Opti.Me.S.

[B]Opti[/B]cal [B]Me[/B]dia [B]S[/B]torage Italian CD-manufacturer. Also named Optimes. Optimes - Optical Storage Media S.p.A. It was an Italian company that operated in the IT sector, producing mainly compact discs (CD-ROM and Audio CD) and other machine-readable media and ensuring directly the sale, installation and maintenance. Optimes is created in Roma based in Pomezia July 10, 1986 by the Società Elenchi Ufficiali degli Abbonati al Telefono p.A. (IRI-STET group) with 51%, Philips S.p.A. with 10% and Philips Computing and Communications S.p.A., with 39%. It was the first Italian company to produce CDs and in 1992 became a leader in Italy in the production of tools for the dissemination of digitized information- Then the seat was moved to L'Aquila, where it was already the plant site, and Philips share was sold to STET: in 1994 the company comes under the control of Finmeccanica. Privatized and sold to MacRecord in 1997, in 2001 the company is in crisis and in 2004 he was declared bankrupt. Opti.Me.S. had a strictly sequential numbering system, unique to this plant: Between 1988 and 1990 the pattern consisted of 12+4 digits: 99195XXXXXXX YYYY (e.g. 991950000324 1850) From 1991 onwards, the pattern was enhanced to 12+4 digits with additional letter: 99195XXXXXXX YYYY-Z (e.g. 991950108748 3145-B) where 99195XXXXXXX = sequential manufacturing number. Only add 99195XXXXXXX as LCCN catalog number. For 2xCD editions add Made By or Manufactured By - Opti.Me.S. twice with one number each. The matrix string on early releases also contains: MADE IN ITALY BY OPTI.ME.S. Sometime in 1989 this changed to: MANUFACTURED IN ITALY BY OPTI.ME.S. This seems to have continued until 1995, after which OMS or OPTI.ME.S. are used. Early in their lifespan, Opti.Me.S. borrowed manufacturing equipment from PDO, UK, resulting in many of their discs looking identical apart from different credits in the matrix areas. This shared equipment also resulted in many Opti.Me.S. discs up to the early 1990s suffering from CD bronzing, rendering them unplayable. Unlike PDO, UK, it is not known if Opti.Me.S. offered replacement discs for affected buyers.