Two of China’s original equipment manufacturer giants, SVA and Shinco, have pledged their support to manufacture EVD-VMD players with HD capabilities at their global facilities. EVD-VMD is a red laser-based next-generation DVD format.

With over 25,000 employees worldwide, SVA Group is the largest State-owned electronics group in China, having been ranked in the top 10 enterprises in the Chinese electronics and IT industry for several years.

SVA has partnered with a number of global electronics OEM’s including LG and Samsung. Outside of China the Group has manufacturing facilities in South Africa, Pakistan, Bulgaria, and Argentina, as well as partner facilities in Brasil.

Jiangsu Shinco Electronics Group is one of China’s leading OEM’s of DVD players and displays and the largest OEM of Panasonic-branded electronics. Shinco manufactures in China, Hungary and Poland and outside of Asia has sales and services operations in the USA, India, Europe, Russia and South America.

NME’s Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) technology provides the capability to store up to 20 layers of content on one side of a disc about the same size and thickness as a DVD, increasing capacity from 5GB on a DVD to 5GB per layer of a VMD, up to a capacity of 100GB.

Combining with BEW’s EVD technology the VMD system enables 1920/1080 HD viewing of pre-recorded video content on enhanced red laser players. "This represents a very attractive solution for manufacturers of players who, for minimal additional re-tooling costs, can upgrade their drives for greater capacity and deliver low-cost HD viewing to the consumer," says the companies.

Returning from a visit to China, Mahesh Jayanarayan, CEO of NME commented: “I am very optimistic for the future of the merged NME and Beijing E-World Group. My meetings with the Directors and Management of SVA and Shinco were extremely fruitful and I am very encouraged that they have pledged to support the global roll-out of EVD-VMD devices across their extensive manufacturing and marketing infrastructure. This partnership will accelerate the emergence of HD on red laser format and provide the content industry the much needed confidence of our global capability.”

Both SVA and Shinco groups will be significant shareholders of New Medium Enterprises following the merger with Beijing E-World (BEW) late last year.

Story filed 15.03.06