickly swap out background images and text layouts at any time. This allows you to create a label the way you like it, then experiment with dramatically different looks with a click of the mouse. If you don’t add your own text boxes, returning to your original design idea is as simple as re-selecting the layout and background image you started with.
Once finished, SureThing CD saves your label in a proprietary format – .STD – recognized by PrimoDVD. If you’d prefer to create your labels in different software (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.), PrimoDVD will also print from standard .PRN files generated from these packages.
Impressions
After connecting the USB and FireWire cables, installation of Bravo drivers
and software onto my Micron Millennia 933MHz PC running Windows XP Pro went
without a hitch. A handy Quick Start guide makes setting up Bravo a no-brainer,
and the instructions and screenshots actually matched what I saw during installation.
A novel concept, one lost on all too many manufacturers.
Thanks to good software design and some excellent documentation, I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to get productive with Bravo. In addition to the supplied Quick Start and operating manuals, each software package has extensive online help and electronic manuals.
Once underway, Bravo’s software gives you plenty of information about the status of the current job. In addition, PrimoDVD keeps a detailed log file for each job. This makes it easy to go back and see when a given job started, how long it took, what errors occurred (if any), etc.
As tested, Bravo included a CD recorder rated at 24x record speed. Depending on the amount of music (or data) on a CD, this allows the system to turn out a finished CD around 3 minutes. If you want to verify each finished disc (not necessary with most jobs), this time roughly doubles.
Add printing into the process, and you can figure that a mostly-full disc with the highest quality print (2400 dpi and 100 percent coverage) will finish up in 5 or 6 minutes. Expecting Bravo to burn and print about 10 CDs an hour is realistic, which makes it a perfect fit for relatively low-volume applications. Bravo isn’t going to keep up with a larger four or eight-bay system, nor is it going to cost anywhere near as much. If you purchase the DVD version of Bravo, you can plan for each full DVD to take around 30 minutes to complete.
One very impressive aspect of Bravo’s performance is its disc printing. Using Primera’s own Tuff-Coat CDs resulted in finished discs with crisp text, vibrant colors and photo-realistic images. Quality is professional from edge to edge, with nothing to reveal that the disc wasn’t done on a highend, high-volume bulk manufacturing system.
Different brands and types of printable discs may give different results, but Bravo’s full-featured printer driver offers plenty of control to compensate for diverse media. Controls include ink density and several color matching modes, as well as dither optimization for photos or graphics. When changing blank media or ink cartridges, Bravo’s clever calibration tools make dialing in proper centering and registration a breeze. Bravo’s printer driver is as well written as any I’ve seen — even from big-name printer manufacturers.
Bravo, Bravo!
In all, this is one duplication product that deserves its name. Many times
I was impressed with how well conceived and executed Bravo is, from documentation
to installation to actual use. It’s rare to come across a product with
this much refinement and polish; Primera proves itself to be a real class act
with Bravo.
If your church is in the market for an elegant, affordable, all-in-one disc duplication system, Primera’s Bravo Disc Publisher won’t disappoint. It offers the optimum blend of features, control and simplicity to meet the low-volume duplication needs of most smallto mid-size churches.
Loren Alldrin is a regular contributor to Church Production
Magazine.
