A system and apparatus are described in which modular receptacles are filled and transported to automated dispensing machines for later retrieval and distribution. A plasma of a supplied etching gas is produced by the electric arc, and the ions of the etching gas are accelerated onto the substrate by an electric potential. The application also discloses the process by which the capacity of a GPS receiver to lock on to the signal of a particular satellite and properly receive, decode and process the signal may be tested. The metadata is generated off-line and streamed out ahead of the VOD program content.