Soon after Xu Wangqiu and the others returned to Yindu, it began to rain, and the raindrops were dripping and unhurried on the road, and there was almost no trace of them. By midnight, the rain had suddenly intensified and turned into a downpour. The dense raindrops fell to the ground like broken pearls, making a crisp ticking sound.

Xu Wangqiu was not affected, lying on the bed, thinking about stereo and 5.1 channels. The movie "Cold" will not be made into stereo sound, but he will definitely make stereo movies in the future, and he has plans to engage in 5.1 channels.

Multi-channel systems have been developed abroad for many years, already in the 30s. In the 50s, the American film industry was particularly affected by the impact of television, and in order to combat the impact of television, filmmakers began to engage in widescreen films, 3D films, and stereo sound began to be used in film production.

Although stereo films were available at the time, stereo films never became mainstream, because 35mm film could not achieve multichannel, and only 70mm film had enough space for multichannel. 70mm film is expensive, and 35mm film is always the mainstream. Therefore, although multi-channel stereo appeared, it was not promoted on a large scale.

It wasn't until 1975 that Dolby came up with the 424 stereo. With the advent of this technology, 35mm film was finally able to achieve multi-channel, and stereo films were gradually promoted around the world. Before the massive rollout of 5.1 channels in the mid-90s, 424 stereo was the mainstream of the film industry, dominating cinemas.

The 5.1 channel appeared at about the same time as the 424 stereo, and in 1977 Dolby helped "Star Wars" get a super bass, which was popular. 1979's Apocalypse Now put a lot of effort into the sound, with three channels in the front, a surround sound array in the back split into left and right surround speakers, and a separate bass channel, and the 5.1 channel was born.

However, 5.1 channels were only available on 70mm film and were not popularized on a large scale.

In the 80s, with the development of technology, 35mm film realized an optical digital soundtrack that could hold 6 or more channels. In August 1992, Dolby premiered the first film with a digital sound system, the film "Batman Returns" using the Dolby SR-D system, 5.1 channels really appeared on the stage of history, and gradually promoted around the world, and Dolby has since become the unshakable king of the audio field.

In other words, it will take eight years for Dolby to develop a 5.1-channel technology that can be promoted on a large scale, bringing the film industry into the world of 5.1-channel. What if we could achieve 5.1 channels on 35mm film ahead of schedule?

Even if it can't replace Dolby as the king of the audio field, it is entirely possible to cut a slice of the big cake of audio. If this can be done, when the digital age comes, billions of patent fees can be collected every year.

In the last life, audio patents were completely monopolized by European and American companies, and Chinese mobile phones, MP3, MP4, Walkmans, car stereos and other electronic products must pay patent fees as long as they involve audio-visual technology, with an annual cost of up to 10 billion. In 2016, Dolby took OPPO and vivo to court in India, claiming that their mobile phone products infringed on their patent rights, and demanded that each phone pay 3.43 yuan in patent fees, and the two companies could only pay obediently.

Xu Wangqiu knows that it is extremely difficult to achieve 5.1 channels on 35mm film, and Dolby has relied on years of accumulation and has been conducting in-depth research and development, and it will not be done until the 90s. But he knew a technology that did not require recording sound information on film, but on a CDROM disc, thus achieving 5.1 channels, and that was DTS stereo.

In later generations, as long as you often buy discs, there is no one who does not know DTS, because most of the discs will have the three letters "DTS" written on the cover. In 1991, after Terry Beard developed the DTS system, he was introduced to director Spielberg by a friend. When Spielberg saw the sound effects of the film using DTS, he immediately informed Universal Productions that his new film, "Jurassic Park," would be produced using the DTS system. On June 11, 1993, "Jurassic Park" was officially released, and the audio-visual effects of the movie shook the world, and DTS gradually grew into a system that can compete with Dolby stereo.

The biggest difference between DTS stereo and Dolby stereo is that it adopts the technology of separating sound and picture, recording the sound on the disc and reading it by a dedicated disc drive, and recording a time synchronization code on the copy to control the disc drive and synchronize the sound with the picture.

In the past, the focus of China's scientific research was on national defense and military, and the investment in applied technology was relatively small, and there was no such technology as stereo at all. If you use the traditional mode, you can record the sound on film, and you can't achieve 5.1 channels ahead of Dolby.

However, the gap between China's laser technology and digital technology and foreign countries is not large, and it is entirely possible to use DTS to record sound through optical discs and achieve 5.1 channels ahead of Dolby.

Take optical discs as an example, in the 80s, China developed a full set of optical storage devices and mastered the corresponding technology. For example, in 1982, the Modu Laser Technology Research Institute developed a disc recording and playback device. Due to various reasons, China's optical storage technology has not been developed, and standards and patents are finally in the hands of European and American companies.

It is not difficult to use DTS to make 5.1 channels, but the real difficulty lies in how to organize production and how to promote this kind of equipment after it is made. Your technology is advanced, if you can't produce it on a large scale, if you can't apply it on a large scale, it doesn't make any sense. Xu Wangqiu's ultimate important goal in 5.1 channel is to make his format one of the mainstream formats for audio-visual playback equipment, just like DTS in the previous life. In this way, in the future, VCD and DVD will not be used by foreign companies to get stuck in audio patents.

It is not difficult to build a 5.1-channel projector with the existing conditions in China and organize production. Whether it is cooperating with a domestic photographic equipment factory or setting up a production line with yourself, there is no problem.

