Mobile Electronics Magazine July 2017

July 2017

me-mag.com

From Click to Clique

Tip Top Customs Embraces Social Media & SEO to Bring Onliners into the Fold

The Top 12 Retailers: Your Finalists for Retailer of the Year TM

Get Prepped for KnowledgeFest Dallas! – page 28

optimize your senses

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OEM look, Stick On mount super wide, 160º view

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Volume 34// Issue 7

Ad Index

32 FEATURES 12 // What’s Happening: Top 12 Retailers

The Top 12 Retailers have been announced. Now’s the time for them to explain how they got there. Retailers answer questions about their past, present and future.

Accele Electronics...................................... p. 2 & ®3 Alpine ........................................................................ p. 5 American Bass .................................................. p. 57 DD Audio .............................................................. p. 25 Elettromedia: Audison .................................. p. 47 Firstech: DroneMobile ................................... p. 59 Harman: Infinity ................................................. p. 21 InstallerNet ......................................................... p. 39 JVC .............................................................................. p. 7 K40 Electronics ................................................. p. 15 KnowledgeFest ...................................... p. 28 - 31 Mobile Electronics ........................................... p .23 Orca: Mosconi ...................................................... p. 11 SiriusXM ................................................................ p. 10 Sony ........................................................................ p. 17 SounDigital ......................................................... p. 27 Soundskins USA ............................................. p. 45 Waylens ................................................................ p. 53 Voxx ....................................................................... p. 60

32 // Real World Retail: Tip Top Customs

By using a competitive, diversified product strategy to stay ahead of its competition and reach clients outside its low-population town, this Illinois-based retailer has proven its willing to do whatever it takes to stay on top.

40 // Behind the Scenes: SAVV

After a hiatus from the 12-volt retail scene, SAVV is back with force, looking to reconnect with old dealers, forge new relationships and show the industry why it is a top manufacturer of in-vehicle video products.

44 // Digital Biz: Brand Awareness Through Social Media

The days of paying for ads through TV, print and radio are pretty much over. Taking their place is the Internet, and more specifically, the vast reach of social media.

Experts and retailers give their take on this powerful marketing tool.

48 // Tech Today: Tour de France

Installation expert Joey Knapp gives his guest writers a break from their DSP feature to look back on his 2016 trip to the Focal factory in France. He discusses the plant, its workers and his experience as a 12-volt tech in a foreign land.

48 ARTICLES 24 Retail News/Who’s Who 54 Installs

On the Cover

This month’s design is really part one of a twopart series that features the Top 12. We started with the Top 12 Retailers partly out of tradition and partly because the most popular award tends to be the Installer of the Year trophy.

That said, every award is just as important as the next, which is why we made sure to include a Top 50 Retailer, Tip Top Customs, on the cover as well. The shop has carved a place for itself with strong customer service and diverse product offerings.

COVER DESIGN: ROBIN LEBEL

4 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

DEPARTMENTS 6 Editor’s Forum 8 Feedback 9 Stats 10 Helpful Stuff 58 From the President

facebook.com/MobileElectronics

Alpine introduces the new R-Series lineup, built off the iconic Type R platform. With design and build improvements over the previous models, the R-Series speakers deliver dependable performance for a loud and fun listening experience, while the subwoofers produce deep bass extension and control.

To experience the next evolution of proven performance, ask your Alpine representative for details.

Š2017 Alpine Electronics of America, Inc.

@ALPINEUSA #ALPINEUSA

WWW.ALPINE-USA.COM

editor’s FORUM Time to ‘To Do’ Yeah, summer’s crazy, but it’s the perfect time to prep for Plan B. Summer is a lot of things to the mobile electronics industry. It's when we traditionally sell a lot of autosound. We've got at least two days to build sales events around (four if you count National Hot Dog Day, and my favorite, Left-Hander's Day.) It's hot—and in some places damn hot—and air conditioning bills spike. It's when smart retailers take on apprentice help that might turn into money-producing staffers later on. And of course, it's when we as an industry hold our most prominent event in Dallas.

But amidst all these events that take your time and attention, I’m going to ask you to add one more thing to your list: check your direction and progress, and adjust for the remainder of the year.

Whether you did it on paper, in your head, on a few bar napkins or with your management team, you set goals for your store at the beginning of the year. You created an idea of what significant progress would mean for you: more traffic, higher tickets, lower costs, improved margin. From that, you strategized how you would go about getting the results you planned for. You put pieces of the plan into action. Now it’s time to review the results so far.

Why now? For one, it’s mid-year. You’ve gone through three of what the industry accepts as the eight major selling seasons—gift fulfillment, graduation, boating and recreation—and now you’re into summer sales. What’s next is back-to-school, remote start, Black Friday and holiday shopping (not necessarily in that order, depending on when the snow hits!) These are arguably the four times that can determine a record-breaking year or at least get you in the black.

Second, no plan survives contact with the enemy. A goal you set six months ago is bound to need adjustments based on unforeseen circumstances along the way. Did someone quit? Did a line you expected to do well start off slow? Has a product you didn’t expect to do well fly off the shelves? Did you take advantage of a sales promotion that you didn’t originally budget for? The list goes on: emergency repairs, family issues, larger-than-expected bills, etc. Now is the time to make changes to your plan—or adjust your goals—to account for inevitable change.

6 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

Third, I believe the best plans come when you’re demonstrating the best energy. They may say that necessity is the mother of invention, but I counter with the fact that money makes more money. If you wait until you’re slow to re-evaluate your goals, you’re doing it from a mindset of short-term need, and that creates an aura that detracts from—rather than attracts—sales. Instead, plan for the future when things are going reasonably well. There’s no better time to take positive, profitable steps than when you’re in the thick of it.

So make the time. Call the team together and go down the original list, point by point. At each point, compare plan to progress and most importantly, note the reasons why you’re doing better than planned, worse than planned or off the rails altogether. Don’t make excuses, and be honest with yourselves. The rule I live by is, if it happens to me, it’s my fault. Apply this thinking and it keeps you in control of your own situation.

The next part of adjusting your plan is also what I consider the COOLEST part about being a retailer in this industry: you’re not alone. There are approximately 5,500 others just like you who are doing the same thing, planning to grow and leverage our niches in a selling environment dominated by online stores, competitive technology and faster-reacting OEMs. We’re a big family, and you can always go to members of your family for advice. Of course, you might not get along with some (See? Just like a family!) but others will be your brothers and sisters for life.

REACH OUT. Find positive, progressive mobile electronics family members who aren’t afraid to share their experiences with you.

Skip those who just talk about how great they are. Talk to those who tell you how it wasn’t so great and how they had some of the same issues, and how they either got out of it or are still on their way.

Finally, remember it’s still your store. Your selling environment is not going to match any other store’s exactly, so take recommendations and ideas as just that: recommendations and ideas you will tailor to fit your plan.

The timing Is perfect. KnowledgeFest is coming up, and you’ll have three days to meet new family members and get the benefit of their experience. Get with your team and identify opportunities to adjust your plan, then come to Dallas prepared to propel your store forward!

STEALTH DESIGN . STRONG PERFORMANCE.

KW-M730BT DIGITAL MEDIA RECEIVER

Works with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto #JVCMobile #35YearsStrong #QualityBuilt #Since1982

JVC Mobile Entertainment

JVC Mobile USA | Official

Android Auto works with devices using Android 5.0 software or higher. Some devices may not yet support Android Auto, see the Google site for the latest list of compatible devices. Android Auto and its logo is a trademark of Google Inc. Apple CarPlay works with iPhone 5 and newer phones.

