Back to the teenage years

Chapter 577 The infighting is urgent.

In his previous life, Hu Zhibiao's error-correction function competition was selected as a typical case of Chinese commercial marketing. This marketing model reflected the innovative thinking of Chinese manufacturing in the 90s in breaking through the barriers of brand and technological discourse. Even in later generations, mobile phone drop and waterproof tests and electric vehicle violent crushing tests are still popular and eye-catching.

This type of marketing tactic has stood the test of time.

On the other hand, in the Chinese VCD market in the mid-90s, consumers initially had a strong reliance on foreign brands, with Samsung VCD players being the best-selling. However, foreign brands always used genuine discs as the standard for error correction capabilities, while domestic consumers mostly bought pirated discs, creating a huge gap between the two. This was the core reason why domestic players were able to defeat foreign brands later on. The error correction capability competition initiated by Hu Zhibiao transformed consumers' anxiety about product error correction capabilities into a visible, audible, and perceptible technological ritual.

Seeing is believing, hearing is not.

Consumers who spend several thousand yuan on large appliances like VCD players are cautious. They need to understand all aspects of the performance, and seeing things in person is always more trustworthy. The ability to correct disc distortion and stuttering is a key concern for consumers. So when they witnessed Aiwa Electronics' new generation VCD player successfully reading a level-five damaged disc at the Xidan Electronics City entrance, they immediately erupted in enthusiastic cheers.

In just a short while, the Aiwa Electronics new product counter area set up next to the arena saw a steady stream of spectators inquiring about purchase discounts.

As for the arena area, now that the first person has taken the plunge and indeed received a generous prize, the number of people raising their hands to participate in the challenge has suddenly increased.

The female host quickly selected four more audience members to continue the challenge following the previous procedure.

Although Hu Zhibiao secretly set the success rate of the challenge to 5%, the parameters were simply too few. Throughout the entire extreme challenge, not a single device was misread. The reaction of the onlookers was becoming increasingly enthusiastic, and the new product counter was already packed with people. At this moment, the phrase "Good skills" printed on the backdrop of the arena seemed to be the best footnote to the quality of Aiwa VCDs.

The colleagues in the audience reacted as if they had eaten shit when they saw this scene.

They probably understood that, given Aihua's actions, not to mention other regions, at least in Xidan Electronics City, their VCD player sales would be completely crushed by Aihua Electronics.

"Is your machine really that amazing? Let me try it out." At this moment, a loud voice rang out from below the stage, with a heavy northern accent, immediately attracting everyone's attention.

The one who spoke was a young man wearing a faded, dark blue overall uniform with "Newtech Electronics" printed on the chest. He had a buzz cut, was tall, and had a dark complexion. He pushed aside the people in front of him and leaped onto the ring in a few steps.

Under everyone's gaze, the crew-cut youth pointed at the Aido VCD player that had just played the "sandpaper disc" and said to Hu Zhibiao, "I guarantee that your Aihua VCD player can't play this disc!"

As he spoke, he magically pulled a disc from his pocket. The edges of the disc were also covered with scratches, but what was even more outrageous was that a black magnet the size of a child's palm was attached to the center of the disc.

The audience fell silent instantly.

A newly appointed person? Is he trying to cause trouble?
Seeing this, Zhang Yunqi glanced at the crew-cut youth, but his attention quickly shifted to the disc in the youth's hand that had attracted a black magnet.

Magnets adhering to the disc have a significant impact on VCD playback. This is because the magnetic field interferes with the delicate optical reading system inside the VCD player. The core principle is that during VCD playback, the laser head emits a beam that penetrates the transparent polycarbonate substrate of the disc, illuminates the data layer, and the reflected light is received by photodiodes and converted into electrical signals.

This process relies on two electromagnetic drive components: a focusing coil and a tracking coil.