The real difficulty lies in the production of optical discs, and it is simply impossible to set up a modern optical disc production line under the existing conditions in China, because optical discs are now high-tech, and only the Netherlands, Dongying and France in the world have complete optical disc production technology.

In the 80s, domestic research institutes developed a full set of optical disc technology, but due to the lack of ability to form a modern production line and carry out the corresponding production. By the 90s, China could only continue to introduce optical disc production lines from abroad, and all the optical disc technology it had worked so hard to develop was shelved. Later, China became the world's largest producer of optical discs, but most of the profits were taken away by foreign manufacturers, and it was completely reduced to the lowest end of the processing enterprises.

If you don't have your own disc production line, you will be stuck by others, and it will be difficult to establish your own disc standards.

To solve the problem of the production line, the only way is to introduce from abroad, and carry out corresponding transformation after the introduction of foreign optical disc production lines, and then produce optical discs that meet their own requirements. It's just that the optical disc production line belongs to the latest technology, and others will not sell it easily, and even if they are willing to sell, the price is very high, and it cannot be done without two or three hundred million dollars.

It is obviously impossible to get an export company to pay two or three thousand dollars to introduce a disc production line, and Xu Wangqiu has been worried about this problem in the past. During this trip to Xiangjiang, he found a solution to the problem. That is to cooperate with Huo Yingdong, and Huo Yingdong will invest in the introduction of production lines to solve the problem of disc production.

Xu Wangqiu felt that the conditions for 5.1 channel were ripe and he could start this plan. He decided to talk to Wang Lanxi after returning to Beiping, and set up a digital audio-visual research institute in the export company to engage in 5.1 channel research and development.

Over the next few days, Mr. Xu took the time to visit the mall to see Sony's recently released CD playback rights, as well as Philips' laser discs. Xu Wangqiu originally wanted to buy two pieces of equipment and let domestic experts study them, but these pieces of equipment were frighteningly expensive, costing thousands of Hong Kong dollars each. He could afford the money, but it was too painful to pay for it himself. He felt that it would be better for the company to pay for it after convincing Wang Lanxi.

That night, Xu Wangqiu received a call from Liu Lin. In this era, you have to go to the telecommunications bureau to make international calls, and the price is ridiculously expensive, 30 yuan a minute. If it wasn't for something wrong, Liu Lin wouldn't have been able to call.

Xu Wangqiu hurriedly asked, "What happened?"

Liu Lin said anxiously: "The screenwriter named Lu Wei in our crew was arrested. ”

Xu Wangqiu frowned: "I was arrested, why was I arrested?"

Liu Lin said: "In recent months, we have carried out a severe crackdown and arrested many people, but I didn't expect Lu Wei to be arrested as well. ”

Striking hard is a very complicated issue, and in order to understand what is going on, we must start by going to the mountains and going to the countryside.

In the eyes of many people, going up and down the countryside is a political movement, but in fact, the most fundamental reason is economic.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, for the sake of national security, the state gave priority to the development of heavy industry, and heavy industry had no way to expand reproduction. In the fifties and sixties, the Chinese population exploded again, which created a very serious problem: there were not enough jobs in the cities for young people. Under these circumstances, the state began to engage in the process of going to the countryside and sending urban youth to the countryside. Rural hardship is bitterness, but at least young people can have something to eat.

In 1978, during the reform and opening up, the leaders above waved their hands and asked the educated youth to come back. It is easy to let the educated youths come back, but after these tens of millions of people come back, we have to resettle them and feed them! The state is not capable of resettle them at all, and these educated youths have become unemployed youths. Unemployed young people need food to survive, but they cannot find a way to provide food and clothing, so many people form gangs to steal and rob everywhere and commit blatant crimes.

As a result, there has been an upsurge of crime in the country, with various criminal incidents emerging one after another, and everyone in the whole society is in danger.

Under these circumstances, the state began a strike hard campaign in August 1983, demanding that criminal offenders be resolutely cracked down on in accordance with the spirit of "striking down on criminal offenders in a serious and swift manner." During the strike-hard campaign, which lasted for more than three years, a total of 197,000 criminal gangs of various kinds were discovered, with 876,000 gang members, 1.772 million arrested, 1.747 million sentenced, and 321,000 re-education through labor. Of these, 1,027,000 were arrested in the first phase, and 24,000 were sentenced to death.

Hearing that Lu Wei was caught in the strike-hard crackdown, Xu Wangqiu hurriedly asked, "What did he do, is it serious?"

"West Film Studio said it was a flower case. ”

"Flower case, what kind of case is the flower case?" Xu Wangqiu heard this charge for the first time.

"It's a matter of the relationship between men and women, and I don't know exactly what it's going on. ”

Xu Wangqiu's head suddenly became bigger, and the relationship between men and women could easily be convicted of hooliganism, but this time the crime of cracking down on hooliganism is a serious crime and can be sentenced to death. Someone was said to have been sentenced to death for whistling at a woman on the road, and that it was carried out immediately. He didn't know if Reed had been arrested in the last life, even if he had been arrested in the previous life and later released, there was no guarantee that Reed would be able to escape this time, after all, Reed's growth trajectory had changed.

Good Chinese screenwriters are rare, and Lu Wei is the best among screenwriters.

Xu Wangqiu didn't want the reeds to disappear in the crackdown, so he immediately said: "I'll be back immediately!"