Nimbus Records - Early 1970s to 1987

Nimbus Records was founded in the early 1970s with a mission to record the performances of classical musicians. The Company's founder, Numa Labinsky, was an exceptional singer and wanted particularly to recreate a similar sense of presence and involvement to that experienced through live performance on recordings. He quite simply disliked records and thought they could, and should, be better. Achieving this simple goal required repeated innovation across three decades and has, step-by-step, led Nimbus into those areas of technology in which it now excels.

Beginning in 1977, the first LPs produced by Nimbus became renowned for their exceptional quality: the standard was set and a custom pressing business evolved. By 1982/83 the emphasis was changing to compact discs, a bold step considering the youth of the technology and the prohibitive new equipment costs involved in setting up a manufacturing plant. Nimbus decided to develop its own core technology, and within only 10 months the first laser mastering system was operational.

Other vendors were not so quick and it was not until August 1984 that a fully integrated CD production plant was opened in Monmouth. Despite the delays it was still the first in the UK, and only the second in Europe after Philips (the inventor of the format). Expansion was rapid, with additional CD manufacturing plants in Cwmbran and Virginia, USA, in 1986 and 1987. In three years Nimbus had become one of the largest independent manufacturers in the world, and had created a powerful research and development centre in the process. The approach of designing and manufacturing equipment 'in-house' was firmly established. In 1987 the Company's efforts on the Laser Mastering System were rewarded with the 'Queen's Award for Technological Achievement'.

Maxwell Communications - 1987 to 1992

Unfortunately a very badly timed exit by the Company's principal investor, Midland Montague, in 1987 forced a very hasty equity sale to Robert Maxwell. The Mirror Group investment came at a time of over supply and falling prices, they continued funding but fully exploited their opportunity to acquire a majority share. Major restructuring was being planned when the Maxwell business collapsed in 1992 and the founding directors took their opportunity to sell all interests in the CD replication factories but taking their patents and equipment designs to establish a new company.

Nimbus Technology & Engineering - 1993 to 2001

In 1993, under the name Nimbus Communications International, the classical music label was re-launched and Nimbus Technology & Engineering (NTE) established. The mastering equipment produced by NTE immediately attracted large multi-national and small independent manufacturers and has gone on to capture the largest share of the market in the last 6 years. Nimbus 'Manufacturing', as the original company was renamed, has continued to be a major force in the industry. After the sale it was taken to the NASDAQ by DLJ and has now been resold to Carlton Communications as part of the Technicolor Group. There is no connection between the two 'Nimbus' companies except that of supplier and customer on a completely arms length basis.

Since the first NTE mastering system was sold in 1993 Nimbus has established itself as the world leader in optical disc mastering equipment. Within the first year of Nimbus Technology & Engineering's existence, six complete mastering systems and three separate Laser Beam Recorders had been sold to CD manufacturers in Asia, North and South America, and Europe. In only six years 74 mastering systems have been sold to companies on six continents, including the first ever CD mastering system in South Africa and the first DVD mastering system in Australia.

Characteristics of NTE equipment are that it is designed to offer high yield, low maintenance and a defined upgrade path. Over the years this has ensured that it has been a flexible and affordable solution for a wide range of companies, from small regional start-ups to the largest entertainment companies and media manufacturers - Polygram, EMI, Sonopress, Eastman Kodak Company and Time-Warner.

In 1994 the Company's high industry profile and reputation for technological innovation helped to attract two significant commissions. The first, from Eastman Kodak Company, required a specialist mastering system both for their research into CD-R (recordable CDs) and to support their production requirements for an explosive growth in demand. The second commission was from Time Warner, who, together with Toshiba Corporation, were developing a new high density format able to contain full length movies. This format is now known as DVD. NTE installed the very first production proven DVD mastering system in Time Warner's US manufacturing plant in January 1995. We are now the leading supplier of DVD mastering equipment, with over 3 years more experience in this field than any of our competitors. The vast majority of discs now available were mastered using Nimbus equipment.

In 1997 Nimbus Technology & Engineering was awarded the Queen's Award for Export Achievement in recognition of having installed (at the time) 60 mastering systems around the world. With such a high percentage of sales being exported, a dedicated network of agents and offices was established around the globe to fully support our customers' needs. NTE had American and Asian sales offices run by two of the board of directors, Gary Helfrecht and Antony Smith, and UK trained engineers to provide local aftersales service and technical support in both regions. European sales and support were run from the Company's HQ in Monmouth. Nimbus reputation for high build quality of equipment and excellent aftersales support helped to build a very strong and loyal customer base. Over 50% of Nimbus customers have made repeat purchases.

In 1997 Nimbus began to evaluate the use of an electron beam as an alternative to a deep UV laser for high capacity optical disc mastering. This was driven by the realisation that optical discs and optically assisted magnetic discs would soon require feature sizes of 100 nm or less. This view was confirmed in March this year when we received a request to make masters with grooves only 40 nm wide. It was also considered important to develop a mastering system capable of meeting the needs of several generations of future format rather than just the immediate successor to DVD. The first experimental exposures with the Nimbus E-beam recorder were made around Christmas 1998, and the first unit shipped to a customer in 2000.

In the summer of 1999 work started on a new project to develop an integrated mastering system for CD and DVD formats. The Pi mastering system started to ship to customer during 2000, and within a year 16 systems had been installed. The system broke new ground, using a blue diode based laser for mastering both CD and DVD. The development of this sytem allowed Nimbus to offer a complete portfolio of systems, ranging from a Pi system for small and start-up manufacturers, through a Dual Beam Recorder for manufacturers of recordable formats all the way to an E-Beam Recorder for research labs developing future formats.