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硅滩异军突起 成为硅谷劲敌

America's high tech industry is centered in California's Silicon¹ Valley, a sprawling² region on the San Francisco Bay that is home to Google, Apple and other industry giants. But tech start-ups can also be found further south in the state, in and around the city of Los Angeles. "Silicon Beach," an upstart rival to the larger Silicon Valley.

沿旧金山湾蔓延的加州硅谷集中了美国的高科技产业，是谷歌，苹果等行业巨头所在地。但是，在加州南部的洛杉矶和周边地区出现了许多高科技初创企业。人们称那里为“硅滩”，硅谷的劲敌。

The company VNTANA from the Spanish word for “window,” is one of many tech start-ups near Los Angeles. It is based in the seaside community of Santa Monica, and creates holograms, three- dimensional images for education, marketing³, and entertainment.

VNTANA（文塔纳）公司的名字从西班牙语的“窗口”一词中来，它是洛杉矶附近的许多科技创业公司中的一个。它的总部设在圣莫尼卡海滨社区，为教育，营销和娱乐业创制三维全息图像。

Engineer Ashley Crowder co-founded the company.

“It takes two people less than an hour to set up the screen and it can be shipped anywhere in the world," said Crowder.

文塔纳公司的艾希礼·克劳德说，“两个人不到一个小时的时间就可以设置屏幕，它可以运到世界上任何地方。”

The system allows live remote appearances and virtual concerts. It is interactive⁴ and users can control the projected images with gestures. Company co-founder⁵ Ben Conway demonstrates with a cartoon-like avatar projected on a translucent⁶ screen. When he moves his arms and legs, the avatar copies him.

这个系统允许远程动态控制和虚拟协调。它是交互式的，用户可以使用手势控制投影图象。

He says, like many Silicon Beach companies, VNTANA takes advantage of its closeness to Hollywood.

像许多硅滩公司，VNTANA（文塔纳）发挥了靠近好莱坞的优势。

“We have a focus on entertainment and on content. And that's something that the entertainment community really understands," said Conway.

文塔纳公司的本·康威说，“我们有专注娱乐和内容的一部分。这是娱乐界才能真正理解的。“

Silicon Valley is oriented more toward technology, while Silicon Beach focuses on entertainment.

硅谷以技术作导向，而硅滩走娱乐路线。

But the sector⁷ is diverse. A recent gathering⁸ of LA start-ups by the group Town Hall Los Angeles included Matthew Goldman, founder of Wallaby Financial, which advises consumers on which credit cards to use.

但这个领域是多样的。洛杉矶初创企业最近聚集一堂，其中包括袋鼠金融的马修·高盛，他建议消费者基于他们购物的地方所提供的利率和收益来选择使用信用卡。该应用程序在他们的智能手机上工作。

“We help consumers to save money, earn rewards, avoid interest. Whatever it is they need to do by giving them intelligent recommendations about how to use their credit cards every day," said Goldman.

He says the app works through their smart phones

“The phone locates you and it communicates with our servers that make these recommendations and do the intelligence and send back the results to your phone, in virtually real time," he said.

高盛说，“电话会定位你的位置，并与我们的服务器联系。我们的服务器作出建议，做好信息处理，并将结果发送回你的电话，几乎是实时通信。”

The Los Angeles tech sector spreads from the city to the beach and the suburbs. Analysts⁹ say its size is hard to measure, since technology permeates¹⁰ so many LA industries, but Silicon Beach is home to many hundreds of tech start-ups, and it's growing.

洛杉矶科技行业从城市扩展到海滩和郊区。分析人士说，它的大小是很难测量的，因为技术渗透到洛杉矶的很多行业。但硅滩是数以百计的高科技初创企业的家乡，并且在不断扩大。