the blog
Customer Satisfaction Survey
January 24, 2012
Tags: Customer service | ISO 14001
We often receive kind comments from our customers about our DVD and CD duplication, disc printing and packaging services. We really appreciate it and knowing that you get the good service you deserve is important to us.
However, we are continually striving to improve the services and products that our customers receive. Towards the end of last year, we surveyed a sample of our customers to see how we’re getting on and to find out if there are any areas in which we need to pull up our proverbial socks. As you can see from the quotes below, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
While we’re delighted and more than a little flattered, we’re by no means claiming to be perfect and we have already put in place measures to improve certain areas based on the feedback from the survey. As an ISO9001 accredited company, improvement is not just part of our ethos; it is built into the structure of the company. It is also a continual process, so if you have any comments that you think will help to improve our service, please get in touch.
You can see the full results of the survey here.
A Happy 2012 to All Our Customers!
January 3, 2012
We’d like to wish all our customers a Happy New Year. We’re looking forward to working with you and catering for all your CD duplication, DVD duplication, printing and packaging needs in 2012!
Merry Christmas from Alpha!
December 23, 2011
Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat and Alpha are getting ready to close down for a few days rest. Alpha will be shutting up shop for the festive period from 2pm on 23rd December. We will also be closed on Monday 26th December and Tuesday 27th December and Monday 2nd January.
However fear not, we will be open for business on 28th, 29th and 30th December and then it’s business as usual from Tuesday 3rd January 2012!
We would like to wish all of our customers and suppliers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we look forward to dealing with you again in 2012!
Cassette Tape Cut From Dictionary
October 11, 2011
Who else remembers Sunday evenings listening to the Top Forty with your fingers hovering over the play and record buttons waiting for your favourite song to come on? And then the crushing disappointment as Bruno Brooks talks all over the intro?
It’s time to get a bit wistful as we pause for a few thoughts about the the dear old cassette.
The Oxford English Dictionary has announced it is getting rid of the term “cassette tape” from its Concise Edition, to make room for a number of young thrusting words like ‘re-tweet’ and ‘cyberbullying’. Although not officially pronounced dead, you get the feeling that this is a move to a home with nice nurses from which there is no return.
Of course it would be discourteous to say it in their presence but it was common knowledge that they were a bit rubbish. The sound quality was at best poor (even with the Dolby Digital Stereo button pressed down), you couldn’t skip easily to the next track without an earful of screechy noises and they had a nasty habit of getting chewed up and ruining car stereos.
You always got the impression they were aware of their flaws and never felt the need to apologise or to pretend otherwise. Surely that’s something to be respected in a media format.
Cookham Dean Gravity Grand Prix
September 12, 2011
Tags: Community
The modest crew of the not-so-modest Manila Thrilla felt the warm glow of achievement as they were presented with the coveted award of “Spirit of the Event” at this year’s Cookham Dean Gravity Grand Prix.
The road to glory was far from smooth. Despite many late nights of tinkering the bus was certainly looking good and ready for action. That was until she suffered some ‘slight technical hitches’ on her big day. The brakes failed during the first run and the roof blow off en route to the race! The team persevered in the face of adversity, completed the course and were singled out for the spirit that they embodied. Well done guys. You did us proud!
It was a great day out with many people lining the streets to cheer the karts as they hurtled downhill. You can see pictures of the other fantastic entrants here.
A big thank you to all those who came along and especially to Paul, David, Elizabeth, Mark and everyone else involved who helped to make this such an entertaining day. Just goes to show what sheer belief, determination and team work can achieve!
We’d also like to say a large gravity-powered thank you to those who gave generously and helped raise over £300 for the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust.
Here’s the official results…
Cookham Dean Gravity Grand Prix – Results 2011
Spirit of the Event
This top prize is awarded by the organisers to the team, which in their opinion best reflects the fun and sporting nature of the event.
