game trailblazer

Chapter 168 MP3 and Streaming Media
In the workshop on the first floor of the villa, the sound of clattering keyboards or ticking mouse clicks could be heard from time to time.This is already the fifth day. Ever since Mai Jiajun raised the nationality question that day, Zhang Lexing has not stepped out of his residence for five whole days. If it wasn't for Zhang Lexing's swearing that he just needed a little time to think things through, Yang Xinxin might have stayed here.

These days, Zhang Lexing spends a lot of time thinking about the issue of nationality. In fact, there are only two choices, but once a choice is made, there may be no chance of regretting it, which makes Zhang Lexing very distressed.In addition to thinking about problems, Zhang Lexing will also look through the notes he wrote before, or look up information and news on the Internet. For example, today, Zhang Lexing is looking at a software download site called "DOWNLOAD" that he often visits.

After casually browsing the relatively simple homepage, Zhang Lexing was about to close the webpage when a link with the words "RealAudio1.0" on the page attracted his attention.I clicked on the link with the mouse, and a new page popped up quickly, which briefly introduced what is the new streaming media and the function of the RealAudio1.0 playback software.

From the content introduced here, Zhang Lexing learned that the so-called RealAudio1.0 is a streaming media player software developed by a company called ProgressiveNetworks, which has the feature of playing immediately after clicking without waiting.Zhang Lexing clicked the link to download the RealAudio1.0 player, and after a while, the player's installation file was downloaded.After the installation, Zhang Lexing tried to click the music playback test link provided on the software introduction page. Sure enough, as the introduction said, except for the buffering at the beginning, the music was not interrupted after that, but the sound quality was a bit poor. .

The name of ProgressiveNetworks sounds strange, but this RealAudio1.0 feels a bit familiar to use, especially the streaming media involved in the software introduction page, which makes Zhang Lexing feel familiar, just like the RMVB downloaded from the Internet back then format movie files, "Could it be that this ProgressiveNetworks company has something to do with that RealNetworks company?" Zhang Lexing couldn't help wondering.

What is the relationship between the two companies? It is easy to find someone to investigate, but the emergence of streaming media gave Zhang Lexing the dawn of solving the problem.Newspapers are said to have been born in the early 17th century. At that time, there was only one piece of news in the so-called newspapers. After hundreds of years of development, it has become one of the mainstream media today.Radio was born in 1906. At first, it only played two jokes, a song and a violin solo, and the audience was only a few hundred people. After decades of development, it became one of the mainstream media, but now there are A little bit of sunset.It is said that television was born in 1932. It was just a small opera in a theater at the beginning, and now it has become the most influential mainstream media.Zhang Lexing knows that in the near future, the Internet, as an emerging media, will surpass the status of TV, and it will contain all kinds of text, pictures, audio and video. Many traditional newspapers and TV stations have to develop on the Internet in order to maintain their influence.

With the stimulation of streaming media and the help of previous notes, Zhang Lexing recalled the situation after the great development of Internet media, especially in the Web2.0. An all-round, interactive new media era, a new media era that cannot be compared with traditional media such as newspapers and television.

Now that there is a better choice, Zhang Lexing no longer has to worry about the issue of nationality and acquisition of the TV station. After many days of troubles are gone, Zhang Lexing suddenly feels much more relaxed.After calling Chen Zishan and chatting casually, Zhang Lexing hurried to the VisualSystem Group headquarters building while it was still early, ready to tell Yang Xinxin his final decision.

Yang Xinxin was the only one in the chairman's office today. After seeing Zhang Lexing's relaxed expression, she put down the document in her hand and asked with a smile, "Brother, you look good today. It seems that your problem has been solved." .”

"Sister Xin, I've already figured it out." Zhang Lexing came to the sofa and sat down, and replied with a smile.

Yang Xinxin left her desk, sat down on the sofa next to Zhang Lexing, and asked, "Oh, what are you going to do?"

"I don't want to give up my current nationality for ABC, so I plan to cancel this acquisition plan."

"Brother, you still look so happy, don't you feel uncomfortable at all." Yang Xinxin felt very puzzled, and gave up a once-in-a-lifetime acquisition opportunity, and acted like a normal person, which is too strange.

"Because I thought of a better way." Zhang Lexing said cheerfully: "The reason why I wanted to acquire the American Broadcasting Company at the beginning was because of the users covered by the company's TV network, and it was to increase the information transmission of the media company. The scope is to increase the channels of dissemination for the film and television dramas produced by DreamWorks. However, since there are legal restrictions on foreigners investing in TV stations, and I can find new media resources, I can naturally give up the idea of ​​​​acquiring ABC. "

Yang Xinxin asked curiously: "Could it be a newspaper? Probably not, brother, what is it?"