The focusing coil and tracking coil are essentially electromagnets. However, an external strong magnet will apply an additional magnetic field, which will interfere with the balance of the magnetic field inside the coil, causing the lens to shake uncontrollably. The laser beam will not be able to focus stably or track the data track, resulting in image distortion and stuttering. On the other hand, the strong magnetic field may also interfere with the motor current, causing unstable speed and disordered data reading timing, which will aggravate playback failures.

This is actually a flaw in the entire industry standard. VCDs in the 90s generally did not consider strong magnetic field interference scenarios. After 1997, the national standard only tested the error correction ability of the disc scratches and stains.

The reason is simple: in reality, users rarely encounter situations where discs attract magnets.

The stunt this guy in the new company uniform is doing is clearly meant to cause trouble for Aihua Electronics. Zhang Yunqi glanced at Hu Zhibiao on the stage; he had a smile on his face and didn't seem worried at all about the situation.

Under the gaze of the crowd, Hu Zhibiao nodded to the crew-cut youth: "In that case, let's verify it right here in front of so many viewers using the Shinco and Aiwa machines. If the Aiwa machine can't read it, I'll give you a brand new machine as a prize! If the Shinco machine can read it, but the Aiwa machine can't, I'll personally give you a grand prize of 10,000 yuan!"

These words immediately caused a stir among the audience.

The staff member stepped forward and carefully took the magnetic disc. Under the watchful eyes of countless people, he first inserted the disc into the slot of a brand-new Shinco VCD player.

The cargo door closed, and the screen lit up.

However, screen flickering and lag issues soon appeared.

Clearly, the new VCD player has relatively weak resistance to magnetic interference.

The staff waited for a while, and seeing that the Shinco VCD still did not respond, they then took the disc out of the Shinco VCD in front of everyone and put it into the Aiwa Electronics VCD.

The screen lights up again.

This is an intense Hong Kong martial arts film. However, as soon as the image appeared, it shook and distorted violently, and the colors instantly became disordered.

A few scattered murmurs arose from the audience. The young man raised his chin exceptionally high and spoke even louder: "Looks like your Aihua VCD player is just so-so. It can't play anything, and I can't win the ten thousand yuan prize. But now, can you give me a new one..."

Before he finished speaking, the distorted image on the television lasted for less than two seconds before being smoothed out instantly as if by an invisible hand. The movements were fluid, and the clanging of swords and the shouts of the characters were crystal clear.

"well--!"

Cheers erupted immediately, almost deafeningly loud.

Under the watchful eyes of countless people, Aiwa Electronics has truly embodied the abstract concept of "anti-interference capability," much like sanding a disc makes the concept of "error correction" visible to the naked eye. From a marketing perspective, this is indeed persuasive to the audience.

Taking advantage of the momentum, Hu Zhibiao immediately picked up the microphone and explained to the audience Aihua Electronics' advanced anti-magnetic interference technology for VCDs.

The anti-interference technology of Aiwa Electronics VCD was developed under the leadership of Liu Ming. The design is ingenious. By improving the laser head drive circuit and adding a permalloy silicon steel shielding layer to the laser head coil, the sensitivity of the coil to magnetic fields is reduced. At the same time, based on the underlying mechanism technology protocol opened by Philips to Aiwa, Liu Ming wrote an error correction algorithm into the control chip. When an abnormal signal is detected, the lost data can be filled in through prediction and interpolation techniques.

This is equivalent to using a combination of physical shielding and software compensation to solve a problem that would normally require high-end hardware. It's a purely "homemade" method, but other manufacturers can't imitate it!
Because competitors can't get the underlying technology agreement for Philips' watch movements! This was something Zhang Yunqi secured by placing a massive order worth 400 million yuan despite the pressure on his cash flow.

Zhang Yunqi leaned against a huge backdrop emblazoned with "Good Kung Fu." It was quieter here, the noise level was blocked out. Behind him, several young men were deftly removing several VCD players, their casings already scorching hot to the touch, from the playback array and quickly replacing them with machines in the storage area that were at a normal temperature.