Winner – Alpha Beatz aka Manilla ThrillaBest Technical Design and Appearance
1st – Slipper One, Team Leader Guy Wootten
2nd – 3 Wheelin’ aka Copper Head, Team Leader Selwyn Harris
3rd – Craufurd Cut Throats, Team Leader Tim WaggettBest Novelty Cart
1st – Bathroom Acccessories, Team Leader Peter Bowden
2nd – Dougalxxx, Team Leader Peter Hunter
3rd – L’Escargot, Team Leader Mike Power
Wacky Races
September 2, 2011
Tags: Community
Anyone who has looked at our Facebook page recently may have noticed some photos of a curious contraption that’s been taking shape in our warehouse over last few weeks. That contraption is a bus (a Filipino-style Jeepney bus no less) and it will be our entry into this year’s Cookham Dean Gravity Grand Prix.
The picturesque Berkshire village will be closing off its main road and allowing all manner of wannabe Penelope Pitstops, Anthill Mobs and Dick Dastardlys to hurtle downhill through it at varying degrees of speed, control and inelegance. The racecourse is 700m long with a drop of 32m and karts are expected to reach between 30 to 40mph.
The building of the bus has been nothing short of a labour of love. Paul, our warehouse manager has spent many hours after work filling the air with various bashing, clanging and banging noises (punctuated with the occasional cuss-word) to build the frame and bodywork. It has been a group effort though and our artwork team have also been channeling their excess creativity into decorating it with crazy paintwork, music, trinkets and other assorted tat.
Last weekend ‘The Manila Thrilla’, as she has been christened was checked over by the judges ahead of the race. She also met the competition, including an Angry Birds birdbox, a pirate ship, a snail and a souped-up wheelie bin. If you’ve ever wondered which of those would be fastest in a race, now is your chance to find out. The brave/foolhardy onboard crew will be the Artwork Team pairing of David Yeung at the wheel and Elizabeth Gilson in the passenger seat.
The event is run to raise money for the Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance and you can visit our donations page at www.justgiving.com/alpha-beatz.
The race takes place next Sunday, 11th September. The time trials commence at 1.30pm from the junction of Church Road and Spring Lane to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Cookham Dean.
All spectators/cheerleaders would be warmly welcomed. It promises to be a great day, so if you’re available, pack a picnic, bring the kids, bring your friends and join in the madness!
A few highlights from last year’s race
An Appointment with Mr Yeats
August 24, 2011
Tags: CD card wallets | CD duplication | CD litho printing | CD screen printing
Despite frequent line-up changes and ventures into new musical territories, there are a few things that you can always rely on with a Waterboys’ CD. With the constant presence of Mike Scott at the helm you know that the songs will be more literate than most and infused with a hearty dose of Celtic spirituality.
Another recurring theme in the Waterboys’ back-catalogue is the inspiration of the Irish poet William Butler Yeats. Mike Scott has said that he regards the poet’s subjects of love, politics and the mystic as ‘a great set of unused rock’n’roll lyrics’.
When the band relocated to Ireland to write and record one of their best-loved albums, ‘Fisherman’s Blues’, he obviously had this in mind. Central to the album is the gorgeous ‘The Stolen Child’, an adaptation of a WB Yeats poem of the same name. Their 1993 album ‘Dream Harder’ featured the track ‘Love and Death’, another Yeats poem.
On their new CD ‘An Appointment with Mr Yeats’, they have gone further by making a whole album based on his poetry. The 14 new tracks were premiered eariler this year in a series of acclaimed shows and with Steve Wickham again on fiddle and a new vocalist Katie Kim added to the line-up this album will be sure to go down as another Waterboys classic.
The lead single ‘Sweet Dancer’ is available now on iTunes. The full album will be released on CD on September 19th and can be pre-ordered here.
Listen to ‘Sweet Dancer’
Local Environmental Project
July 20, 2011
Tags: Community | Environment | ISO 14001
The phrase ‘an oasis of wildlife’ may not be the first thing that springs to mind if you have visited us at our High Wycombe office in the frankly not-very-leafy Cressex Business Park. Backing onto the estate, however, minding its own business, is Chairborough Local Nature Reserve. You’d be forgiven for not knowing of its existence. It’s only accessible from a couple of small footpaths from the estate and being a nature reserve, it tends to keep itself to itself.
Chairborough was the first area in High Wycombe to be classified as a Local Nature Reserve due to the diversity of wildlife that it plays host to. Bullfinches, red kites, swallows and blackcaps are amongst the birds that find a home there for all or part of the year. Lizards, frogs and slow-worms and a host of mini beasts can be found in the undergrowth. Foxes, badgers and muntjac deer can also be spotted if you go at the right time of day, as well the occasional office worker catching a peaceful half-hour at lunchtime.
