START Lab Inc. (株式会社スタート ・ ラボ; Sony Taiyo Yuden Advanced Recording Technology Laboratory12) is a joint venture of Sony Corporation and Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. The headquarters are in Chiyoda, Tokyo.
START Lab, founded in June 1989, was active in the optical media business. Initially intended to produce small-scale runs of CDs for business customers on the basis of newly developed CD-R technology,3 it pioneered the sale of CD-R media to consumers. The current president is Masanori Kimizuka.4 50.1% of START Lab is owned by Sony, 49.9% is owned by Taiyo Yuden.
START Lab ceased operations in March 2016 after parent company Taiyo Yuden ended production of storage media.
Well-known product lines included the That's consumer media, the That's CD-R/DVD-R for master product line, and the CD/DVD error checkers (ES-50, ES-70, ES-1000 rebranded Almedio model).
References
References
- "The 25th anniversary of the founding of Start Lab, which has "That's" - The importance of "archives" spoken by the company's president". Phileweb. 27 August 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2022.
- Ihashi, Takao. "Systemized Survey on the Development and Practical Application of Compact Disc (CD) Technology" (PDF). Retrieved 19 December 2022.
- Gatski, John (26 July 1989). "Sony Joins Recordable CD Team" (PDF). Radio World: 20.
- START Lab | Company Profiles Archived June 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine