10th Planet is pleased to announce a new product called the “iKey”, recently launched under the company’s Promotional USB division, WeAreUSB.

The iKey, similar to a webkey, takes the user directly to a website or microsite, but has an added layer of intelligence. Put simply it allows marketing metrics to be comprehensively captured together with a high degree of user experience personalisation.

Web keys are similar to a standard USB flash drive but without memory storage, and as a result are far cheaper than a standard promotional USB – in fact more than 50% lower cost than the smallest memory capacity flash memory drive.

Web keys have been shown to increase response rates of direct mail campaigns to over 20% (compared to 1.2% for standard direct mail).

For more information on this please see the USB web key page on WeAreUSB.com

Following the lead of other UK and European football clubs in choosing 10th Planet’s USB Division to supply custom shaped USB sticks, Fulham FC has selected WeAreUSB to design and manufacture a unique custom USB in the form of the current Fulham strip. The project was managed from design through to delivery by the UK’s leader in custom moulded USB and has already proved to be a success.

“The Fulham FC kit USB has already proven very popular and is an exciting and modern promotional item” said Catherine Gurney at Fulham FC.

The custom shape service offered by WeAreUSB allows for virtually any shape to be created as a USB and in the case of Fulham was a miniature player in the current Fulham strip manufactured from a highly tactile recycled PVC rubber. The popularity of custom shape sticks has increased since initially being used primarily as a promotional item, they are now gaining acceptance as a retail product. Sports clubs and sporting goods brands have realised the potential of a unique branded USB as both a marketing tool and value added retail product. With the ability to add content (video, audio, images) to the sticks a further revenue stream can be generated for existing catalogue.

WeAreUSB has created custom shaped USB for brands as diverse as Fyffes Bananas, Bayer and Puma in addition to printed USB for a wide range of clients including Vodafone, Blackberry, BBC and Accenture.

Form more information on custom shape USB or other branded USB products see www.WeAreUSB.com

The new design and build was carried out by 10th Planet’s in house web development team and adds a host of information resources covering topics such as CD print methods, disc capacities and how to supply artwork for CD printing.
With the wide variety of CD and DVD print methods available, the resource pages outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each print method and giving pointers in how to use print methods creatively.

In addition articles explaining the technical background and differences between DVD Replication and DVD Duplication make this a valuable and authoritative resource for all duplication and authoring needs.

A comprehensive section on CD and DVD packaging also details virtually every option available for bespoke and off the shelf disc packaging making it a good starting position for any disc project.

CD Duplication and DVD Duplication provide a cost effective means to distributing promotional content and presentations. Combined with impressive and high quality packaging, a disc makes a longer lasting impression than an easily delete-able email.
Content is not limited to data but can include high quality video and even provide copy protection for pre release material.

In addition to CD and DVD services the website covers 10th Planet’s video transfer, DVD authoring file to tape play out and broadcast master preparation services.

Let us know what you think of the new site, email us!

10th Planet provided authoring and CD duplication services to Bladonmore for a major press launch to announce the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an enormous steel sculpture that will be built in London’s Olympic Park.

Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond won the commission to design the steel structure, which will tower 120m over the Olympic site to give far reaching views over London.

The CD project involved authoring a presentation of architectural images, created by Arup, that were to be distributed to the press on the day of the announcement.

Due to the highly confidential nature of the project, images were not available until very late in the day before the launch. 10th Planet provided a team to design and programme the interactive presentation through the night before the launch. The discs were then duplicated overnight and delivered at 8am the next day, to be handed out to the international press at the announcement.

10th Planet’s experience in CD authoring and CD duplication meant that the mission critical project was accomplished without a hitch, despite the tight time scales involved.

We Are USB - Promotional USB Manufacturer

10th Planet is pleased to announce the launch of a new website dedicated to the design and supply of promotional USB flash drives.

