CDR Sam

R-Quest NS-4500i DVD Duplicator Publisher

April 26, 2008 | Duplication Systems

I’ve seen a few CD and DVD duplicators in my life and the new R-Quest NS-4500i  is one of the most impressive to date.  The NS-4500i offers four multi format DVD Recorders in a user serviceable rack, Three RAID 1 Disc image hard drives in a user serviceable rack cage (accessed by removing thumb screws in the rear of the unit), a choice of the R-Quest FlashJet Pro featuring HP print technology (four ink cartridge, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black) or the Teac P-55 dye sublimation and thermal re-transfer printer.  The R-Quest NS-4500i is enclosed in a lockable enclosure that keeps the discs and other equipment clean and safe.  A 100 disc mail slot is featured for this kiosk secure mode.  The internal six rotating hoppers can be configured to ether input or output disc bins using the easy hopper & media setup wizard. Multiple media types can be simultaneously available and contain various types of media including CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD+R Dual layer. Blu-ray models are available to that are true multi format drives in they can handle recordable CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R and BD-R.

OK big deal     Another duplicator?

No! unlike all other duplicators this unit uses the new R-Quest TrueNet FX software to drive the entire process.  Not impressed?   Consider the very robust virtual duplication engine exists on 4.5Mb of storage. It’s sole purpose is to publish discs.

It’s accessed via a LCD touch pad in Stand-alone Mode which includes all core job functions including Copy, Compare, Audit and Print, without the need for network connectivity, giving completely autonomous and secure operation (masters can be loaded directly to the machine via dedicated onboard reader) or via a Gigabit Ethernet connection.  Just log into the system manager via any browser and you can add jobs, monitor jobs, get update status on jobs, all via the Internet or local network.  The administrator can easily add and configure users and other administrators using a role based user access and security. e-mail notifications for various system and job status can be configured with great ease.

The demo I saw was done across the Atlantic ocean between Minnesota and Great Britain. A disc image was sent over and the job started immediately…when I say the disc image was sent over it had started to transfer between the two locations but the NS-4500i is designed to do a fast start (selectable) which can start the recording as the disc image is being received.  In the event of slow transfer the duplicator will throttle down the speed.  Full system diagnosis can be accessed directly via built in LCD/Touch pad without the need to use any PC. Another nice feature is the Dual Firmware support for system redundancy which keeps the previous firmware in reserve in case something goes terribly wrong with a update.  With that said no server software maintenance or anti-virus software is needed.  The RS-4500i is operating system independent.  If the power goes out the jobs are automatically restored and resumed when the power is restored.

On the printing side the easy import of standard graphic files and the ability to embed time and date tags to the labels as well as easy serialization (I mean really easy) was very impressive. My favorite by far was the dynamic ‘mail merge’ text to the jobs using a text file was amazing.   You can set up a list of companies, contacts or any unique information and set it up in a text file and the system will print each line to a different disc. Along with WYSIWYG disc label editing.

R-Quest has been in the automated duplication for some time.  They specialize in operating system independent network duplicator publishers that can be accessed by any browser be it Mac centric or Linux and of course PC. Anything that runs a graphical browser.

Very exciting release.