Chapter 133 Streaming Platform

The young couple spent two hours of their Saturday afternoon learning firing drills and practicing shooting the target from various positions like behind barricades and prone on the ground.

Hailee was ecstatic after spending a decent amount of time handling the highly accurate FA-68 and joyfully declared, "Vince, let's add firearms classes to our weekly schedule! I'll definitely act the part once we start filming the Everlife Movie with the skills Conrad and Marco shared with us."

Vince also enjoyed himself, as he wasn't able to shoot much during his past life, and replied, "I'm down. Maybe we can even do a bit of field training if it isn't too hot outside."

Conrad was happy to be of service and said, "We'll begin practicing shooting moving targets the next time both of you visit. The Austin Barracks is always open for its' CEO."

Hailee and Vince thanked the middle-aged boot camp supervisor for his time and expertise before heading back to the Flyga with Marco.

Hailee acted as Vince's better half and graciously asked, "Marco, we'd love to have you for dinner if you're interested."

The dutiful FS Overseer respectfully declined and replied, "Thanks for the invitation, but I have plans tonight. So I'll take a rain check for now."

Marco waited until the Flyga was in the sky before boarding his CAV parked at the secondary AV pad to head home.

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Hailee and Vince watched the livestream launch event hosted on Instagram, Twitch, and other online platforms for the Infinity Channel release began while they ate dinner at the Dalton Manor.

The show featured interviews with relevant celebrities and trailers for upcoming media properties like the newest season of Game of Thrones, the Everlife, and War Online expansions, with a small countdown clock set for midnight central time at the bottom right.

The event itself was pre-produced and wasn't actually live, but viewers tuned in all the same to experience behind-the-scenes content from their favorite pop icons.

Future Tech Broadcasting, now led by the meticulous production manager, Oliver, went the extra mile and produced fully dubbed versions of the countdown event for foreign viewers, utilizing Voice-ALL, the new Infinity Unreal Engine AI voice acting plugin, in over a dozen languages.

It was also a critical native feature of the Infinity Channel, allowing Future Tech's media partners to rapidly localize content that didn't require professional voice acting quality.

Hailee spent a few afternoons at the Future Tech offices observing how Vince's friends worked and were able to beta test the Infinity Channel at Jessica's office a few times; and said, "Jessica and her team really went all out designing so many of the features. I've never seen a clearer video before watching on ultra-definition."

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The Infinity Channel utilized the NetServ content delivery network fully, so its' streaming performance wasn't a surprise for Vince, and he replied, "Agreed. Her department did an excellent job with the limited development time they had. I promoted her mentor, Mike Kreiger, to Executive Director of Future Tech Softworks. So naturally, Jessica also received a promotion and is now Junior Executive of the major corporate division."

Hailee was happy for a good friend in their circle and said, "She's a brilliant young woman and deserves whatever promotion Future Tech gives her."

Any programmer of Jessica's caliber, especially after training with Patel from FT AI and Mike Krieger, would be fought over by software companies, considering her young age and vast potential.

The pair finished eating dinner and continued watching the countdown event for a few more hours until retiring for the night.

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Sunday noon the following day, a pair of friends in Denver visited their local Micro Center to shop for computer components.

The store was filled with varied customers ranging from young to old and from different backgrounds. However, they all had an interest in consumer electronics in common.

In his early 20s, Bradley, a typical local, saved money working months to spend on a new gaming rig. He'd always wanted to play his favorite video games without compromising video quality but was currently in a dilemma.

Bradley planned to build it using off-the-shelf parts like an Intel processor and a high-end NVidia graphics card based on online tutorials, but his friend was against the idea.

"Dude, you already saved more than $5 thousand, so why would you settle for lesser gear than a Future Tech Infinity Workstation?" his friend Elia said as they walked through the store aisles.

