In 1991 Applause took delivery of one of the first 2 x speed Philips CDROM recorders for the princely sum of £7000 and here it is …
About the size of a very large amplifier – and certainly wouldn’t go in the drive bay of your PC. Today a more sophisicated version would set you back around a tenner! During the nineties and early ‘noughties’ the rewritable CD quickly established itself as a means of delivering media rich business communications. They came through the post, arriving in the conventional round form, cut out shaped versions even business cards and were fully browseable interactive marvels.
The web, however, was going to change things Sir Tim Berners Lee’s
proposal in march of 1989 was to formulate what we now know as the worldwide web. In the early stages this didn’t really impact on the CDROM simply because of the severe limitations of software technology and data connection speed. A photograph of any reasonable size could take an age to appear on screen, video and animated graphics restricted to tiny content windows So CDROM and its big brother the DVD continued to be the media of choice. The web, in the meanwhile, was gaining ground. Increased bandwidth and continuous upgrade and improvement of programming technologies and facilities meant that as of today a web page can have pretty much all of the features a CD or DVD can provide plus a lot more.
So is the CD/DVD dead … surprisingly not. Rather like the cinema when the siren voices announced its death at the launch of television, the CD and DVD ROM seem to have found their niche markets in digital signage for conference and exhibition and retail display, as a means of reliable communication in developing countries and in helping its old adversary by driving websites forward. When technology becomes easier and cheaper it also becomes more accessible, thus although not many organisations could afford the twenty or thirty thousand pounds a multi-media CDROM could cost in 1995 so many more can afford the few hundred pounds it can cost today.
The huge reduction in cost of digital display screens and players has meant that a 42″ lcd screen and dvd player can cost under £500 making it a viable and easy to maintain the means of displaying product and brand information to customers who walk into your reception area, or attract potential business from those who walk past your shop window.
For charities and organisations who work tirelessly to communicate and inform the health and community professionals working in developing countries, where a battered old TV and player is just as likely, maybe more likely than a sophisticated broadband network. It is a brilliant way of sending training video, interactive browsable media together with attached further reading files and links to websites for further information where internet access is available.
Is the CD/DVD dead? No – in this world of downloads, uploads,online backup, streaming, mobile apps and squillions of web pages there are still oft times when you think …. where’s my installation disc, where are my photos, I’m presenting in 2 minutes WHERE IS MY WIFI!!
Two projects just completed involved encoding and editing high definition HD video source material into looped interactive dvd video discs for exhibition and showroom digital signage display. In each case discs were replicated and distributed to showrooms or retail outlets throughout the country and displayed continuously at exhibition sites.
As this year was a special 45th Sapphire Anniversary of the first Festival the organising committee encouraged members to photograph and record video of the weekend event. Applause was then asked to assemble and edit the 
The venue finding and conference logistics teams at award winning events company Conference Connections have launched a new quarterly newsletter, providing the latest information on national and international venues and conference centres.
