Yet another nail in the UK disc replication industry, as VDC goes into administration. With the ever shrinking market it comes as no great surprise, but it is still a shock to see what was probably the UK’s largest DVD replication facility go under. VDC serviced a large proportion of the UK independent film distribution market, at prices that some felt were not viable for a UK business. The European plants will no doubt absorb the extra units, but the reduced competition will certainly not be a good thing for distributors looking for a new supplier.

A good time to remind people that 10pdm offer keen prices for DVD replication and authoring.

Stanley Productions Ceases Trading

*** UPDATE – The Stanley Productions brand has been acquired by The Television Set Ltd.  A great Soho stalwart lives on, though sadly the Wardour Street shop is no more.***

Stanley Productions was incorporated over 35 years ago, and on the 5th of July 2013 went into liquidation, closing a chapter in the history of tape sales and duplication services in Soho, London.

Many years before I set up 10th Planet, I used to buy reel to reel tape and editing blades from Stanley’s (yes, I am that old!). The place never really changed much and despite later running a company that competed with them on some services, I always had a soft spot for the ‘building merchant’s’ style trade counter and the ‘stack em high, sell em cheap attitude’.

The closing of their doors says a lot about the market for video tapes (something we stopped selling years ago) and also the authoring and duplication industry. Selling something as cheaply is possible isn’t always the best business model. Time and time again we have had to rescue projects that clients took to Stan’s and their technical ability or print knowledge were not able to provide the quality required. We gave up matching the “DVD Authoring for £50 with menus and subtitles” quotes as we recognise that its better to charge a realistic price in order to provide a professional service than to race to the bottom.

A sad day for the industry as we lose an icon that we have all grown used to.

We will of course be more than happy to talk to any customers that require disc duplication, video transfers or authoring who are now looking for an alternative supplier please call us on 020 7434 2345.

10th Planet Digital Media recently completed DVD authoring on the first of a 12 part series entitled “Price of Kings”. The first in this ground breaking documentary series of films, “Yasser Arafat” reveals the sacrifices made by one of the most controversial leaders of the 20th Century.

After a tender process lead by Creative Director Joseph Barnes, production company Spirit Level Films commissioned 10th Planet to provide creative authoring services for the worldwide release of the DVD. The London based digital media facility designed menus, standards converted the footage, encoded and created the DVD master for production. The entire project was completed in less than two weeks at 10th Planet London’s authoring facility near Waterloo in order to meet the tight deadlines imposed by the DVD release dates.

Richard Symons of Spirit Level says of the project “I’ve worked with 10pdm before and as usual, the design brief was hit spot on. We provided HD video assets as well as multiple audio streams to work with and the project was delivered in time to make our release schedule.”
With the remaining 11 films scheduled for release, this series looks set to be the political documentary of the decade.

Trailer and more information on the series at http://www.priceofkings.co.uk

After over 10 years in Soho we have grown too big for our offices and are moving back to our South East London roots.

I don’t know how many of our clients have been to our Central London shop in Wardour St. but if you have you may have had to fight your way past a veritable mountain of cardboard boxes of jobs going out, stock coming in and supplies needed to keep our busy production department running.
Yes, after over 10 years in W1 we have finally decided that when you cant see staff over mountains of cardboard, then the place is too damn small. We have taken a long lease on a fantastic new place in SE1, conveniently close to both Waterloo East and Borough Market (I can feel the waistline expanding already!). With 3500 SqFt of warehouse space and ample adjoining offices, in a building populated by internet startups and telecoms companies, we are very excited to have a new home we can grow into.

We will of course be offering all our usual fast turnaround DVD duplication and mail fulfillment services, just with a bit more room to breathe!

Our new address is active from 14th November, click here for all the details.

A sign of the economic times perhaps, but we take no pleasure in announcing that Amstore CD Duplication (seemingly part of the Amstore Group) have gone into administration. 10th Planet Digital Media will of course honour any pricing to their client base and we will do everything we can to make sure that no CD and DVD clients of theirs suffer as a result of this sad news.
Our thoughts go out to the management at this difficult time of what used to be one of the major players in the UK CD Replication and Duplication industry.

It should be added that this Amstore is not related to the US company of the same name.

Due to the continuing crisis in Japan, stocks of HDCAM SR are severely limited. This has meant that what stock is available is on an allocation basis only. This effectively means that broadcasters and large facilities will be able to get some stock but smaller companies will find it very difficult to secure both HDCAM and HDCAM SR. As a result tape prices have gone up, in some case by over 100%. Stand definition stock is also experiencing some price rises and shortage, though not as severe as HD.

If it wasn’t for the fact that solid state video storage solutions are similarly affected, it would be another nail in tape’s coffin. It will be interesting to see how much tape sales recover by when supplies improve, as digital workflow and delivery is looking very attractive at the moment.

10th Planet is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of Promotional USB through our sister website WeAreUSB.com.
Since the earthquake on Japan on Friday 11th March we have seen huge increases in the cost of the flash memory that is at the heart of every USB drive. As a result prices for USB memory have risen by as much as 20% in the last few days. Supplies are very limited and although we have some UK stock for fast turnaround orders this is selling very fast. If you have any USB projects that are required in the next few weeks please contact us for the latest developments.

10pdm are looking for a runner/trainee to join our busy DVD Authoring and encoding team. The ideal candidate is someone with a passion for all aspects of digital video with some knowledge of encoding and authoring processes preferable, though training will be provided.
A good design sense is also an advantage.

email jobs@10pdm.com with your CV and covering letter.

So we may be a bit biased here at 10th Planet, but well done to the hammers for securing the Olympic Stadium after 2012.
Our bias is of course mostly due to West Ham choosing 10pdm’s USB division (wearesusb.com) to design and manufacture their custom shape usb.

Having said that, with the number of football clubs that use our services for both USB and DVD duplication there was quite a high chance that one of our clients would secure it!

Ok, so it’s a slight exaggeration but sharp eyed viewers of BBC’s “The Apprentice” with Sir Alan Sugar may have noticed the guy’s team racing past our Soho shop. After popping into our local Italian deli (the foodie’s delight that is Camisa) to score some white truffles they can be seen jumping into their waiting limo, parked outside our store. Sadly for them it wasn’t the previous week’s episode where we would have gladly helped them get to grips with DVD duplication and authoring!