The young woman was very familiar with Future Tech products. She worked full-time as a 3D artist for a significant design consulting firm and utilized Future Tech products like the War Online modding tools and the Infinity Unreal Engine, which was free for NetServ subscribers.

Elia had made a name for herself in the modding circle the past few years by creating beautiful armor sets for girl characters in Everlife and War Online. Guilds with primarily women players continuously raided dungeons that were known to drop Elia's designs. Some would spend excessive amounts of Bitcash in the online auction or marketplace to collect a complete set, going upwards of $100 thousand for the rarer pieces with unique ambient effects.

Future Tech built the Infinity market ecosystem, beginning with War Online, as an outlet for freelance artists to earn money for their hard work and gain recognition from their industry peers, but also reduced Future Studio labor hours dedicated to satiate the fashion wars and other needs of the community.

Bradley considered his friend's suggestion and thought, [I really wanted to build my own PC, but Future Tech only sells pre-built machines.]

He said to her, "But then I'll also need to pay for a $100 Bitcash monthly NetServ subscription. Isn't that too demanding for the consumer? I don't feel like buying a computer that I can't use without a subscription."

Bradley's concerns were valid, as the average person in 2013 wasn't as accustomed to paying for subscriptions as consumers in 2021.

Elia nodded her head in disappointment and replied, "So what? With the Infinity Channel's release last night, you won't need a subscription for your cellular plan, landline internet, and now even TV! It's such a no-brainer nowadays to stick with Future Tech's offering. You even get War Online and Everlife Online services included in the subscription instead of paying for them separately."

Elia's arguments were compelling enough for Bradley to stop walking toward the Build-Your-Own PC section of the store to check out the Future Tech booth first.

Though most major cities worldwide host a Future Tech storefront, the corporation also partners with reputable local distributors like Micro Center for a reasonable fee.

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Future Tech's new media platform was also available on third-party devices like Linux, Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS. In addition, the Infinity Channel made waves across Reddit and Twitter after a successful countdown event for further promoting the service, on top of the traditional advertising on billboards and commercials.

Interestingly, most new users were consumers from foreign nations that didn't have access to streaming services like Netflix due to distribution rights. Still, the Infinity Channel didn't share this problem as Kemp-Jacobs dedicated much of its' labor hours to the global broadcasting deals with various international media conglomerates.

Though Future Tech didn't have as many consumer electronic customers abroad, its' reach through entertainment properties like video games and auxiliary media solidified the corporation's position worldwide.

Vince Dalton ensured his business improved the lives of everyone, no matter their socio-economic status. His customer base ranges from an average consumer enjoying the Infinity Channel as a separate subscription for as cheap as $15 Bitcash a month to the wealthiest in society that can afford armored Future Couture clothing and AVs.

Bradley was welcomed into the Future Tech booth by an upbeat sales representative who explained the various benefits of purchasing an Infinity Computer instead of choosing their inferior competitors.

Though Intel, Apple, and other corporations had procured schematics of advanced processors re-engineered by Anarchy on the black market, none of their offerings were comparable to Future Tech's newest devices.

They could have easily renegotiated their legacy deal with ARM (now FT Micro Devices) for licensing microprocessor architecture before Vince Dalton purchased the UK-based company. Still, they chose to sever relations instead due to market competitiveness.

The pride of Tim Cook and the other Silicon Valley suits forced them from playing second fiddle to Future Tech and FT Micro Devices, only licensing previous generation processors externally.

Bradley scanned the QR code the sales representative pointed at, and it directed him to the website application for customizing Infinity devices.

He browsed the color and vinyl wrap options and was amazed by the extensive user-design features Future Tech made available for its' customers.

A vinyl wrap based on his favorite movie franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, piqued his interest and thought, [Building my own computer would be a hassle, so I might as well buy an Infinity Workstation. My Verizon phone plan sucks anyway.]

Future Tech gained a new loyal customer thirty minutes later, and this situation was becoming more and more common worldwide.

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