Nakajima, Miyaoka, Doi and Tsurushima continued to prepare for the product launch in October 1982. At the same time, Ohga, Michael P. Schulhof of Sony Corporation of America, Akira Suzuki head of Sony's DAD Promotion Department, and representatives of Philips gave numerous presentations to record companies and musical groups around the world in order to make the CD an internationally accepted standard.
However, while visually attractive, the small, sparkling silver CD that was to replace the black vinyl record was viewed as a threat. The reaction of the record industry was strong, and opinion wavered between support and condemnation. For Ohga, it was as if he was being treated as an enemy of the record industry. When he and others spoke in favor of the CD saying, The CD will become the next generation medium in the audio industry. Let's go with it, those who opposed it responded, We've taken so much trouble to develop standards for the LP, we're satisfied with it. Don't make us spend money on this new medium. Don't give us what we don't need.
Demonstrations of the CD were made worldwide using the not-yet perfected prototype. In New York, at a joint press demonstration with Philips, one of the engineers out of view from the journalists, was busy doing his utmost to prevent the system from overheating by cooling it with a Japanese paper fan.
In order to make the CD system an international standard, Ohga continued to promote it around the world, while preparing for the mass production of CD software. As Ohga said, Even if we have the hardware, it's useless without the software.
CBS/Sony Records, which was formed through a joint venture with CBS Inc. in the U.S., had established a plant to mass-produce 30 cm LP records. Ohga was determined to develop the digital audio disc together with Philips because the existence of CBS/Sony Records depended on it. As CBS/Sony had a large share of the record market, Ohga planned to make use of its software production know-how and sales network.
However, precisely because of the company's extremely solid sales performance, CBS executives in the U.S. were against the development of a new digital audio disc. Moreover, considerable investment would be needed to set up a full-scale CD manufacturing plant. The pressing process used to make vinyl LPs was vastly different to the technique used to produce CDs, which needed state-of-the-art IC equipment. It would thus be necessary to replace a considerable part of the equipment in the LP plant.
As this was a joint venture agreement, it was necessary for Sony to obtain consent from CBS if CBS/Sony was going to invest the necessary funds for a new plant and equipment. CBS/Sony at the time boasted profit ratios significantly higher than other companies in the Japanese record industry and did have sufficient funds to invest. Ohga persuaded the CBS executives by saying, Every year CBS/Sony declares a dividend that is equal to 100% of its capital. With just a portion of the profits generated by CBS/Sony, we can build a CD manufacturing plant.
Ohga's argument convinced the CBS executives. Using its own funds, CBS/Sony built a full-scale CD software production plant in Shizuoka prefecture. The company did this without any financial assistance from either Sony or CBS. The world's first CD software production line commenced operation in April 1982.
The months leading up to the scheduled October product launch were difficult for all concerned. The problem with discs warping remained until the very last minute. After successively testing various materials, a new material called polycarbonate, used for making automobile bumpers, was found. Production of discs got under way in mid-September, about two weeks before the launch.
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