DVDs to soon be RFIDed.

A consortium of retailers across the U.S. and Europe are trashing traditional bar-code labels for consumer products, including DVDs and CDs. Replacing the bar code will be stamp-sized radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. The tags, which consist of a radio chip, antenna, and controller, employ radio technology to expand retailers' tracking abilities. Unlike bar codes, which must be tracked manually, RFID tags do not require line-of-sight reading, so hundreds of tags can be read in a matter of seconds. With a quick scan of their store, a retailer can take a complete and accurate inventory. RFID's range from low to high frequency. High frequency tags transmit data faster and can be read from farther away, but are much more expensive to manufacture.

Wal-Mart has announced plans to utilize RFID at the case and pallet level by 2005. With many other retailers embracing the new technology, supply chain constituents of the DVD and CD industry face a colossal challenge to meet the standards of merchants who are responsible for selling a large number of their products.

Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart and U.K.-based Tesco were original proponents of the new technology, originated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999. There, the Auto-ID center was founded in order to develop a system that could identify goods across the globe using the Internet along with electronic product codes (EPCs). Since 1999, the Center has transformed into EPCglobal, a joint venture between EAN International and the Uniform Code Council (UCC), which develops and oversees standards for the EPC network and seeks to drive global adoption of its EPCs.