Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Companies with scarce resources always had an advantage in negotiations. Due to the irreplaceability of these scarce resources, even if it was a little expensive, the opposing end would often agree to a deal.

In some sense, the holographic technology that NTT had mastered was also a scarce resource.

There were other companies that did holographic projection technology, but none of them were as advanced. None of them had experience in building holographic projection technology for large-scale venues.

In the end, after some fierce negotiation and the deal was on the verge of collapse, the two sides finally reached a consensus, just like Nagaoka Keiichi had expected.

The NTT Group’s price was reduced to 50 billion yen from the initial 100 billion yen.

Director Ou was quite satisfied with the fact that the cost was cut in half.

Even though it was still expensive, at least his higher-ups would be happy with him.

Even though Keiichi Nagaoka had a bitter look on his face, on the inside he was happy.

The total cost of the whole set of equipment was about 10 billion yen, which converted to more than 600 million yuan. There was nothing more exciting than selling things worth 10 billion yen at the sky-high price of 50 billion yen.

After the price was negotiated, the two parties quickly entered the next stage of cooperation.

Keiichi Nagaoka had a professional team from the headquarters to conduct a detailed field inspection of the Bird’s Nest building structure. They would then modify their design based on the input from the Chinese side.

After all, since the Chinese side was the one paying, they had the right to control everything.

However, the cooperation was not all smooth roads.

After the construction period was finalized, the two sides had a disagreement.

“Three months is too short!”

Nagaoka Keiichi looked at Director Ou and Director Liu, who was sitting across the table. He propped his hands on the table and said, “Three months is only enough for us to prepare the equipment you need. Even if we carry out the preparation work and the production equipment tasks at the same time, it is impossible to get things done the way you want them to, in three months.”

Director Ou said, “Don’t you guys have an inventory? What if we move a part of the equipment from the inventory first…”

“The inventory is someone else’s order! We can’t do this at the risk of default.” Nagaoka Keiichi shook his head and said in a stern manner, “Also, your festival is in October. It is going to be held at the beginning of the month, we will deliver it in mid-September. Isn’t half a month enough for you to prepare the show?”

Liu Wei started to get angry. He stood up from his chair.

“How is two weeks enough! We are preparing a national celebration show, we’re not screwing around!”

Keiichi Nagaoka stood up from the conference table. “Four months, this is our limit. We can only deliver this system to you in early September at the earliest. If this still does not work, then I’m sorry.”

There was no way to negotiate the timeline; it was a matter of whether or not it was possible.

Even though Nagaoka Keiichi didn’t want to waste time negotiating such trivial matters, this was the only option.

In terms of price, he still had 40 billion yen of negotiating space, but he could not afford to lose any time.

Signing a deal that couldn’t be completed meant that they would have to pay a high penalty.

They could never risk paying this penalty.

…

The conference ended.

The conference room was silent.

Secretary Wu Yuanhang was the first to break the silence. He clenched his fists and spoke angrily.

“These guys… They know we can only buy this system from them.”

Director Ou frowned and sighed. He said, “Maybe they have their reasons… Director Liu, is one month not enough?”

Liu Wei shook his head.

Even though he did not want to admit this, this was the reality.

“Getting familiar with the entire system would probably take my team a month… If this doesn’t work out, maybe you can try to find a more technical focused director? After all, the National Day celebration is a big deal.”

Liu Wei really did not want to be responsible for the show anymore.

Being a program director for this kind of national celebration would be helpful for his future career, but he did not think it would be this troublesome.

It was already a headache learning a set of shooting methods that he had never used before. But now, they couldn’t even receive the equipment on time.

He had been preparing for this celebration for half a year; his mentality had completely collapsed.

“No way in h*ll!” Director Ou quickly said in a serious manner, “Your directing skills are top-notch. Our department agrees that we should entrust this important task to you. It is too late to change… Xiao Wu, go ask if there is a more suitable holographic equipment company. Forget about the Japanese, find one that meets our requirements!”

Wu Yuanhang had a bitter smile on his face.

“Okay! I’ll…”

It was possible to change the director.

Directors who were familiar with holographic projection shooting technology were the ones who rehearsed the Tokyo Olympics. However, how could they invite a foreign director to rehearse for a Chinese national celebration?

This was not just about equipment anymore.

If a foreign director’s name appeared on the producer’s list, it would mean big trouble.

However…

If they couldn’t change the director, they might be able to change the equipment supplier?

Wu Yuanhang then consulted many people in the industry, but the answers he got were similar to what he had found out before.

So far, the most advanced companies in holographic projection technology were all in Japan. The holographic technology field in Japan was led by NTT, who won the bid for the construction of the holographic system for the Tokyo Olympics. The engineers who published the most papers on IEEE in this area were all employees of NTT Group.

Even if they changed the supplier, they would not be in a better situation.

Therefore, when the Entertainment Department office began to look for other suppliers, NTT Group did not panic at all; they sat back and watched the show.

Director Ou was lost. In the end, he had to go to Director Li out of desperation.

After Director Li heard Director Ou’s words, he was furious.

“Who the f*ck told you to go to NTT!”

He was so triggered he couldn’t help but swear.

Ou Haifeng was muddled. After a while, he said, “Who else are we supposed to find… They’re the best in the world.”

“Are you stupid?” Director Li said, “If you have a problem, go find Academician Lu!”