"Internet, I think in the future the Internet will gradually replace the current status of these traditional media such as TV and newspapers, and become a more free and open new media. It is said that the "San Jose Mercury" was on the Internet in 1987, and at the end of last year At that time, dozens of newspapers published online editions, although they are basically electronic versions of paper newspapers, it shows that these traditional media also hope to influence more users through the Internet.” Speaking of this, Zhang Lexing Station I stood up, gestured with both hands, and said, "I hope to build a series of websites to create my own future new media to replace the current status of TV networks."

Yang Xinxin couldn't believe it, and asked: "Replacing the TV network, is it possible?"

"Of course it is possible. When TV was first born, people were more accustomed to getting information from newspapers or radio, but now TV has become people's first choice, and so is the Internet. The current Internet is like the beginning of TV. It contains There is still very little information, and it is mainly text, and there are relatively few pictures. However, as the network bandwidth continues to expand in the future, and the number of Internet users continues to increase, there will be more and more information on the Internet. In addition to text, Pictures will also include audio and video information in the future, and will become more and more attractive to users. Now these traditional media users can basically only accept one-way, but the Internet can provide users with opportunities to interact. This is also where the Internet is more attractive than traditional media.” Speaking of rising, Zhang Lexing came to the desk, beckoned and said, “Sister Xin, come here, turn on the computer, I will I'll show you something."

"What's so mysterious." Yang Xinxin muttered, and went to the desk and started the computer.

After the computer booted to the desktop, Zhang Lexing took the mouse, skillfully clicked on the browser, and entered the address of the download website that he saw at home.A little later, after the website opened, Zhang Lexing clicked on the RealAudio1.0 player page.

Pointing to the page on the screen, Zhang Lexing said: "Sister Xin, look, this is a streaming media playback software, which means that you don't need to wait for the entire file to be downloaded, and even the video in the future It is possible to play directly without waiting for download."

Yang Xinxin looked at the profile on the page and said in disbelief: "So amazing?"

"That's right, it's so magical, which means that in the future, the Internet can be used as a distribution channel for film and television dramas, just like the current TV network, as long as the Internet can cover places, it can be spread, even overseas. There aren’t as many restrictions as TV networks.”

"In this way, this streaming media is definitely important in the future. It seems that we also need our own streaming media." Yang Xinxin looked at the name of the development company marked on the screen and said to himself.

Zhang Lexing, who is familiar with her habits, knows that Yang Xinxin must have taken a fancy to the technology in the hands of Progressive Networks. Whether it is self-developed or directly acquired, there is nothing good about coming to Progressive Networks. It seems that there is no need for him to bother to do anything After investigation, Progressive Networks can't escape Yang Xinxin's Wuzhishan anyway.

After sighing for a while, Zhang Lexing glanced over Yang Xinxin's desk, and a document with the cover of "Application of Dynamic Image Expert Compression Standard Audio Level 3 in Digital Music" caught his attention.

"Moving Picture Experts Group Audio Layer III (MPEG-3 Audio Layer 1 for short), it looks familiar..." Zhang Lexing pondered in his mind, picked up the file and flipped through it, and Yang Xinxin saw it beside him and didn't stop him.

After flipping through the files, Zhang Lexing finally figured out that the so-called Expert Compression Standard Audio Layer 3 is actually MP3, a very famous lossy compressed audio format.The document mainly introduces the MP3 research results of the company's audio-visual technology research institute. An improved version of the MP3 encoder called L3EncPlus officially decided to use ".mp3" as the file extension of this format, while the previously used It turned out to be a very weird extension of ".bit", and more importantly, there is a software player Winplay3 that can play MP3 in real time.

Seeing Zhang Lexing close the document, Yang Xinxin asked next to him: "Brother, what do you think after reading it?"

"Very good and powerful!" Zhang Lexing exclaimed.

"Ah, what do you mean?" Yang Xinxin couldn't understand again.

"Sister Xin, I know you usually like to listen to music." Zhang Lexing didn't rush to explain immediately, but came to a nearby cabinet and randomly found a music CD, then opened the cover and took out the CD inside.

Just as she was about to speak, Yang Xinxin rushed over, looking at the CD in Zhang Lexing's hand, and said, "My 'Beijiu', brother, handle it carefully."

"Sister Xin, I will be careful. You see, if you listen to music now, you usually use this kind of music CD, and you need a corresponding player, at least a Walkman." Zhang Lexing said while gesturing with his hand: "The Walkman is about the same size, so it's not very convenient to carry it around."

"Well, that's true." Yang Xinxin nodded sympathetically.

"But MP3 music is different. In theory, if you want to play it, you only need the corresponding decoding chip, storage system, input and output interfaces, etc., and you don't need the optical reading components like the CD player. Made it smaller." Zhang Lexing explained.