Apple CarPlay and its user interface are trademarks of Apple Inc. For safety, various touch-screen functionality is disabled while the vehicle is in motion. See your local authorized dealer for more details. All logos are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

@JVCMobileUSA

@JVCMobile

WWW.MOBILE.JVC.COM

 feedback

Following Footsteps

Retailers and installation techs with children have all had to juggle work and family. For some, like Sean Davis of Tip Top Customs, having their children around to help may be an ideal solution.

ADVERTISING SALES Kerry Moyer 978.645.6457 • kerrym@mobile-electronics.com ®

EDITORIAL Solomon Daniels 978.645.6463 • solomond@mobile-electronics.com

Blau, Sound Wave “My oldest daughter Customs, Virginia has done multiple Beach, Va. tasks for the business. During “My son now is remote start approaching his 16th season or other birthday and has busy times of the been working with year she helps with me for nearly six answering phones. years. In that time She and my middle he has garnered daughter have both some recognition been responsible for Retailer Sean Davis hugs his from some of our making our check industry peers. in/out sheets, Excel youngest daughter, who helps He now assists out regularly in his shop. files and other job with some of our sheets we use for fabrication projects tracking jobs/parts. They have as well as participates in some of the been in the bays helping with minor Resonance Auto Craft Facebook Live tasks on jobs.” Sean Davis, Tip Top videos.” Bryan Piper, Resonance Customs, Morris, Ill. Auto Craft, Corpus Christi, Texas “My 12-year-old daughter checks in inventory and figures time cards.

My 16-year-old daughter types price guides, moves displays and shows her system to the teenage boys so they want one too! My 22-year-old son started selling and installing at 12 years old, recently attended a Mobile Solutions Master Tech training and toured the Rockford Fosgate Factory. It’s a family business and we all pitch in with whatever needs to be done!”

Kimberly Trainer, Car-Tunes, Inc., Greenville, Miss.

“I’ve just recently acquired full custody of my two daughters. I have a two- and four-year-old. I have taught router safety to my fouryear-old and even had her help me with a project last month. She tells everyone she cuts Plexiglas better than dada. I’ll send a few pics of our last project.” Keith Price, Custom Cars Unlimited, Salem, Va. “My children are a little young but I try to get them involved in my company. They love hanging out at the shop. Mason (my middle son, age four) has helped out around the shop on occasion. He got to install some Soundskins in a door a few weeks ago. They all love to dance and hear the displays playing.” Ethan

8 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

“My 12-year-old answers the phone. He helps in the shop by looming wires and handing me tools. We attended JL training where he learned about the FiX and Twk products. All I could hear was ‘When will they arrive so I can inbox them?’”

Bill Bethauser, Explicit Customs, West Melbourne, Fla. “My daughter Cadence is four and would rather be at our family-owned business than at school. She helped us move to our new location and loves driving her VW bus Power Wheels around the shop!” Mark Kievit Jr., Car Tune Automotive & Sound, Inc., Holiday, Fla. “I have many children participate, including family members and family friends’ children. They either work at Custom Audio when they are 14 and up by doing tasks like cleaning, organizing, working on the website, displays, packing up repairs, and orders for Ebay, answering the phone (when they are older) or by helping at our annual MECA Shake the Lake event. The children help to raise money for a cause and then submit the check to the organization, giving them a great sense of accomplishment.”

Sondralee Orengia, Custom Audio, Erie, Pa.

Ted Goslin 800.949.6372 ext. 466 • tedg@mobile-electronics.com Creative Layout and Design: Robin LeBel Contributing Editors: Jamie Sorcher, Laura Kemmerer and Rosa Sophia.

Published by TM

mobile electronics association

Chris Cook, President 978.645.6434 • chrisc@mobile-electronics.com Kerry Moyer, VP Strategic Partnerships 978.645.6457 • kerrym@mobile-electronics.com Solomon Daniels, Dir. Media and Communications 978.645.6463 • solomond@mobile-electronics.com Richard Basler, Dir. Technology Solutions 978.645.6449 • richb@mobile-electronics.com Robin Lebel, Creative Director 978.645.6456 • robinlebel@mobile-electronics.com 1) Title of publication: Mobile Electronics. 2) Publication No.: 957-170 6. (ISSN# 1523-763X) 3) Copyright © 2017 by the Mobile Electronics 4) Date of filing: Sept.

1, 2016. 5) Frequency of issue: Monthly. 6) No. of issues published annually: 12 7) Annual subscription price: $35.00. 8) Periodical postage paid at Lawrence MA and additional mailing offices. 9) Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 85 Flagship Drive, Ste F, North Andover, MA 01845. 10) Complete mailing address of the headquarters or general business offices of the publisher: 85 Flagship Drive, Ste F, North Andover, MA 01845. 11) Full names and complete mailing address of Publisher, Editor and Managing Editor: Publisher: Chris Cook, 85 Flagship Drive, Ste F, North Andover, MA 01845; Editor/Managing Editor: Solomon Daniels/Ted Goslin, 85 Flagship Drive, Ste F, North Andover, MA 01845 12) Owner: MERA, Mobile Electronics Retailers Association, 85 Flagship Drive, Ste F, North Andover, MA 01845. 13) Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security holders owning or holding 1% or more of total amounts of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None. 14) Tax Status: Not applicable. 15) Name of Publication: Mobile Electronics. 16) Issue date for circulation data below: August 2016. 6. a) Total no. copies (net press run) Average: 12,484 Single Issue; 12,826. b) Paid/Requested mail subscriptions Average: 6834, Single Issue: 6826. c) Paid sales through dealers, etc.; Average: 0. Single issue; d) Requested distributed by other classes of mail: Average: 531, Single issue: 520. Total paid and/or requested circulation; Average 7365. Single issue: 7346. e) Non-requested distribution by mail; Average: 4382 Single issue: 4223. Free distribution through other classes of mail: Average: 0, Single issue: 0. f) Non-requested distribution outside the mail; Average: 325. Single issue: 750. g) Total non-requested distribution; Average 4707, Single issue: 4973. h) Total distribution; Average: 12,072. Single issue: 12,319. i) Copies not distributed; h1) Office use, leftovers; Average: 412. Single Issue; 507 j) Total; Average: 12,484. Single issue; 12,826 Percent paid and/or requested circulation; Average: 61.01%. Single issue 59.63%. 17) POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Mobile Electronics, 85 Flagship Drive Suite F, North Andover MA 01845-9998

 stats sponsored by Sony

Who Won the Popular Vote?

Much was made during the last presidential election of who won the race versus who had the most votes. While we don’t yet know who will become the 2017 Retailers of the Year or Installer of the Year, we do know the top vote-getters. Here’s a list of the Top 25 in order of votes received.