While nature is very good at taking care of itself, reserves such as this tend to get overgrown, limiting the diversity of the fauna and flora. To stop this happening and to encourage new growth, the area is carefully managed by the Woodland Department of Wycombe District Council with the help of volunteers.
As the neighbourly and environmentally-conscious company that we aspire to be, we decided to put our money where our mouth is and get stuck in. With help from John at WDC, a group of us picked the rainiest day in July (not deliberately) to spend a morning volunteering. We spilt into two teams; one to rake up cuttings that John had made while clearing the previous day. The other team set about digging holes and installing a new bench. There was also a plan to replace the worn railway-sleeper steps but the rain decided that this would be a job to save for another day.
A couple of hours later, tired, soaked to the skin and more than a little muddy, we relaxed with a cuppa and the satisfaction of a job well done.
It’s only the start of our involvement with the project, there is much more that goes on. When the growing season has finished we’ll be back to help chop back the scrub that has become overgrown to allow the new growth to flourish.
If you’re in the area, make sure you pop by to enjoy this little green oasis. You can even have a sit down on the new bench. (It’s at the top of the meadow facing Chairborough Road). Even better, if you’d like to get involved yourself, contact us here or John at WDC. There’ll always be plenty to do.
More pictures can be seen over on our Facebook page.
Service Guide
June 28, 2011
Have you seen our service guide? Have a flick through here, or get in contact and we’ll get a copy sent your way.
House Music
June 15, 2011
Tags: CD duplication | CD screen printing
For those who know him best as the archetypal upper-class twit in roles such as Bertie Wooster and Prince Regent in Blackadder, Hugh Laurie raised a few eyebrows with his runaway success in the States playing highly-intelligent but curmudgeonly doctor, Gregory House.
He’s surprising people once more, as well showing more enviable talent by releasing an album of New Orleans-style blues.
The album ‘Let Them Talk’ features legends Dr John, Irma Thomas & Allen Toussiant and we were pleased to be able to print these CDs.
'Let them talk' Vinyl-style screen-printed CDs
And here’s a sample of him chatting and boogie-woogie-ing with Jools on ‘Later…’ the other night…
Happy Earthday To You!
May 16, 2011
Tags: Community | Environment | ISO 14001
Since we gained the environmental accreditation ISO 14001 two years ago, we have been able to reduce waste and improve sustainability in the way that we work. As part of the accreditation we have a commitment not only to maintain this, but to keep looking at ways to improve what we do and how we can make our company greener.
Last Friday we held a company ‘Earthday’ to remind ourselves about the importance of environmental matters, take a look at how we can even improve things further still and find some practical ways of making a difference in the area…
Cakes for Sheep
It’s a little known fact that amongst the people that make your CDs and DVDs look so good, there are some that also make cakes good enough to make any village feté WI stall proud. In fact the Alpha Duplication office cake sale has become a bit of a tradition and a way of raising money for charity. This time we raised £76 for the The Bucks Chalk Grassland Project, which helps maintain the habitat of many local species in the area. Enough to buy a sheep (and a half) to graze the grass in their nature reserves which is much better for wildlife than a mower.
Community Projects
As a company we like to put something back into the community and be a positive influence in the surrounding area. In conjunction with Wycombe District Council we are organising a group to get involved with the maintenance of a small nature reserve that borders our estate, making it a more pleasant place for our fellow workers and the wildlife that lives there. We’ll let you know how we get on. If you’re local and would like to get involved, please get in contact. The more help the better.
Environmental Awareness
Aside from looking at ways that we can work better within the office, we’ve been learning more about the effect that we have globally. If you’re familiar with the ‘Earth from the Air’ books, you’ll recognise the work of Yann Arthus-Bertrand. We have been promoting his film ‘Home’ within the company, which traces our relationship with nature and the importance of looking after it, through his spectacular aerial photography. The whole film is free to download and watch here. We’d definitely recommend that you give it a view.
Click here to download our environmental policy as a PDF.
