Extraordinary Genius
chapter-626

Extraordinary GeniusChapter 626 – Industry Standards race

Wind and Rain Electronics introduced the single side doublelayer model and technology. Single side double layer disc was very differentfrom Toshiba’s Double side double layers technology. The Double side doublelayers had more storage than single side double layer technology.

But the single side double layer encoding technology wassimple and a lot easier to introduce to the market. Feng Yu and Philips bothfelt the storage for the disc does not need to so high. Single side doublelayer structure was enough for now.

In the future, the discs for movies, music, games, etc. weremostly using single side single layer structure. It was because a single sidesingle layer structure storage would reach more than 5 gigabytes. It was morethan sufficient to store a standard movie or even a high definition movie!

Movie collections? That’s after the year 2000. Some moviesbecame popular and introduced part 2, 3, and so on. Movies collection of thesame series appeared then. But there was a lot of pirated version, and most ofthe pirated movie was produced in China.

DVD was still not applicable for drama series. It was themovie companies that wanted to use DVD. They need the DVD to distribute their movies,and consumers were willing to buy their products. The movie companies usuallydo not own the rights for dramas.

Most of the dramas were aired on TV. If the viewers like thedrama, the TV station will air a rerun of the drama. Movies were seldom air onTV as the rights were too expensive. The rights cost almost the same as a dramaseries, but a movie was too short. The TV station could not even earn back theamount they paid for the film.

In the future, CCTV movie channel will be the biggest buyerof movie rights. Many people shoot movies because they wanted to sell therights. They can sell to VCD companies, CCTV movie channel, etc. This wasbecause the producers could not make money even when the movie was aired in thecinema.

So, Feng Yu told Thomas that the Double side double layerstructure was a waste. The cost was higher, and the technological requirementswere higher. It was hard to implement it too. Even the single side double layerstructure was not required now. When both companies were researching on singleside double layer structure disc currently, they should continue to upgrade theencoding technology. Their aim should be using single side and single layerdisc to meet the demands of the cinema companies.

Of course, they also need to research on high storage disc.In the future, the blue ray high definition movies would be too big to bestored on a standard disc. One blue ray high definition movie was more than 20gigabytes!

But currently, high definition movies do not even exist. Whowould they sell this high storage disc to? The VCD or DVD players had to beconnected to the TV. The resolution of the TV in this era was only so high.Even if there were a high definition movie disc, it would not be shown on theTV!

After Thomas returned to Holland, Philips immediately callfor a press conference to announce they would use Wind and Rain Electronics,Single side double layer structure disc and technology, to enter the VCDmarket.

This news caused an uproar in the consumer electronicsindustry.

Many companies were still laughing at Wind and RainElectronics when they introduced this format and technology. A small electroniccompany from China wants to set the industry standards? Who would listen toyou? We will be the one who would set the standards, and you must follow ourstandards.

Toshiba was one of those companies, and Sony announced thatthey will be collaborating with Toshiba to set the DVD players standard.

But now, Philips, a world-renowned electronics company, hadannounced they will abide by Wind and Rain Electronics standards. This meansthey were helping and supporting Wind and Rain to seek profits.

Everyone knows that the one who set the industry standardswill be the industry’s leader. Philips had recognized Wind and Rain Electronicsas the industry leader?!

But everyone immediately knew Wind and Rain Electronics hadauthorized Philips to use their patents. With Philips helping to set theindustry standards, other companies will also agree to follow it.

PolyGram, a record label under Philips had started tocollaborate with Wind and Rain Electronics. They sold the rights of their musicat low cost to Wind and Rain Electronics and Wind, and Rain Electronics willproduce music and videos VCD according to the new format.

Many other companies, including movie companies, recordlabels, etc. which had worked with Philips previously also announce that theywill use Wind and Rain Electronics standards.

Toshiba and Sony start to act. They had joined hands to setthe industry standards. They firmly believe that they had bigger storage andmore advanced technology. Their disc should be more suitable for the industry. Theyalso start to contact more movie and music companies to introduce their format.

Toshiba and Sony had thought that they would be able tosuppress Wind and Rain Electronics when they join forces. After the industrystandards were set by them, their related technologies’ worth would increase.Wind and Rain Electronics will waste time and funds for developing thosetechnologies.

But Toshiba and Sony did not expect Philips would come intothe picture and collaborate with Wind and Rain Electronics!

It was frustrating for Toshiba. Toshiba had approached Aiwaand Wind and Rain Electronics to try and get the authorization to use the VCDpatents. But their request was rejected!

Many other companies like NEC, Fujitsu, Panasonic, etc. hadcontacted them too. All of them were also rejected and did not get theauthorization!

Big companies do not dare to use other people’s patentsillegally. If they were caught, they would be punished heavily. The companywould have to surrender their profits from the products which had used another company’stechnology. It will also affect the company’s reputation.

Why Feng Yu did not sell the authorization to thosecompanies? Authorizing, those companies were also profitable.

There were two reasons. First, Feng Yu was waiting forMPEG-II technology to be developed. He does not want other companies to developthis technology earlier than him.

Secondly, those companies were all Japanese companies!

Feng Yu does not want the Japanese to make profits from thistechnology.

Now, Feng Yu had asked Jiang Wanmeng to contact othercompanies. They were preparing to have a large-scale patent authorization forthe first generation of MPEG technology and the VCD player technology.

Feng Yu has the most advanced technology in his hands, andhe wanted to make the most out of his older technologies. This was what manybig companies were doing. This way, the company could make more money and alsoprevent other companies from overtaking them.

Many companies focus on developing new technology andpatenting them. These companies will not produce any products but make use ofauthorizing their patents to earn money. For example, Ericsson will stop makingmobile phones in the future. But Ericsson owns lots of patents in the mobilephone industry, and they used it to make money. Their annual profits were evenhigher than some mobile phone companies.

When Toshiba and Sony were looking for companies to usetheir formats, Pioneer and Hewlett-Packard announced that they will collaborateand introduce a new standard of DVD, which will be rewritable.

Another two electronics giant were cooperating and want toset a new direction for the DVD industry.

You all are fighting to set the encoding standards forsingle side double layer and double side double layers structures for encodingstandards? We will develop a new rewriteable encoding standard. We can alsomake money from this.

Now, there were 3 types of DVD standards in the market. Allof which were introduced by world-class companies, and it was a stalemate.

The funniest part was there were no DVD players in themarket yet! The fight for the industry standards was ongoing, and DVD will notbe popularized.

Feng Yu got to admit that he was pissed by these. Thesecompanies could not make money, and they do not want others to make money too.Let’s see who will last until the end!

$5 or more per month

$10 or more per month

$20 or more per month

$50 or more per month

$75 or more per month

$99.99 or more per month

Your support is greatly appreciated.