RETAILERS

INSTALLERS

1. Mobile Toys, Inc. – College Station, TX

1. Chris Pate - Mobile Toys Inc - College Station, TX

2. Absolute Electronix – Rockville, MD

2. Tyler Neault - Visions Electronics - Port Coquitlam, BC

3. Kingpin Car & Marine Audio – Wilsonville, OR

3. David Cruz - Soundscape Car Audio - Carrollton, TX

4. Cartunes of Atlanta – Atlanta, GA

4. Miguel Vega - Titan Motoring - Nashville, TN

5. Certified Autosound & Security – Maple Ridge, BC

5. Tim Baillie - Certified Autosound & Security - Maple Ridge, BC

6. Soundscape Car Audio – Carrollton, TX

6. Mike Schwitz - Sound Connection, Inc. - Waite Park, MN

7. Driven Mobile Electronics – Chantilly, VA

7. Nicholas Frazier - iNNovative Concepts - West Springfield, MA

8. Sound Wave Customs – Virginia Beach, VA

8. Wayne Fabian - Visions Electronics - Winnipeg, MB

9. Tint World – Boca Raton, FL

9. Christopher McNulty - Driven Mobile Electronics - Chantilly, VA

9. SoundsGood Auto – Burnaby, BC

10. Erick Markland - Markland Designs - Lithonia, GA

11. Sound Connection, Inc. – Waite Park, MN

11. T.J. Carlson - Musicar Northwest - Portland, OR

12. First Coast Auto Creations – Jacksonville, FL

12. Sage Weir - Sounds Good Stereo - Hollywood, FL

13. Mobileworks/Tintworks – Santa Maria, CA

13. Ata Ehdaivand - Absolute Electronix - Rockville, MD

14. Cartronix, Inc. – Valparaiso, IN

14. John Brettle - Cartunes of Atlanta - Atlanta, GA

15. NVS Audio – Linden, NJ

15. Aaron Garcia - Perfectionist Auto Sound and Security - Anchorage, AK

16. Elevated Audio, Inc. – Lakewood, CO

16. Aaron Vertrees - Mobile Works - Santa Maria, CA

17. Showtime Audio – Chicago, IL

17. Brent Leavitt - Low Notes Garage - Boise, ID

18. Prestige Car Audio & Marine – Metairie, LA

18. Roop Gossal - Inc. Ridez - Surrey, BC

19. GNC Customs – Goshen, IN

19. Charles Brazil - First Coast Auto Creations - Jacksonville, FL

20. Al & Ed’s Autosound – Los Angeles, CA

20. Jesse Mitchell - Safe & Sound Custom Car Audio and Security - Manassas, VA

21. California Audio – West Valley City, UT

21. Adam Perkins - Sound Wave Customs - Virginia Beach, VA

22. Westminster Speed & Sound – Westminster, MD

22. David Kosakowski - Stereo Installs - Mentor, OH

23. JML Audio of St. Louis – Fenton, MO

23. Steven Ledford - Cartunes of Atlanta - Atlanta, GA

24. Stereo King – Portland, OR

24. Derek Edwards - Certified Autosound & Security - Chilliwack, BC

25. JC Audio – Jackson, TN

25. Joey Schultz - Eminent Hi-Fi - Rexburg, ID me-mag.com 9

 helpful stuff Book:

The Best Team Wins: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring

by Adam Robinson thebestteamwins.com The average hiring success rate for companies is less than 50 percent—definitely not comforting odds. And if you’ve ever hired the wrong person for a job, you know how stressful and costly it can be. So where do managers and owners go wrong? The answer and a guide to avoiding the problem to begin with is in award-winning hiring expert and Hireology CEO Adam Robinson’s first book, The Best Team Wins: Build Your Business Through Predictive Hiring. When you’re ready to build your team, the process of finding, assessing, and finally hiring the right people is exciting yet overwhelming. Robinson, a recruiting professional with over 20 years experience, walks you through some of the basics: how to ask the right questions in an interview, how to build a candidate scorecard, and how to make them an offer they can’t refuse.

App:

Red Cross Official First Aid Free for Apple and Android

www.redcross.org/get-help/prepare-for-emergencies/mobile-apps When you work in an installation bay or you’re on the road traveling, you just never know when an accident might happen. It could be as minor as a cut or more serious like heat exhaustion, but prevent panic with a game plan. The Red Cross’ official First Aid app gives you simple step-by-step instructions to get you through everyday first aid scenarios from an asthma attack to a broken bone. It also has safety tips in case of a hurricane or other natural disaster. No need to worry about whether you have cellular service because all of the content is preloaded in advance. It’s also fully integrated with 9-1-1 so you can call EMS from the app at any time.

Every ride is so much sweeter with the

Built for the pro. Designed for custom installation.

And it looks as good as it sounds.

Features: • Connects to any car stereo—no need to replace head unit • Full-color, touchscreen display showing album and channel logos • Includes FM direct adapter (FMDA25), flush mount kit & hardware • Perfect for new or pre-owned vehicles not equipped with satellite radio • Compact size allows for placement flexibility: 4.1" x 1.7" x 0.5"

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Plus Free Activation. Over $70 value.

Contact your local authorized dealer or distributor to get more information about this exciting new product. © 2017 Sirius XM Radio Inc. Sirius, XM and all related marks and logos are trademarks of Sirius XM Radio Inc. All other marks, channel names and logos are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.

10 Mobile Electronics  July 2017 SIR.12629 ME Mag Ad March 2017 CT_D1_sh.indd

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Sites to See: The Mobile Electronics

Certified Professional program mecp.com

If you’re looking to jumpstart your career, The Mobile Electronics Certified Professional (MECP) program, owned and operated by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), is a step in the right direction. It is the only nationally recognized credential that certifies mobile technology installation technicians and sales people on automotive information technology, entertainment, navigation, safety and security systems. An MECP certification prepares you to master today’s complex vehicle electrical systems and provides knowledge to solve complex problems on the job. Most major employers prefer, if not require, an MECP certification, but there are many benefits to making this professional investment including the capability to increase your earning potential, elevate professionalism, gives you prominent status with premium vendors, and allows you to stand out among other applicants when seeking employment. There are three levels of certification. Visit the web site to learn more and to find out where you can take certification exams.

App: Mobile Passport Free for Apple and Android https://mobilepassport.us

Mobile Passport is officially authorized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and it lets you skip the regular line to enter the country. These lines can get long, so all you need to do to skip them is download this app and add your passport information. It’s simple to do—just quickly scan it with your phone’s camera. Mobile Passport is accepted at 1 cruise port and 23 airports in the U.S., so chances are you’ll be able to use it. Check ahead of time if your airport supports the app.

me-mag.com 11

 knowledgfest

This year’s field of Top 12 Retailers discuss some ways they were able to make the cut in 2017.

12 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

Absolute Electronix Rockville, Md.

Owner/Manager: Ata Ehdaivand Years in the mobile electronics industry: 23 Career history: I started as a young guy looking for a radio to put in my Camry. The shop I took it to was run by guys just a few years older than me. The job wasn’t done correctly so I had to redo it myself. After I tackled my first install, I was hooked. From that point, I was doing things for my friends and trying everything from basic wood working to fiberglass.

The work I was doing was good enough to land a job with the first shop I walked into. After a few years there, I moved on to a new company that really focused on higher-end cars. The salespeople at that store didn’t particularly like car audio; they focused on high-end home [audio] that store sold. The owner approached me and gave me the responsibility of all the car audio in the store from sales to installation. From that point, an owner was born. After I left there, every shop I worked at I ran it like it was my own.

After the economic collapse, I had to find myself something reliable, so I started the shop. I always wanted to be the best, so I went for it and never looked back.

Key staff and their value to the store: Without my staff, I have nothing. We are a family. We are there for each other, we eat lunch together, we battle cars together, we laugh together. I couldn’t imagine a better team to work with. They breathe life into Absolute Electronix. This is the best staff I have ever worked with!

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: Opening my mind outside of my 23 years of experience.

Some of the most influential ideas have come from listening not only to the clients we serve, but also my employees and vendors.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: How are we going to generate more business? How do we get ourselves better? I’m not sure I will ever want the answers to those questions. Those questions motivate me and my crew because there’s always something to work on.