With the ever growing market for promotional USB products, 10pdm has seen the volume of USB orders increasing dramatically over the last 12 months. It now accounts for 25% of the firm’s turnover in the digital deliverable sector.
10th Planet launched its first USB site in 2006. www.flash-duplication.com was aimed primarily at content owners needing high quality compact flash and SD cards duplicated with promotional or retail content. Branding though offered, tended to be secondary to the turnaround speed offered on these products. Clients included major mobile phone manufacturers looking to include free content on their phones as a marketing exercise and digital signage specialists needing fast turnaround times on timely content for in store use. Over time the printing and branding of both memory cards and the growing market for promotional branded USB flash drives began to outweigh the more specialist memory formats. Because the URL and brand had its roots in the more technical duplication and supply of cards, 10th Planet decided to launch a new brand and URL in order to better reflect the changing market for flash drive memory products.
The new website is WeAreUSB.com. This is a broad brand to cover bespoke logo promotional USB products, including the more popular off the shelf printable and engravable USB and other USB accessories. The emphasis is on USB accessories as promotional gifts but with a focus on a quality and usability.
Rather than displaying a catalogue of tens or hundreds of similar USB designs of questionable design integrity, the website concentrates on the highest quality examples from each type of USB stick on offer.
In addition to supplying the more standard products, a custom moulded design service is also a major part of this new offering. From CAD designs or product photos a realistic 3D custom moulded USB stick can be created that not only truly reflects a brand’s values but is also guaranteed to be a unique promotional item in the sea of similar looking USB promotions. With materials such as recycled PVC, a custom USB promotional flash drive can be made for not much more than an off the shelf variety.

Berwick Post, the high end, boutique Soho post house has joined forces with 10th Planet to offer CD & DVD Duplication and CD & DVD Replication to its clients.

Specialising in 3D and augmented reality, Berwick is one of Soho’s most forward thinking post houses and is backed by a rich heritage of talent and highly respected in the industry.

10pdm has unrivaled experience in DVD production and brings over 10 years of experience in optical media to Berwick’s editing and post offering.
In addition to providing DVD services, the partnership will allow Berwick’s clients to benefit from 10pdm’s experience in USB Flash Drives as a digital delivery format for digital cinema and interactive video presentations.
For more information on Berwick Post please call 020 7734 5353.

West Ham FC has commissioned 10pdm to design and produce a custom moulded USB

West Ham USB designed by WeAreUSB.com

After looking at what was available at other Premier League Clubs West Ham United merchandising team decided to create something unique for their USB, so they partnered with 10th Planet’s USB division; WeAreUSB.com; a company that specialises in custom moulded memory sticks.

“When we got the call I was personally over the moon” says avid West Ham supporter Richard Lamb (Sales Director). “The brief was simple: We would like a USB memory stick custom moulded in PVC that represents the 1958 West Ham strip as worn by the late, great, Bobby Moore. We want it packed for retail’.

Using West Ham’s brand guidelines and original images of the historic strip, WeAreUSB’s design team created a set of CAD proofs for approval. Once approved, a prototype was created of the famous strip in the following week.

Within a month the final USB went on sale in the West Ham shop and online, the entire production and design process having been smoothly project managed by WeAreUSB.com.

More info about custom molded USB at www.WeAreUSB.com

I had a clear-out recently. The room at work affectionately known as the “Technology Graveyard” was bursting to the seams and it was time to reclaim some real estate.

Amongst the endless carcasses of PCs and Macs, semi working monitors and mysterious 19″ rack mounted boxes with names like “Finalizer” there was a piece of history that brought back many memories. The 4 units had fairly recognisable form factors -a rectangular box in a beige cream colour that has become shorthand for “hi-tech, functional, not sexy”. The rear of the box featured some laughably clunky SCSI ports and a standard 3 pin mains socket. No clues here. The front however was far more familiar, with a fairly recognisable optical disc tray and eject button. To the right was a substantial power button and just above this a very retro looking logo proclaiming “LaserMemory”. It looked like something that Hans Solo might have carried with him on his adventures – substantial and exuding power but yet painfully dated and retro, not quite steam punk but maybe “diesel raver”. The biggest clue however was printed neatly in the middle of the drive’s tray – a screen printed logo proudly proclaiming “DVD -R”. Just in case the purpose of the drive had not been made clear, the designers saw fit to add , in plain text, the words “DVD-R Drive” in the top left hand corner of the drive itself.