"Hearing what you said, it seems quite reasonable." Yang Xinxin, who had temporarily forgotten "Beijiu", began to think about the prospect of commercialization of MP3 players: "If this kind of player can be produced, it can be used To sell for money. Well, what about music files? After we buy the copyright, make it into MP3 and then sell it? No, it’s too risky. Let the record company sell it by itself? But what good does it do us..."

"Sister Xin, the player still needs to carry out corresponding research. There are three main problems. One is the corresponding MP3 decoding chip. The second is the storage system. We need large-capacity and low-cost semiconductor memory. The third is the power management system. No matter what kind of battery is used, we need at least 6 hours of continuous playback for the portable player to be practical."

"Well, it shouldn't be a problem to leave it to the research institute." Yang Xinxin nodded, and asked again: "How to solve the music problem?"

"To solve the problem of music files, we must first make the MP3 file format popular. We can start from several aspects at the same time. One is to release the MP3 encoder for free, and the second is to continue to develop better free MP3 playback software. Even It can be considered to be integrated into our operating system. The third is to find some people to create momentum for MP3 in the media, so that more people are interested in it, so that MP3 will gradually become popular. What we will do later Things just fell into place.”

"Brother, what are we going to do next?"

"At that time, the Internet will develop better, and we can build an online store that specializes in selling online music, providing a sales channel for major record companies, and providing MP3 files by themselves, and we only care about the commission after sales .”

"It's nothing special, why do users insist on buying from us?"

"We not only have an online store, but also a product to match. I envisage a model of 'product + content'. For example, we launch an MP3 player with large capacity, long playing time and easy operation. ,, then the corresponding content is MP3 music in the online store. If technology develops in the future and portable machines that can play videos appear, then the content we provide can be movies, TV and other videos. We occupy the market with high-quality products , and then provide content through the online store to continue to make profits, a bit like the current home game console market.”

"Then the same is true for computers in the future? There is only an operating system, and any functions you need can be purchased from online stores, wouldn't it be...haha!" After listening to the example Zhang Lexing said, Yang Xinxin became happier the more she thought about it, and couldn't help laughing There was a sound.

Zhang Lexing was very surprised. Unexpectedly, Yang Xinxin could think of the app store of the iPhone (actually, it should be the app store of the iPod) by casually talking about it. Maybe what she said is really reasonable. In the future, computers may really be In this way, users only need to spend a small amount of money to have what functions they need, just like selling music to sell software.Thinking of the iPhone, Zhang Lexing couldn't help but think of the game platform on the iPhone. Although it is not as popular as the handheld, it is the most successful game platform in mobile phones. It is not comparable to Nokia's N-GAGE platform. , this seems to be an important part of his own game development plan in the future.

Yang Xinxin was even more surprised. She didn't expect Zhang Lexing to think of such a special business model in a very ordinary technical report. She could be called a business wizard, but the specific business management level was not good, but he was there. At least the company will never lack the motivation to continue to develop.

While thinking about their own concerns, the two continued to study, discuss, and analyze, and a new path of development gradually unfolded in front of them...

On the other hand, James Cameron also came back with a full load. The oriental charm he saw during this trip to Hong Kong made him very excited, not only for "Titanic", but more because his science fiction-themed film seemed Seeing the dawn, of course he also knows that it must not be so fast, so the main energy right now is still on the upcoming filming of "Titanic".In addition to the long-established industrial light and magic in charge of post-production, James Cameron decided to hand over the main computer special effects scenes to Oriental Shen Yun. Cooperation to actually test the true technical level of this company.

When James Cameron was busy working on his own "Titanic", Zhang Lexing was not idle. After talking with Yang Xinxin in depth, he arranged for people to start talking with Michael Ovitz and Harbert L. Alan makes contact.With a friend's introduction, coupled with his eagerness to sell, the negotiation with Michael Ovitz went smoothly. After paying a price of 8 million US dollars, he successfully won 55% of CAA's equity.MCA Global is a little more troublesome. The banker Harbert Allan is a veteran negotiator, and he clings to the bottom line and never lets go. Fortunately, the situation is stronger than others. Using his personal relationship to mediate, he only paid 36 billion US dollars to take 80% of the shares of MCA Global from Panasonic.

After completing the acquisition of MCA Universal, DreamWorks Pictures Group restructured. MCA Universal was split into Universal Pictures and Universal Music and merged into the group. The name of DreamWorks Pictures Group was also changed to Universal Entertainment Group. Its subsidiaries include many film and television production companies such as DreamWorks and New Line, as well as many affiliated companies such as distribution companies, music, and game development. A more powerful entertainment group has gradually been born...

(End of this chapter)