Three favorite activities besides work: When I’m not at work you can find me getting my nails painted by my daughter, Aliviah, playing Madden or searching for car parts for my classic import vehicles.

Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: Andy from Audiofrog has not only taught me how to make better sound, but also a better way to sell it. Matt Schaffer has taught me that I need to be more involved in the industry, helping me catch trends faster and opening my mind to new ideas. I also have to give props to Jamie White … Watching him over the years build his business gave me the inspiration to build mine; I don’t know a harder working guy. I would never leave out Del Ellis; he’s taught me to be more professional than any other single professional I have worked with in my whole career.

Vision of the business in five years: In five years, I see my business more refined. I see my current employees in management or ownership of franchised stores around the area. I also see more services offered, more vehicle maintenance services, maybe even an expeditor van or two.

Cartunes Inc. Atlanta, Ga.

Owner/Manager: Richard Grimm Years in the mobile electronics industry: Cartunes has been in business since 1978, and I’ve been in the mobile electronics industry since 1972.

Career history: Started working in a small store that became an expeditor. It was eventually bought out by Automatic Radio. Automatic Radio went out of business and I saw an opportunity to open a store called Cartunes. The rest is history.

Key staff and their value to the store: My philosophy is to hire people who are smarter than me. Therefore, without my staff, my store has no value. It’s a team approach.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: Upgraded our installation capabilities with a CNC machine, cutting down on custom installation times, and hours of routing.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: Creating value in an industry of highly technical products and challenging margins.

Three favorite activities besides work: Spending time with family, enjoying the company of friends and golfing.

Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: My father.

Vision of the business in five years: We see our product mix having to shift with the times. We have to accept that and be willing to shift to new or different opportunities when the time comes.

me-mag.com 13

 knowledgfest Certified Autosound & Security Maple Ridge, BC, Canada Owner/Manager: Chris Cope

Years in the mobile electronics industry: 1.5

Career history: My career started due to the passion I have for car audio. From there it evolved into a hunger to make this industry better. I started as a sales guy working under my manager at the time. I learned a lot in a short amount of time, which I really value to this day. Ultimately, I had leaned what I could from that manager and had the opportunity to switch locations and learn from a guy I really looked up to in the industry. I took a pay cut and drove two hours extra a day for this opportunity. After working with him, I had a chance to take over and manage the location I started at, and my old manager ended up working under me which was a very interested change. From there, one thing led to another and I saw a huge opportunity to start my own shop closer to home.

Key staff and their value to the store: We have 16 staff members across the three locations and each and every one have the drive to be the best and lead this industry together. Our managers are the glue that holds the company together, and they break records on a daily basis. We feel we have the best installers in the industry—two in the Top 50!—and everyone else has the same passion we do about setting a new standard in the mobile electronics industry.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: Making the decision to buy our third location in Abbotsford. It has been a powerhouse for us and we have done a complete facelift and are very excited to show it off.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: The toughest part of our business in the last 12 months has to be the process of having three locations under one umbrella. Whether it’s been completely renovating our Abbotsford location, or creating a brand new website and marketing plan that reflects all three stores, our biggest problem has been not having enough hours in the day!

Three favorite activities besides work: Outside of work we love to travel, whether it’s camping with our families or across the world. We love being on the water, either out on the lake surfing or out on the ocean fishing. We love sports, either playing or watching.

Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: Number one guy who has been behind us every step of the way—and without him we wouldn’t be where we are today—is Larry Penn and his wife, Sue. Those two have bent over backwards for us. Jason Kranitz, from training our guys to phone calls and beyond, has been great and is a true friend. Tony Dehnke is the previous owner of our Abbotsford location and has really put in the extra effort to help us on our journey.

Vision of the business in five years: I see us having at least three more locations of the same quality, and I’m hoping we can call ourselves a previous Retailer of the Year [Award] recipient!

Driven Mobile Electronics Chantilly, Va. Owner/Manager: Chris McNulty

Years in the mobile electronics industry: 23

Career history: I started as an enthusiast who was given a sales position. I became the after-hours helper and was bitten by the install bug. During Best Buy’s mid to late 90s expansion, I took a job as a tech and opened one of their bigger Virginia stores. A few years and thousands of cars worth of experience later, I returned to my custom roots as an installer, became a bay manager. I was recruited in the early 2000s by XM to be the Technical Troubleshooting Manager of their call center shortly after launch, and I learned a lot from that side of the industry, but still missed the bay. I left for a bay management position at Myer Emco which got my hands dirty again, and finally returned to the shop that hired me originally as the GM. I kept one foot in the bay while the other was firmly planted on the sales floor. Six to seven years of growth for that company was not rewarded and I decided to do as my wife requested (great idea to do so) and get a corporate nine-to-five and pursue my degree. I took an IT management job and was able to work toward my Bachelor’s in Business. After a few years of keyboard crunching, I was ready to venture out on my own. Driven was born 8/15/2012 and I had doors open about three weeks later, 9/8/2012, two days after my 40th birthday.

Key staff and their value to the store: Staffing has been the challenge. I have control issues and cannot accept less than 100 percent being given to our clients.

I’ve been through a number of folks over the last couple of years in search of somebody smart enough to learn, open enough to grow and prideful enough to do it right, all the time. My value is drive, ability and experience. I need to find folks with similar characteristics and empower them to make Driven even better.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: The biggest change has been the focus of the jobs we are targeting. With such a small staff, it’s often difficult to hustle and attack the $200 to $500 projects … [It] takes away the time needed to close a $3 to $6k integration project, which, per labor hour, is more profitable. We have also shied away from aggressively trying to secure larger $10k+ custom jobs, as they, too, take more resources than we have readily available to be profitable. It’s been pointed focus toward the jobs we can execute at the highest level with the most profitability.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: Cash flow. As the amount of available labor hours has dropped, turnaround of completed projects has slowed, slowing cash flow. The focus has been redirected to efficiency and profitability.

Three favorite activities besides work: Watch and listen to live music and dance. Root for the New York Yankees. Watch movies in large format theaters with my wife and daughter.

Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: From the aspects of both successes and challenges, I have learned more about who I am, who I can be and what it takes to be that, from Micah Williams.

Vision of the business in five years: With two years remaining on my current lease, I see a small team being built during that time and a new location being purchased as the next move happens. As we have shifted already toward a “project”-driven focus rather than the in-and-out quickies, a smaller “destination” location may be a feasible solution and would be a more affordable step into ownership of the next facility.

14 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

 knowledgfest First Coast Auto Creations Jacksonville, Fla.

Owner/Manager: Charles Brazil Years in the mobile electronics industry: I have worked in the industry for 15-plus years.

Career history: I started as a tech trainee working for Best Buy in 2002. I became a lead tech and wanted to learn more about the custom fabrication side. I bounced around to different shops, not really feeling they were the place for me. I became a student of my craft learning everything I could. I worked for a shop where I was able to do minor upgrades to complete custom builds. I ended up leaving the industry in 2013. I was looking for a direction and career path while working a part-time job. I found myself drawn back into the industry for extra money around 2015. It was never my intention to have a business, but to offer a service not seen at the time. First Coast Auto Creations was founded, and has been able to grow due to clients wanting better service and better installation.

Key staff and their value to the store: The staff consists of three people at the moment. I handle 98 percent of customer interactions. I am the salesman, installer and fabricator. I do it all. I usually have another installer who does day-to-day installs/ wiring and minor fabrication. I recently added an upholsterer so I can offer in-house services and help with interior builds and convertible tops.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: The biggest change has been moving to a larger facility.