Jakebox
April 8, 2011
Tags: CD packaging | DVD packaging
Jakebox is a patented and award-winning eco friendly packaging concept for CD, DVD, Blu-ray and other discs.
Its distinctive design features a folded “claw” that holds the disc. Upon opening the pack, the claw unfolds to present the disc, lifting it up and making it easily accessible.
Commercial releases have proved to sell better when sold in JakeBoxes instead of ordinary packages. Side by side with a jewelcase version, the JakeBox version has sold better, despite a higher price.
It’s as eco friendly as it gets:
- Made of 100% recyclable or even recycled carton board or paper, and always printed with vegetable inks.
- Weighs a third of traditional plastic packaging, thereby cutting shipping and storage costs, and it doesn’t break if you drop it.
- It offers unlimited design options, and also comes in a range of unprinted or generic printed versions.
New Packaging Options
March 22, 2011
Tags: CD card wallets
As part of our commitment to offer our customers the widest possible range of packaging, we have once more expanded our in-house printing facilities.
We’ve been very happy, as we hope you have been, with the quality of our in-house digital print. This has now been extended to include card wallets and custom card packaging.
We’ve recently taken delivery of two rather large (but speedy) pieces of equipment; a die-cutter and a gluing machine.
Together with our digital printer (and a little bit of help from our print staff) these two burly machines are producing packaging that we’re proud to be associated with.
So whether you have an idea for your packaging that has yet to be realised, or are in need of fresh ideas, give us a call. We’ll only be too pleased to help.
To get your hands on some samples of our existing work, drop us a line and we’ll get some sent straight out to you.
The Ely Plains
Tags: CD card wallets | CD duplication | CD screen printing
West London dustbowl balladeers The Ely Plains will be releasing their debut album in a few weeks’ time.
Taking their lead from greats such as Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams the bands’ austerity blues provide the perfect soundtrack to these belt-tightening times.
At Alpha we helped them create the well received ‘Ely Plains EP’ by producing a vinyl-effect screen printed CD packed in a card wallet that uses depression-era photography to reflect their 1940s influences. The theme has been continued with their first full length album, ‘The National Bandstand’.
You can catch them at one of their forthcoming UK festival dates.
May 21 Rickmansworth Canal Festival (Owlsworld Tent)
Jul 2 Kontra Folk @ The Welli Carnival, Wellingborough
Jul 8 Donkey Honky Tonk, Leicester
Listen to their track ‘The Engineer’ here or visit their Myspace site for more information.
CD Duplication Myths
January 7, 2011
Tags: CD duplication | CD replication
CD duplication is effective and versatile but there are few misconceptions.
CD Duplication Myth 1.
Duplicated CD-Rs don’t look as good as replicated CDs.
One of the great strengths of CD-R recordable media is it’s versatility. Discs can be created within the home or office environment. CD duplication is an effective way of reproducing many copies of a disc.
Nowadays printable CD-Rs are available from High Street stores. Printing on discs in this way is useful when frequently producing very small quantities of discs. With the right printer the quality can be very good. We even offer digitally printed discs for our customers in some instances. We do advise, however, that a digitally printed disc does not have a professional retail-quality finish.
Here at Alpha, we’re the only CD duplication company in the UK with screen and litho printing facilities in-house. This allows us to offer professional-looking discs on any volume. We also duplicate on silver-backed media rather than the more common green coloured discs. The only difference that you will see between a duplicated and a replicated CD is a faint line on the reverse of the disc.
Take a look at our CD printing for yourself over on our disc printing gallery pages.
CD Duplication Myth 2.
Duplicated CDs have compatibility problems.
When CD players first became available in the eighties, they were designed to play replicated CDs. As a result of this, some players made before this change may have difficulty playing CD-Rs. CD players manufactured since the mid-nineties play CD-Rs just as well as pressed CDs.
CD Duplication Myth 3.
Duplicated CDs are not suitable for retail.
Although historically discs sold by retail were replicated, this is no longer necessarily the case. With advances in compatibility and printing, the finished product is virtually the same however it is manufactured.
What is essential is that your product is professional enough for people to be willing to pay for. It also needs to live up to that expectation when they get it home.
Nowadays CD-R media is just as acceptable as pressed media in retail environments. If you are selling your discs via one of the High Street giants you will producing large volumes of discs. In these instances it would make sense to replicate rather than duplicate your CDs. We can help you with that too.