The machines are changed every two hours on average—this is to ensure that these heavily loaded machines do not crash or break down in front of everyone, because the intensity of this error-correction competition is too great.

Wang Xiaokai, lying on the backdrop and looking at the still-frenzied crowd below the ring, said to Zhang Yunqi, "It's settled, it's settled. Look at those guys from Xinke and Wanlida, they're all acting like their mothers have died! From now on, Xidan Electronics City will be our territory."

Zhang Yunqi smiled and lit a cigarette.

The event is nearing its end.

However, Aiwa Electronics set up a self-testing area on the left side of the arena. Consumers who brought their own stuck discs could insert their Aido VCD player into the self-testing area and receive a keychain after successfully reading the disc.

At this moment, a queue has formed in that area, stretching for at least ten meters.

Wang Xiaokai had been watching the commotion outside when he suddenly whispered, "Holy crap! Damn it, Wanlida's people and our staff are shoving each other."

Zhang Yunqi was stunned for a moment, then looked over as well.

At the Aiwa new product counter on one side of the arena, besides consumers who wanted to buy VCDs, there were also many Malata employees gathered around. It seemed that a consumer had originally wanted to buy a Malata VCD player but later changed his mind and wanted to buy an Aiwa one. The Malata salesperson was already dissatisfied because Hu Zhibiao had dragged their product out of the arena and mocked it today, so he couldn't help but make a few sarcastic remarks. The two sides then got into a verbal argument, and then the Malata people pushed the new machine on the Aiwa counter to the ground. Immediately afterwards, the two sides clashed and started fighting. Later, some people from Xinke and Xianke also joined in, pushing and shoving the Aiwa people together.

There were already a lot of people at the scene, and the situation quickly spiraled out of control.

On the stage, Hu Zhibiao seemed completely unperturbed by the chaotic scene, but his voice remained loud and clear. Pointing at the counter where the fight was taking place, he spoke with particular intensity: "Fellow viewers, these competitors are utterly lawless! They're smashing up our place in broad daylight and disrupting our business activities. This brutal and barbaric behavior is simply outrageous! But we are never afraid!"

At this point, Hu Zhibiao even seemed to have the energy to advertise: "Our Aihua Electronics was able to gain a foothold in the Chinese VCD player industry in just one year because of our resilience! Our ability to withstand wear and tear! Our tenacious spirit in persevering through slander and malicious competition! Durability, that's Aihua's patent! And it's our promise to every consumer..."

Seeing this scene from behind the backdrop, Wang Xiaokai couldn't help but admire his boss, Hu Zhibiao, for being such a talented individual.

Chaos reigned at the counter, with new machines scattered all over the floor. Several employees of Aihua Electronics were being punched and kicked by their competitors. Even so, Hu Zhibiao remained calm under pressure, leaving the audience stunned.

Wang Xiaokai felt that things were about to get really bad, so he turned to Zhang Yunqi and asked, "Boss, should we call the police?"

Zhang Yunqi stubbed out his cigarette: "What the hell are you calling the police for? Didn't you hear what Boss Hu said? Call them back!"

Upon hearing this, the Aiwa Electronics staff, who were already furious backstage, immediately swarmed towards the counter area!
Zhang Yunqi didn't move. This arena match was just the prelude; it wasn't his turn to do this kind of work yet.

The current reality is that with the increasing prevalence of pirated VCD discs, the demand from domestic consumers for the stability of VCD player playback will only continue to surge. Before its competitors could react, Aiwa Electronics launched this major battle for "error correction function" in the Chinese VCD player market several months in advance.

Today's fight can serve as the prelude to this massive melee. Zhang Yunqi may not know much else, but one thing he is certain of is that in just two or three days, Aihua Electronics' hot news will sweep across the entire country!

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(End of this chapter)