Making the move has allowed the business to be more efficient with more space.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: Finding employees who fit with the business and its culture.

Three favorite activities besides work: Love to shoot guns, travel and be with my family.

Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: Carlos Ramirez has been a huge influence; he has helped me shape my business. Micah Williams is also a huge influence in the way I approach builds. Mike Eckley is another guy who has helped me to better myself and my business.

Vision of the business in five years: I hope to have a team committed to providing world class services and products. I would like to have stabilized the business in the community and be known as the shop to come to for all of your automotive interior customization needs.

Kingpin Car & Marine Audio Wilsonville, Ore.

Owner/Manager: Jason Kranitz Years in the Mobile Electronics industry: The store has been open for 11 years now, and I have been in the business for 24 years.

Career History: Hobby that turned into a job, then a professional, then career, then business owner to expanding the empire.

Key staff and their value to the store: Everyone is part of the well-oiled machine that can only succeed as a team. Everyone is cross-trained to help out in other areas. The team is everything in order to make our clients’ interaction a great one.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: We have brought on new team members and are training them from scratch. Embraced our DNA. New outreach procedures to interact with our client base, and continued growth with our team.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: Keeping up with new business and turning away work.

Three favorite activities to do besides work: Gambling, traveling and helping others.

Biggest influence in regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: My dad, my wife and everyone I have ever worked with.

Vision of the business in five years: An increase in yearly revenue by $300k. Continued growth with our “boutique” approach with our clients, and expansion of product and service with Kingpin University.

16 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

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Sony is a proud member and supporter of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), and participates to support the entire Mobile Electronics industry.

Sony prides itself on well controlled authorized distribution and online marketplace compliance. ©2017 Sony Electronics, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Sony and the Sony logos are trademarks of Sony Corporation. Sony, Walkman, Music Center, Dynamic Color Illuminator and their respective logos are trademarks of Sony. iPod and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc. PANDORA, the PANDORA logo, and the Pandora trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pandora Media, Inc., used with permission. Google, Android, and their respective logos are trademarks of Google Inc. Bluetooth an and the Bluetooth logo are trademarks of Bluetooth SIG, Inc. The N Mark logo is a trademark of the NFC Forum, Inc. HD Radio is a trademark of iBiquity Digital Corporation. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Features and specifications are subject to change without notice. Features and specifications are subject to change without notice.

 knowledgfest Mobile Toys Inc. College Station, Texas Owner/Manager: Chris Pate in business for 11 years.

Years in the mobile electronics industry: We have been

Career history: Mobile Toys Inc. started as a subsidiary of Audio Video. I worked there as a store Manager. Eight years ago, Audio Video decided they wanted to get out of the 12-volt market and offered the company to me. I partnered with my best friend, Hoang Le, and we purchased Mobile Toys Inc. We have owned it for eight years and counting. We opened our second location in Bryan, Texas two years ago. We have seen our business grow from a single store that has total sales of $225,000 per year into a two-store chain that has total sales of $1.5 million.

Key staff and their value to the store: We have a total staff of 12 employees between our two locations. That staff includes two owners (me and Hoang Le); a general manager (Adam Pate); office manager (Samantha Pate); two assistant managers (Matt Thomas and Darrell Brewick); four Installers (Chris Provasek, Bryan Perez, Mike Perez and Edgar Diosdado); an accountant (Mickey Le); and an IT specialist (Steven Nguyen). Our employees make the difference. We currently have the most well-trained staff in our existence. On our staff is a Master Upholsterer, an ASE certified mechanic, an MECP master certified installer, two MECP basic certified installers and four employees with bachelor’s degrees from the greatest university on the planet—Texas A&M University.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: We have begun a complete remodel of our entire College Station location which includes completely building custom store fixtures for the showroom as well renovating our install bay. We have also moved our entire fabrication facility to a new building on our existing property in College Station. The new facility includes some of the most advanced fabrication tools—a 3-AXIS CNC and a Universal VLS 60 watt laser cutting and engraving machine.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: The biggest challenge we have faced is balancing maintaining and growing our business while executing a full remodel. It has been exciting designing new displays and install bay fixtures that will make our store one of the most advanced in the country, but it is hectic doing this while still driving the business and completing projects.

Three favorite activities besides work: We hold car audio competitions at our store as well attending car shows all over the U.S. Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: One of my biggest influences as a business owner has and continues to be Gene Joyce. Gene is the owner of Audio Video. Audio Video has been in business for over 40 years. I cannot think of any electronics store that has been in business that long, much less continues to thrive even in today’s climate of Internet sales and a price race on electronics that continues to spiral toward zero profit. He has been a constant source of knowledge and inspiration.

Vision of the business in five years: I see us continuing to grow and expand. We are constantly looking for new markets and avenues to expand our brand and increase profitability.

We continue to strive for excellence and stay on the front end of what is hip and cool in the automotive industry.

Sound Connection Inc. Waite Park, Minn.

Owner/Manager: Ben Larson Years in the mobile electronics industry: I opened Sound Connection in August of 1995 fresh out of high school and never looked back.

Career history: With absolutely zero experience in car audio, I started out in a 300 square foot office with no installation facility and a dirt parking lot that was attached to Snoop-N-Save (a general merchandise retail store). It was playfully nicknamed the Taj Mahal. Through outstanding customer service, devouring all the information I could find related to car audio, drive, determination, a desire to become the premier vehicle enhancement facility in the Midwest, and most of all stubbornness to not fail, the business began to rapidly outgrow the small office. In 1996, Sound Connection moved into a larger facility with a dingy two car bay just down the road. (Sweet, we have bays!) After a few years at that location, and much more research, schooling, seminars, networking, lots of installations, and every penny reinvested into the business, we moved into a building on Front Street in Downtown Brainerd in 2000. We occupied that location for 14 years. In 2009, we opened a second location in St. Joseph and had to learn how to run multiple locations, which was a big challenge. In 2014, we moved from Front Street into a new facility at 371 N Baxter which offered much more exposure. In 2017, we moved from St. Joseph into the heart of Waite Park to a building where we did a complete renovation. It has increased our exposure tremendously. We are now located not far from our original building but are very far from where we started in business. With numerous awards, we have finally made our original dream a reality by becoming the premier vehicle enhancement facility in the Midwest. We still work very hard every day to keep that dream a reality and to ensure all our customers, vendors, partners and employees are treated with the very best care and respect.

Key staff and their value to the store: I have an absolutely amazing staff. My brother John is my COO and runs all the day-to-day activities. I could absolutely not do this job without him; he is my rock. Nate and Tyler in our Baxter facility are awesome. They go above and beyond all the time by going to shows in their free time and promoting. They stay late, come in early, and do whatever is needed to make sure the customer has a great experience. Joe is our newest salesman in Baxter and has already been lighting up the register and helping us grow the off-road portion of our business. Mike, our install manager in Waite Park, is an absolute stud. He goes way above and beyond consistently by staying late, coming in early, putting extra touches on client builds, running our Cars & Coffee events, building shop demo vehicles, building displays, helping us move buildings, paint walls, mop floors and manage the bay all while maintaining very healthy billable hours. Derrick is our sales manager in Waite Park and does a great job of bringing in new business by attending business-to-business meetings, chamber meetings, and meeting with auto dealers. He also handles all of our FAST Ring orders as well as customers.