CD Duplication vs CD Replication
Tags: CD duplication | CD replication
Unless you’re already in the know, the meaning of the terms ‘CD duplication’ and ‘CD replication’ appear to be the same. In the world of CD manufacturing they are two distinct processes that are used to make multiple copies of discs.
Depending on the quantity of discs that that you need, how your discs will be used and the size of your budget, either CD duplication or CD replication is an option. Each has it’s own advantages and each is better suited for certain applications. We’re more than happy to advise you which we feel will be best for you project.
Here’s a short explanation of both CD replication and CD duplication and the differences and similarities between them.
CD Replication
When the compact disc was first introduced in the early eighties, it was exclusively an audio format and promoted as successor of the vinyl record as means of mass manufacture and distribution of music.
The process in which these discs were produced is known as CD replication. The data is stored on a thin layer of injection moulded plastic called polycarbonate. This is then metalised, giving it its reflective surface. The whole disc is then encased in a transparent lacquer. This process is also known as CD pressing.
CD Duplication
Compact Disc Recordable, or CD-Rs were developed a few years later than the original CDs and their primary use was for the computer user to store or back-up data. In this way they were a successor to the floppy disc. They also had the advantage of being compatible and therefore had the added use of being a music format.
Rather than the data molded onto the disc at the time of manufacture, a thin layer of dye polycarbonate disc is coated with a thin layer of organic dye. The data is then ‘burnt’ to the layer by laser using a CD-R writer.
Of course CD-Rs are also mass produced in a factory, but unlike pressed CDs, the data is not added at this stage. Instead the polycarbonate disc is coated with a very thin layer of organic dye. The data can then be ‘burnt’ to the layer by laser using a CD-R writer.
CD Duplication vs CD Replication – How They Play
Replicated and duplicated CDs are read in exactly the same way by a CD player. As the disc rotates a laser reads which parts are reflective or unreflective and interprets the data. On a replicated CD, these areas are known as pits and are tiny indentation in the polycarbonate layer of the disc. On a duplicated CD, the parts that have been burned by the laser in the CD writer serve the same purpose as the pits.
Although original CD players were designed to read replicated rather than CD-R media, CD players manufactured since early nineties have been designed to play either.
Regardless of whether we replicate or duplicate your CDs, we guarantee high quality, faultless discs.
Blu-ray vs DVD
January 1, 2011
Tags: Blu-ray authoring | Blu-ray duplication | DVD authoring | DVD duplication
The fight between Standard Definition DVD and High Definition Blu-ray has become the major digital format war since the first few years of the new millennium. Except for the short lived battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray (I think we know who the winner was there) most of the “Format Wars” have been between Analogue and Digital media, with Digital coming out on top. This battle is different. It’s Digital v Digital. Disc v Disc. Which will win? Only time will see, but for now, both formats are a viable. DVD duplication and Blu-ray duplication are both options for your job. The hard part is weighing up the pros & cons of each and hopefully this article helps a little bit.
What’s the difference between DVD and Blu-ray image quality
Click for full-size image
As you can tell from the comparison above, picture quality is the most obvious difference. Blu-ray video is up to six-times the resolution of DVD video.
Any digital signal has a measurable bit rate, which is basically the speed that data is being transmitted. The clarity of Blu-ray comes from its high bit rates. DVDs can provide up to 8 Megabits per second (Mbps) which includes the video, audio and subtitles. Your SkyHD box delivers at 19Mbps. Blu-ray discs have a maximum data through-put of 54Mbps! Saying that, most assets aren’t encoded at such a high rate because the newer algorithms used to encode High Definition video and audio are much more efficient. On average, we encode video anywhere from 17 to 38Mbps, leaving plenty of room for multi-channel, lossless audio tracks and animated menu items, also exclusively available on Blu-ray.
These higher bit rates, better picture and audio quality are due entirely to the storage size of a Blu-ray disc. There are two varieties, a 25GB single-layer disc and a dual-layer, 50GB. The laser used to read/duplicate Blu-ray discs is much finer and can focus much more precisely than the laser in CD and DVD players (See below).