Yes, this was the first commercial DVD recorder the world had ever seen. At the time it caused a storm and it’s fair to say started the process that revolutionised the optical disc industry. It was designed to be used by DVD authoring companies to burn masters for replication and also to write check disc DVDs to quality control the authoring process.

As it was pitched at companies who thought nothing of spending £250k on a PC to create DVDs this unit was pitched at a fairly ambitious £3500. Yes, that is correct. More than 100 times the price of a current burner for a unit that wrote discs at a whopping 1X. It took over 40 minutes to burn 1 disc. And the discs weren’t cheap either, coming in at over £15 each (that’s an expensive coaster). There were no other options, so if you wanted to burn DVDs at the turn of the last decade you paid the price.

I was lucky enough to own a company that had the funds to purchase not one but four of these beasts and it formed the heart of our DVD duplication service. It was the most expensive DVD tower London had ever seen and it wrote 4 discs at once.

Nearly 10 years later we again bought the latest in optical disc technology, this time Blu-ray. The first BDR drive we bought cost over £200, less than 10% of the cost of the original DVDR burner. Using the drop in cost of the DVDR burner it follows that a BDR burner will soon be available for less than the cost of a Big Mac. Somehow I doubt that. It’s pretty obvious that the cost of Blu-ray recording technology is going to drop but the current evidence points to BDR being a far less pervasive format, destined to not only being overtaken swiftly by other optical (and possibly holographic) formats but also solid state memory. The meteoric rise of DVDR as the most ubiquitous recordable format on this planet is highly unlikely to be repeated in the near future. Certainly not by a format that will most likely be the last of the “Hans Solo” generation of 2D optical drives.

10th Planet has created the 3D animated logo for the worlds first electric sports bike, the Mavizen TTX02. Inspired by the the parallel lines of the CGI classic “Tron”, the 8 second sequence will be used on the e-bike’s start-up screen in addition to all promotional material.

“We were approached by Azhar Hussain, founder of the TTXGP, after authoring and handling the DVD production for the TTXGP ” says Joseph Barnes, 10PDM Creative Director. “As this is worlds first electric sports bike we were very excited to be involved. 10PDM is very much a technology driven company  and fitted very well with Mavizen’s place as at the leading edge of motorsport technology.”

The TTX01 DVD and Mavizen TTX02 bike are on sale now.

10th Planet Digital Media used advanced scripting to circumvent the limitations of the DVD spec and manage over 2000 separate assets – creating a technically as well as politically revolutionary DVD for Dom Joly’s latest comedy “The Ministry of Truth”.

“Spirit Level Film approached us with this project early this year and after some discussions it quickly became apparent the features they required would exceed the capabilities of the DVD specifications”, says head of DVD Authoring Joseph Barnes.

The project required content to be play-listed during playback, allowing the viewer to effectively edit the feature on the fly. Using a dynamic subtitle system to control the content allowed these user-controlled changes during playback and was also used to generate live graphic overlays, an integral feature of the comedy.

Authored using a combination of the advanced scripting of Apple’s DVD SP and the powerful abstraction layer editor DVD After Edit, the project used a total of over 2000 separate assets and took 6 weeks to complete.

Responsible for the introduction into Parliament of a law that makes it illegal for politicians to lie (The Elected Representatives Prohibition of Deception Bill), the DVD features Dom Joly (Trigger Happy TV) as the Professor of Deceit in a hilarious, highly irreverent exposé of our politicians’ grasp of honesty. With the House split between those MPs running for cover and those joining the fight for reform, the political storm this release is about to make will result in, if not an increase in MP’s honesty then at least changes to the laws on political deception.

“utterly compelling… Never have so many politicians ducked and run for cover “

The Daily Telegraph

More information on the DVD at www.ministry-of-truth.net.

DVD available from www.spiritlevelfilm.com

DVD for press reviews available from press@spiritlevelfilm.com