Nick is our resident tint and PPF specialist and also helps out up front when needed; he is a fun guy to be around and makes everyone laugh. Ian is an installer in Waite Park and has been doing a fantastic job with getting jobs done on time with an extremely low defect rate and also will stay late or come in early or on his day off just to show a customer how some part of his install works. I feel absolutely comfortable giving him any job that comes in—fab, marine, remote start, off-road, or audio. Chris is our newest salesman in Waite Park. He is active military and that really shows. I love having someone around with his discipline and attention to detail. Lexi is Mike’s daughter and helps out around the shop doing odd jobs; you can tell Mike raised her right, as she is very respectful and does whatever she can to help out.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: Moved from our St. Joe store to our new Waite Park facility.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: I kept a full staff through the entire transition from St. Joe to Waite Park and didn’t cut anyone’s hours. It was very costly because we didn’t bring in any money from one location for almost an entire month.

Three favorite activities besides work: I love to vacation with my family in our RV. We take one month off every year to travel the country. Whether it’s being silly at home, having a campfire, setting up the projector and watching movies in the yard at night, or going to events—my family means everything to me. Competition: Doesn’t matter what it is, if at least two people can compete, I’ll do it.

Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: I can’t pick just one person. I learn something from everyone I meet.

Vision of the business in five years: I will have at least one more location, a very large eCommerce store, [and I will] start selling and installing home audio. [We will have] perfected the things we are just mediocre at now.

18 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

Sound Wave Customs Virginia Beach, Va. Owner/Manager: Ethan Blau

Years in the mobile electronics industry: 16

Career history: My career in 12-volt started in my neighbor’s backyard, then went from there to joining a car stereo shop as an installer and learning a lot over the years. I was then offered a sales position, as I am a great “people person” and had a lot of product knowledge. I moved up to assistant manager and store manager over the next few years. I ended up making a company change for a better opportunity. After years of wanting to open my own company, I finally had the means and the knowledge to do so.

Key staff and their value to the store: I always tell my staff they are amazing and very important. We are all a team! Just like in any sport, it takes more than one player to achieve greatness and success. They all have their own unique qualities and specialize in different areas of the shop, but at the same time they are truly versed in multiple categories and can work from the front, the fab shop to the main installation bays as well as help organize events and shows. We are all a second family here and I would go the extra mile for any one of them even outside of work. I can say we are truly blessed to have such an amazing team.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: A short breakdown would include the following: Adding new staff as well as current staff promotions to help better the team and not only improve the company, but keep up with its growth. Offering a group/company health insurance plan as well as comprehensive insurance option. Doing a lot of key upgrades to the installation and fabrication bays (lighting, air compressor system and ceiling mounted hoses, power reels, exhaust system, tooling, storage, and more).

Completely revamping, rebuilding and relaunching a brand new website.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: Working so many hours to try to stay caught up, yet staying so busy, even working late nights—six to seven days a week and a ton of hours—but still being behind on things I need to get done. It’s especially tough with family and trying to find that medium. The other thing would be trying to find good help. We had a rough period when we truly needed more employees and could not find them. Luckily, we have since added some great new additions to the staff.

Three favorite activities besides work: Spending time with my kids and family, beach and outdoor activities or just grilling out, and learning more in life (business or personal). You can never stop learning.

Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: I would have to say my parents would be my biggest influence in two completely different aspects from my dad to my mom.

Other influences would be my fiancée, who always puts up with my crazy hours and always strives to make me a better person (even if I may not agree at first). My staff at the shop, as well as way too many other great industry professionals to name over the years, who have all inspired me, taught me and added to who I am today.

Vision of the business in five years: I see Sound Wave Customs continuing to grow and be a successful company that is willing to overcome any changes and continue with this fast-paced world of technology today. I could see a larger, more accommodating facility in the future as well as adding the necessary staff to keep up with the growth of the company. I would like to see some of my veteran employees offer trainings for the local, younger generation to get them more education, knowledge, excitement and even open doors to our great industry.

Soundscape Car Audio Carrollton, Texas Owner/Manager: Dan Ungaro

Years in the mobile electronics industry: 17

Career history: I spent the first nine years of my career working for Circuit City, Tweeter and then Car Toys. I started my business by doing mobile work for local mechanics until I opened the first retail space a year later. Since then, Soundscape has grown and even become Retailer of the Year 2016!

Key staff and their value to the store: The displays, the tools and the location mean nothing if your people don’t believe in the culture. My staff gets the Soundscape culture 100 percent and each has their own unique contribution to that philosophy.

They love sharing their passion for their work with clients and industry peers alike.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: I moved! I relocated the operation to a new facility that better fits our standard mode of operation.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: I’d have to say the move was particularly challenging in logistics and stamina. So much more goes into an operation like this than even the one responsible for it realized!

Three favorite activities besides work: I love spending weekends with my wife and family, drumming and snowboarding.

Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: My influences are too many to name. The most recent influences have been both Josh Landau and Jason Kranitz. I try every day to put the lessons they have taught me into practice.

Vision of the business in five years: I see Soundscape serving a specific niche in the high end and custom realm. I believe the client base of the future will set an expectation of high fidelity and OEM level fit and finish. I am growing Soundscape for that clientele.

me-mag.com 19

 knowledgfest SoundsGood Auto Service Coquitlam and Burnaby, BC Owner/Manager: Keith McCumber

Years in the mobile electronics industry: 29 Career history: Wow—1987 was an incredible year of change for me. I started selling car stereos in a chain store, evolved to installing at an independent [store] two and a half years later and loved it! I moved to Vancouver in 1993 after a nasty detox from a horrible drug habit. I’ve grown 10,000 percent since then. I opened SoundsGood in January 2005 with me being the only employee for a year. I made $154,000 that year. We are at the $2M mark now.

Key staff and their value to the store: The staff is the company, 100 percent. I recognized that while they work for me, I have a grave responsibility to them to be the best leader, to make them want to stay and have pride as their motivating force to produce the best work possible. I also pay them really well.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: I lost nine out of 12 [staff members] last year. I hired three of them back. I found some phenomenal people to fill the other spaces required to keep us as The Car Stereo Shop to shop from here.

Biggest challenge to the business is the past 12 months: Staff—having them, keeping them, training them, keeping them happy, keeping them inspired to learn more so that they can be the best at what they do.

Three favorite activities besides work: Travelling, eating, walking on the beaches of the world with my wife.

Biggest influence in regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: Del Ellis; Marcel Newell; Jason Kranitz; John Schwartz; Kent Izuka and Paul Papadeas.

Vision of the business in five years: We will have four stores with a fifth on the way.

Tint World Boca Raton, Fla.

Owner/Manager: Charles Bonfiglio Years in the mobile electronics industry: 30-plus Career history: My career began as a teenager with a strong passion in the auto industry that began with customizing cars and then evolved to becoming an ASE Certified Technician, then an automotive aftermarket franchise area developer for Meineke Car Care Centers specializing in developing, building and operating automotive repair, maintenance and tires centers. I am the President and CEO of Tint World® Automotive Styling Centers® franchise that started as a small six-store chain in South Florida and developed into the largest and fastest growing international franchise system of aftermarket car and truck accessory centers in the world. l am the President and CEO of Auto Parts Network® eCommerce company that specializes in the online sales of aftermarket auto parts, accessories, custom wheels and tires, mobile electronics, and car care products through a proprietary patented enterprise software system which I developed. Through years of leading multiple companies to best in class operations, I have acquired unparalleled enterprise level experience and a diverse set of business and technical skills that brings unique value to our franchise owners, employees, suppliers and consumers. I am a results-oriented professional with a successful background in building businesses and a strong management team, real estate development and creative finance. My particular area of expertise is leading automotive companies to maximum profits and market share with outstanding customer satisfaction through unparalleled team building leadership, broad-based experience and a winning attitude. As a strategically-driven entrepreneurial minded visionary, I continuously seek to improve profit margins and develop new business growth by leveraging opportunities through innovation and new integrated channels of revenue streams to maximize profitability, while focusing on core business improvement. I am open to new business opportunities, venture capital investors, mergers and acquisitions.