This makes high data output and large storage capacities possible. Blu-ray duplication allows approximately four times the amount of storage space of DVD duplication. A full Blu-ray disc holds same amount of data as seventeen and a half duplicated CDs!
A Blu-ray laser occupies the same frequency space of blue light, hence its name.
Blu-ray Authoring
Tags: Blu-ray authoring | Blu-ray duplication
Following on from our successful CD & DVD authoring services, Alpha Duplication offer a full range of Blu-ray authoring services. Using Hollywood standard software such as Sonic Scenarist, Cinevision Encoder, Adobe Photoshop & Adobe After Effects, we are able to provide you with a HD master that is duplication or replication ready.
These services are completely in-house, making it possible for you to couple your authoring needs with disc printing, packaging and fulfilment options, saving you time AND money!
Fully Equipped for Blu-ray Authoring
After receiving an authoring brief, we collect all assets needed for disc creation. Menus are created in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe AfterEffects. Video assets are either loaded from external hard drive or captured via HDMI. Once the footage is brought in, all video assets are encoded using CineVision. This is a Hollywood-level product capable of producing results that will impress! After encoding, menus, video, audio and subtitles (if applicable) are combined using Sonic Scenarist. At this time, menu animations and pop-up menu functionality is added, if required.
We can accept footage in DigiBeta, DV-Cam, Mini DV-Cam, uncompressed video such as .avi & .mov files. DVD ready (pre-encoded) .m2v & .wav files are also acceptable. It may be possible to work with other formats such as a pre-authored DVD, compressed video – mpeg-1 files, but quality is not guaranteed and authoring time may be longer than quoted.
Thinking Outside the Box
Blu-ray isn’t just for the latest blockbuster to come out. As time goes on, we’re seeing more and more interesting and creative projects for this new format.
- One example of a simple, but effective Blu-ray disc we did was for a company that needed a showreel for an exhibition. All they wanted was some HD footage over a couple of looping animations. They had implemented that same idea on DVD and said that the High Definition version brought more people in initially to see the sharpness of the video, but stayed and eventually bought from this company!
- On the other side of the coin, the Blu-ray spec allows for some pretty fun & complex user interactions. Because there is the ability to have full-colour, interactive menus on top of full HD video, it’s a great platform for corporate training videos. You can have ‘Quiz Questions’ after each chapter, or a business presentation that features a speaker and then overlayed with financial charts and graphs.
A good analogy is to think of what you have seen on a Flash website. Navigation, simple animations background images and video… Give us a call to discuss any other ideas you may have!
Remember that we’re a duplicator,
so we can provide quantities from one to one million copies!
Our In-house DVD and CD Duplication Facilities
November 7, 2010
Tags: Blu-ray duplication | CD duplication | CD replication | DVD duplication | DVD replication
Watch more videos about CD duplication, DVD duplication and disc printing on our YouTube channel
One of the secrets to our success as a DVD and CD duplication company lies in our investment in on-site facilities. Mastering and authoring, right the way through to print and packaging – it’s all here!
In-house and In-control
We have in-house equipment for every stage of the production cycle. Our trained staff are experts in their field and will take good care of your CD duplication project every step of the way.
We have complete control of your disc from start to finish. This is reflected in both the quality of the products that we produce for you and the service that you receive. Without relying on external suppliers all the time, we find that we can save you enormous amounts of time and money.
A typical turnaround, from mastering to a fully packed, duplicated CD or DVD is just three to five days. No other company in the UK can match, or even come close while offering such a vast range of services.
CD and DVD duplication – Quality Always Comes First
Central to our company is our CD and DVD duplication facilities shown in the video above. It allows us to duplicate five thousand CDs or three thousand DVD every hour. That’s up to 120,000 discs a day!
We only use Grade A media and duplicate using the best drives available. We maintain a rigorous batch checking procedure to guarantee that your discs work perfectly. Quality is of vital importance when it comes to CD duplication and DVD duplication. It should be important to you, it certainly is for us.
Your duplicated disc won’t just play perfectly. It will look the business too. Replicated discs such as those you will buy on the High Street will not be digitally printed as is often the case duplicated media. We screen print or litho print your discs in-house, so that your discs have that professional look. We are the only duplication specialist who are able to do this.
