Disctronics B

Australia's first CD manufacturing plant, operated by Disctronics Limited, went online in March 1987. The facility was located at Braeside, Victoria. Most discs pressed at this plant during Disctronics ownership will usually contain the matrix "MADE BY DISCTRONICS B.......". The 'B' refers to the location of the plant, as with Disctronics plants in other countries — such as: Disctronics A (Anaheim, USA), Disctronics H (Huntsville, USA), Disctronics S (Southwater, UK). In early February 1986, Kevin Donovan and Peter Massey formed Disctronics, Ltd. to manufacture compact audio discs. Construction was started on a plant near Moorabbin Airport to service the Australia and New Zealand market. Matrices of releases pressed here generally looked like this: MADE BY DISCTRONICS B ** (Catalogue number) ** #(Pressing number) — example: 'Yummy!'. Alternatively, the pressing number could be replaced by a 3 digit number, not preceded by a hash (eg. 201, 601). There are some pressings which have also been recorded containing "Disctronics Australia" in the matrix, as opposed to "MADE BY DISCTRONICS B", however these are scarce. Disctronics B also appears to have created the glass masters and pressed CDs for Sony Music Australia before SMA opened its own CD manufacturing plant in March 1993. The glass masters from Disctronics B continued to used by Sony Music Australia until at least mid-1995. Such discs can be identified by (DB) in the matrix along with the characteristic Disctronics B matrix style and font. The best choice of LCCN role for Sony Music Australia will therefore depend on the release date: [u]LCCN — releases from 1991 to approx. March 1993[/u] Glass Mastered At – Disctronics B Manufactured By – Sony Music Australia [u]LCCN — releases from March 1993 to mid-1995[/u] Glass Mastered At – Disctronics B Pressed By – Sony Music Australia Example: 'Skunkhour' [u]LCCN — SMA releases with an unknown release date[/u] Glass Mastered At – Disctronics B Manufactured By – Sony Music Australia Example: 'Species Deceases' In late 1995, the Disctronics B plant was taken over by PMI. PMI was then acquired by SSD in August 2000, who operated the plant until SSD's takeover by Technicolor, Australia on 31 March 2002. For a brief period after the introduction of SID codes in September 1994, but before the plant was taken over by PMI, it was assigned the mould code IFPI 46xx.