Key staff and their value to the store: We are a franchise system comprised of 10 corporate staff with over 55 franchised locations in the U.S., Canada and the Middle East. The Tint World Franchise corporate staff is invaluable to the continued evolution of our franchise system, and our franchise owners are our retailers who are our main priority; their staff is very valuable as well. This combination of successful franchise owners and our corporate support staff propels store sales growth and store count growth.

Biggest change made in the past 12 months to better the business: Our biggest change has been increasing corporate support staff and enhancing their job duties to maintain our overall steady growth.

Biggest challenge to the business in the past 12 months: Securing quality locations for our many new incoming franchisees is one of our ongoing challenges.

Three favorite activities besides work: Spending quality time with my family, traveling on vacations and personal development.

Biggest influence with regard to expertise, professionalism and work ethic: My best influence to operating a successful franchise system was my personal experience being a multi-store franchisee and working with their corporate staff to grow their brand.

Vision of the business in five years: I project in five years that our franchise system exceeds 200 open stores with major technical evolution of our franchise system and brand.

20 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

INTRODUCING THE ALL NEW KAPPA PERFECT COMPONENT SYSTEMS

DEFINING THE STANDARD FOR COMPONENT SPEAKERS. AGAIN. What happens when leading audio engineers with world-class resources develop uncompromising component speaker systems without cost constraints? Audio perfection. Introducing Kappa Perfect, Infinity’s flagship line of super-accurate, super-high performance speakers. Kappa Perfect component speakers deliver high power handling, high SPL capability, and unparalleled response. They also feature high-end industrial design and available three-way configuration.

With just the flick of a switch, you can transform a 2-way system into a 3-way system by adding the Kappa Perfect midrange speaker. Any audio company can aspire to perfection. But only one with Infinity’s engineering, manufacturing and testing resources can achieve it.

To Learn More Visit: www.infinityspeakers.com Or Please contact: Christopher Dragon at 203-328-4203 / Chris.Dragon@harman.com

© 2017 HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Infinity is a trademark of HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated, registered in the United States and/or other countries. Features, specifications and appearance are subject to change without notice.

 retail news

In an effort to enhance their dealer's knowledge of installation and fabrication, ORCA Design & Manufacturing Corp. teamed with Mobile Solutions to put on a joint, four-day training, which features an all-star cast of trainers.

WORDS BY TED GOSLIN

It wasn't always the case, but over the years the 12-volt industry has developed an appreciation for self-sponsored education. When those same educators decided to incorporate real-world training into their classes, it gave students the chance to put their knowledge into immediate practice. Such was the case with the recent Mobile Solutions training in Tempe, Ariz., which was hosted by ORCA Design & Manufacturing Corp.

22 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

The only prerequisite for entry was a required purchase of a certain amount of product, which could be any combination of brands a dealer carries. The workshop had a set limit of 25 people, made up of established ORCA dealers on a firstcome, first-served basis. Naturally, the class filled up quickly, thanks to what was offered.

"Just buy an airline ticket and show up. Obviously there is a qualifying order, but that's peanuts. It's a normal order for most shops. We cover the cost of the seat, all three nights for the hotel and all meals while you're there," said Nalaka Adikari, Sales Director at ORCA. "Training is something that we truly believe in. It's about making our retailers better and to be successful. This is the formula that I want to keep. As far as funding goes, that's something I want to keep going as long as we'll be doing this."

The four-day workshop featured several popular industry veterans including Ken Ward of Educar and Musicar Northwest, past Mobile Electronics Installers of the Year JT Torres and Matt Schaeffer

and past Top 12 Installer Chris Pate.

Leading the trainings was Bryan Schmitt, President of Mobile Solutions.

"This class was a bit different from some of our others. We wanted to drive home how to build great audio and how to make money. It emphasized profitability, how much time was involved, multiple amp systems and DSP," Schmitt said. "We had this idea of doing a live build while doing some other fundamental training. That's why we had the other guest presenters like Ken Ward, Chris Pate, Matt Schaeffer and JT involved. We did it on my Toyota Tundra.

Students could see the progression from start to finish, system design, how long it took to take to get it done and we did it live in front of them."

The workshop format consisted of each guest speaker presenting their portion of the build to discuss and show how to do it, then letting the students do that portion on their own. After students completed each segment, Schmitt and his speakers would go over how it went.

"That was kind of the overall general

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»

Who’s Who Graeme Wyatt Impact Tint And Audio Tyler, Texas Years of industry experience:11 Hobbies: Woodworking, guns, video games What you’re really good at: Lighting

Mark Kievit, Jr. Car Tune Automotive & Sound, Inc. Holiday, Fla.

The instructors included a who’s who of 12-volt celebrities, including (left to right) Chris Pate, Bryan Schmitt, Nalaka Adikari, Matt Schaeffer, Ken Ward and JT Torres.

Years of industry experience: 17 Hobbies: Hard rock/Metal drumming!

What you’re really good at: Making peoples cars sound better and Rock-N-Roll!

Ethan Blau Sound Wave Customs Virginia Beach, Va. Years of industry experience: 12 Hobbies: My kids & Family, Trucks, Entrepreneurship, Expanding my knowledge, helping others What you’re really good at: You will have to ask everyone else. I do not like to judge myself, but I alas, hope that it’s being a father, fiance and business owner.

Chris Pate Mobile Toys, Inc. College Station, Texas Years of industry experience: 23 Hobbies: Collecting gems and minerals, singing in my band, competing at sound quality competitions.

What you’re really good at: Being an awesome dad.

24 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

Bryan Schmitt delivers some fabrication tips to attendees.

layout of the class—watching this live build on this everyday vehicle with great audio upgrades," Schmitt added. "I think the important part is the knowledge they took from this. Out of the 25 people that showed up, I would say that 80 percent have been in the industry for a long time. Their feedback is phenomenal. I know they know how to do this, but [we presented] some efficient ways to do this [for them] to be more profitable. I think we achieved our goal very successfully. I don't

know how I'm going to make it better."

The workshop was the brainchild of Nalaka Adikari and Bryan Schmitt after the two met at CES this past January. "This is something that we kinda wanted to do for a while but one night at CES things got hammered out and the next morning we sat down at a table and got the thing together," Adikari said. "It's something Orca truly does believe in. Finding ways to improve our dealers in different aspects.

Installers aren't growing on trees. We want them to be better. Every shop has that A-guy. Sometimes that A-guy needs encouragement and a refresher. The up-and-coming guy needs to get to that level. This is something we see ourselves doing with Bryan in the foreseeable future and to help dealers to get better."

Top 50 Installer Jeremiah Mojica from GNC Customs in Goshen, Ind. was one of the students in attendance. He got wind of the event through Focal, thanks to his shop's strong relationship with the company. Aside from the incentive to attend a training that included free food and accommodations, Mojica was excited for the hands-on elements afforded the group and the use of top-quality equipment.

"We got to build a panel using a 3D router. It gave us the chance to learn one of the new tools that Mobile Solutions offers. It allows more texture and contours than flat panels," Mojica said.

