Tech giants start by disassembling systems

Chapter 22 The Deserted Corner

The opening ceremony was very short, lasting only fifteen minutes.

The organizer's leader said a few words, and a DJI representative gave a brief speech—as the absolute industry leader, DJI is always the focus of attention on such occasions. Then came the ribbon-cutting, group photos, and a flurry of media flashes, and the opening ceremony was over.

Su Chen stood at the back of the crowd the whole time, and no one noticed him.

After the opening ceremony, crowds began to pour into the various exhibition areas. Su Chen did not follow the crowd, but instead went against the flow back to his own booth in Area B.

Booth B-237 remained deserted.

In the first hour after the opening, fewer than twenty people passed through the entire B Zone 3 passage, and half of them were going to the restroom.

People passing by the booth would occasionally glance at the "1999 yuan" sign, then walk past expressionlessly—a brand they had never heard of, a booth that looked cheap, not worth stopping for.

Xiao Zhao stood awkwardly in front of the booth; he had never encountered such a situation of being completely ignored at a promotional event before.

"President Su, should I go out and bring some people over?" he asked.

"No need to recruit anyone," Su Chen said. "Xiao Wu, we can begin."

Xiao Wu had already set up an F2 workstation on the open space at the end of the passage.

He held the remote control with both hands and gently pushed the joystick.

The drone's four motors started simultaneously, emitting a low hum, and then steadily took off.

Flying drones in an indoor environment like an exhibition hall is actually quite challenging—the space is limited, the airflow is complex, and there are display stands and people all around; a slight misstep could result in a collision. Most exhibitors don't dare to conduct flight demonstrations indoors.

But the F2 working version is different.

Su Chen's customized flight control firmware allowed it to maintain amazing stability even in such a complex environment. The drone hovered at a height of three meters, completely still, and then began to perform various movements slowly and precisely—translation, rotation, hovering in place, and slow ascent.

The buzzing sound was particularly clear in the quiet passageway of Zone B.

The first person drawn to the sound was a middle-aged man who was passing by the restroom. He heard the noise, looked up, and then stopped.

"It's flying pretty steadily," he muttered to himself.

Then he walked to the booth and started looking at the three prototypes on the table.

"1999?" he asked Xiao Zhao, pointing to the sign. "Can it really fly this smoothly at that price?"

"You can try it yourself." Xiao Zhao immediately switched to ground promotion mode.

Five minutes later, the middle-aged man flew the remote control around the open space, his expression changing from doubt to surprise, and finally to disbelief.

"How was this flight controller made? It doesn't look like something that costs two thousand yuan."

His voice attracted two other people passing by in the passageway. They also stopped and looked curiously at the F2 hovering in the air.

Then three, five, eight—

Half an hour later, nearly twenty people had gathered in front of booth B-237.

This is an unprecedented sight in Zone B.

At this point, Xiao Wu began demonstrating the new feature of F2 firmware 2.0 – one-click surround.

He pressed the orbit button on the remote control, and F2 automatically began to fly in a smooth arc around the set center point, with uniform speed, constant altitude, and stable image.

"This feature is great; it'll be useful when shooting weddings."

"Only two thousand yuan? Shouldn't it be three or four thousand?"

"I've bought flight controllers for 5,000 yuan and none of them are this stable."

More and more people gathered around, and the discussions grew louder and louder.

Su Chen did not participate in the reception at the booth. He stood a little distance away, observing the crowd's reactions while keeping an eye on the direction of the entrance.

He was waiting for someone.

To be precise, he was waiting for a certain type of person—people wearing "media" badges.

The first day of the exhibition is usually media day, when industry journalists and bloggers gather to interview exhibitors. However, their attention is almost entirely focused on the major brands in Area A.

To get the media's attention to Hongyuan in the corner of Zone B, simply waiting won't work.

Su Chen needs a more proactive approach.

And this is happening this afternoon – at the "Drone Industry Development Forum," a side event of the exhibition.