Chapter 643 – DVD Forum Part 1 of 2

Feng Yu notified those companies’ representative that he will make an important announcement in Wind and Rain Electronics headquarters and will meet them there. It will be held 3 days later.

After receiving the notification, the higher management of the various companies immediately reacted. All of them heard that Panasonic had sent their vice president to meet Wind and Rain Electronics and they knew that should also send someone of similar status. They sent either their Deputy Chairman or Vice President. Some of them even sent their directors.

Thomas naturally was invited. But he did not know what Feng Yu was going to do. Feng Yu only told him that this meeting will be something good.

When Thomas met Feng Yu the first time, they formed an alliance, and because of this, Thomas’s status in Philips immediately rise. Now, he has more say in the company. Although he owns some shares of Philips, he was not a member of the board.

If Thomas could perform well this time to show his capabilities to the shareholders, then he might get the chance to enter the core management level of the company.

Even if he did not enter the higher management, he might also get more authority and get more company shares.

Feng Yu looked at the list of companies which he will be meeting. Sony, Toshiba, HP, and Pioneer were not invited as they were the first ones who set their DVD standards to rival Wind and Rain Electronics. The rest of the companies were all invited and had shown up.

……

“I am glad to see all of you here to attend this DVD exchange organized by Wind and Rain Electronics. This is a discussion about the development of DVD. I am sure everyone here knows that VCD is only a passing phase. The product that will rule the home video players in the future will be the DVD players. Everyone here should be trying to develop your own DVD technologies, right? But the core technology on the video and audio encoding patent are still in our hands. Also, we are working together with Philips to introduce the industry standards for the DVD format.”

“I know everyone is here for the developments of the VCD players. But a moment of failure does not represent a lifetime of failure. All the companies here should be researching on DVD technologies in a bid to replace us, right?”

Feng Yu had a sly smile on his face when he saw the different expressions on the companies’ representatives faces. Want to replace us? Maybe in your next life!

“Everyone should know that the current CD encoding technology is very mature. The VCD encoding technology was also evolved from CD encoding technology. But the DVD encoding technology is totally different. Now, the DVD standards and format is still not uniform, and this will affect the development of DVD technologies. This is what I want to do today. I want to set a uniform standard to let this industry grow faster.”

All the companies’ representative had an ‘I knew it’ look on their faces. They knew that Wind and Rain Electronics had invited them over to set a uniform standard. Wind and Rain Electronics wanted the industry to use their standard format, Wind and Rain Philips industry standards.

This was not a problem for the companies, but Wind and Rain Electronics had to give them some benefits. If not, they would instead support the other two encoding formats. With all these companies creating problems, Wind and Rain Electronics and Philips will not be able to develop fast.

“For the DVD industry’s growth and our future, we should set up an international organization. I call this organization DVD Forum. Wind and Rain Electronics, Philips, AIWA and Aiwa are the core founding members of this forum. I invite all of you to be a member of this forum, and in the future, every new DVD format will be scrutinized and approve by DVD Forum. We will work together for a better future!”

After Feng Yu finished, there was no applause, and he frowned.

Jiang Wanmeng knew Feng Yu was not pleased with the response and he immediately starts to clap. The rest of the people there soon followed. These representatives did not want to applaud. Setting up an organization to introduce industry standards? What standards do we have? You all are the ones holding on to the standards. This organization was obviously trying to recruit them and introduce your standards.

Feng Yu waited for a while, and no one said a word. He grew impatient and asked: “What’s wrong? All of you are unhappy with my suggestion?”

Taiwan’s BenQ representative raised his hand and stood up: “Mr. Feng, can I know what is the approval process and who will the ones who grant the approvals? The ones that grant the approval will be fixed, or the members will be rotated?”

Feng Yu took a glanced at him: “It will be fixed and rotated. The 4 founding companies will have fixed places in the approval committee. The other 5 members in the committee will be rotated every year among the other members. There will be 9 people in the committee, and if 5 committee members agree, the standard will be approved, and all the companies in the forum have to abide by the committee’s decision.”

In Feng Yu’s previous life, there was also such an organization. It was also an international organization, and they were the ones who collected patent authorization fees from China’s DVD manufacturers. But in Feng Yu’s previous life, joining this organization was not compulsory, and this was why there was a race to set the standards for DVD formats. But now, Feng Yu wants to make it mandatory. You are not happy? You can choose not to join this organization!

4 founding companies? Damn! All of them knew that AIWA, Aiwa, and Wind and Rain Electronics were Feng Yu’s companies. Feng Yu was too shameless. He wants to hold 3 permanent places in the approval committee!

With Philips, they will be holding on to 4 out of 9 spots in the committee. They could just recruit one more company, and they would be able to implement whatever industry standards they want. This was not fair!

Feng Yu had a deep impression on this BenQ company. It was because this company had invented a technology called Book Type Management. This technology was able to change DVD+R/RW disc to DVD-ROM format. It was able to read all the different disc formats.

But now, this technology will belong to Wind and Rain Electronics. Feng Yu had already instructed Jiang Wanmeng to research and develop this technology. Although Feng Yu did not know how it works, he was able to tell Jiang Wanmeng what he wants and invested a large amount of R&D fund, Wind and Rain Electronics was already one step ahead of BenQ and Wind, and Rain Electronics R&D capabilities were better than BenQ. The technology Wind and Rain Electronics developed might even let their DVD players read all sorts of DVD discs. This way, it will stop the industry standard race!

Of course, Feng Yu will not tell anyone about this now. He wants to let Toshiba and Sony thinks that they would be able to set the industry standards and replace Wind and Rain Philips standard.

After Feng Yu said the approval process, all the representatives were looking at each other. All of them do not want to agree, but they know that if they did not join this organization, they would have no chance left. They will be left out of the circle, and there will be no chance for them to get a slice of the DVD cake.

But even if these companies were to agree, they did not want to be the first to voice out. The first person would be seen as a coward. If this organization did not work out and all the companies did not make any money, all the companies will blame the first company.

Seeing no representative wanting to say a word, Feng Yu also kept quiet. He sat on the rostrum and look at all the companies’ representatives calmly.