"There was a lot going on during the

The workshop added unique value not normally seen in such seminars by allowing hands-on training. whole thing. In the background, there were the four special guests. A live, real world install was going on. We got to see the progress, how they built it and the techniques they use. That was really cool. They also had a tuning session that

Ken Ward did. That was really cool. It was product, but really geared toward understanding tuning."

Another benefit of having the guest instructors was that it gave many of their peers a chance to see why they are

me-mag.com   25

 retail news

26 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

who they are, live. "Matt Schaeffer, JT Torres and Chris Pate are all awesome at what they do. They would take the time to explain how they did it," Mojica said. "Some guys follow their builds on Facebook or Instagram. That's why it was so cool to have them explain how they do it. To see how it's easier or quicker to do something is really good."

Schmitt seconded Mojica's opinion on the importance of having guest instructors present. "All the guys involved are very good dealers of Orca. Ken, Matt, Chris and JT know the product really well. They are experts at it," Schmitt added. "That was part of the motivation to have them involved. They are looked at as top-tier leaders in the industry. When we collaborate like that, special things happen."

"They packed in a lot during the whole training. I would say the 25 people there were blessed to see that. You don't see that in a training. There're only a handful of times when you're going to build a

car. Fishman used to do that years ago," Mojica added. "I couldn't say there's one thing I took away. There were so many little techniques and mind-blowing things you've never thought of. Especially on the tuning side, I feel a lot more comfortable.

It's a lot easier than you think but it takes a lot of knowledge."

One key point Schmitt hoped students took away was regarding the fabrication of A-pillars. "When building the A-pillars, try using a small footprint. Don't make the speaker size too large to obstruct the view of the driver. I used an Illusion 3-inch tweeter. It's active so it has a really small footprint," Schmitt stressed.

"The main thing we focused on during the training was the ability to break down complicated things into a simple process. Whether it was how to integrate to an audio signal, how to build A-pillars or building a sub box. It was steps one through ten, how you get there, the mistakes we made in the past, then more steps. I think guys got a lot out of it to

build confidence and how to make money easier."

While hands-on trainings and vendor trainings go on regularly throughout the industry, Schmitt believes this format is unique to ORCA. The next event has already been scheduled for September 5th, 2017, with both Schmitt and Adikari expecting more to come in the future, with the same goal in mind.

"It's a good compromise between the dealer and the vendor. It's a win-win.

The perception is that it's free but it's not free at all. It's a massive investment on ORCA's part and a good value for the dealer. It's going to make everyone better, smarter and [able] to do better jobs and charge more money for them," Schmitt said. "I think that if we can keep growing as an industry, things like this are super valuable. It gets them out of their four walls, gives them perspective. I've seen guys take this back to their shops and it's changed their whole business." ď‚ľ

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 knowledgfest

KnowledgeFest Dallas 2017 Event Schedule Friday, August 11

Begin

Session Description

Perfecting the Point-of-Sale Process

The Three Questions and Beyond: The Essential Steps in OEM Integration System Design

2:00 PM

Business Plan & Budget Building Workshop

Saturday, August 12 8:00 AM

Absorption Costing: Calculating Your True Hourly Rate

Marketing Types: Finding Your Next Best Customer

Production High End – Building Systems On-Time and Profitable

9:30 AM

A Day in the Life of a CEO: Organizational Structure

Profitable Merchandising: Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) Rationalization

High Res Audio – The Next Big Thing

11:00 AM

Troubleshooting Your Business: Learn to Ask the Right Questions

Leadership in Sales: Building the Best Customer Relationship

Designing the In-Car Front Sound Stage

Sunday, August 13 8:00 AM

HR Systems & Processes: Recruiting & Performance Management

The 12 Keys of Sustainable Selling – The Four Rules

Remote Start: Integration & Troubleshooting

9:30 AM

Room for Growth: Emulating Successful Retail Models

The 12 Keys of Sustainable Selling – The Four Modes

DSP 2017 - Essential Processes and Procedures

11:00 AM

Conflict Resolution: Dealing With Difficult People and Situations

The 12 Keys of Sustainable Selling – The Four Steps of the Sale

The Art of Build Brackets

Monday, August 14 2:30 PM

Mobile Electronics Experience – Your Mission Revealed

me-mag.com 29

 knowledgfest

KnowledgeFest Dallas 2017 Event Schedule Friday, August 11

Registration .................................................................................................................. 9:30 am - 5:00 pm Education Expert Workshops ............................................................................. 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm Manufacturer Training .............................................................................................. 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Saturday, August 12

Registration .................................................................................................................. 7:30 am - 5:00 pm Education Sessions ............................................................................................... 8:00 am - 12:30 pm Lunch Concession Open .......................................................................................... 11:30 am - 1:30 pm Mobile Electronics Show ....................................................................................... 11:30 am - 4:30 pm Manufacturer Training .............................................................................................. 4:45 pm - 7:00 pm MEA Opening Reception ......................................................................................... 6:45 pm - 7:15 pm MEA Town Hall Meeting ............................................................................................ 7:15 pm - 8:15 pm

Sunday, August 13

Registration .................................................................................................................. 7:30 am - 5:00 pm Education Sessions ............................................................................................... 8:00 am - 12:30 pm Lunch Concession Open ......................................................................................... 11:30 am - 1:30 pm Mobile Electronics Show ....................................................................................... 11:30 am - 4:30 pm Manufacturer Training .............................................................................................. 4:45 pm - 7:00 pm

Monday, August 14

Registration .................................................................................................................. 8:30 am - 3:00 pm Manufacturer Training ............................................................................................ 9:00 am - 10:00 am Mobile Electronics Show ...................................................................................... 10:00 am - 2:30 pm Lunch Concession Open ......................................................................................... 11:30 am - 1:30 pm Education Sessions ................................................................................................. 2:30 pm - 5:00 pm Mobile Electronics Industry Awards ............................................................... 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

30 Mobile Electronics  February / March 2016

s i o h W

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Omni Hotel - Pavilion • August 14, 2017 sponsored by:

real world retail

A Cut Above

Tip Top Customs has soared above its competition with product diversification, a strong customer experience and training employees from scratch.

WORDS BY TED GOSLIN

C

olonel Hannibal Smith, leader of the fictional commando squad, The A-team, once said, “I love it when a plan comes together!” But plans don’t come together by accident—neither does a crack unit of the best in any field. Whether it’s with television shows, military operations or business, the top minds in any field know that being the best relies on two main

32 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

things: remaining competitive while staying cooperative to execute a plan.

Since the start of his 12-volt journey, Sean Davis, owner of Tip Top Customs in Morris, Ill., has kept those two traits at the forefront of his business mindset.

As the son of a business owner, Davis learned a great deal about best practices as a youth, especially when it comes to working on vehicles.

“I’ve been into cars my whole life.

My dad owned a body shop when I was younger. He did a lot of racing, mostly drag racing,” Davis said. “Once I was old enough to drive, I went to a couple sound-off shows. I remember clearly the Rockford Fosgate van being there. I sat in the back with the four 18’s. It triggered something in my brain. Then I started hanging out in a couple car audio shops

pestering guys. Once I got a little bit older I started out detailing and doing accessories in cars.”

The business, which Davis started at age 21, began as mobile detailing for car dealerships and individual clients. It changed course when a client asked Davis to install a deck and speakers for him.

Not one to turn down work, Davis took the job and with it, his true calling. “I

made more money doing that than in two days of detailing. That’s when I started getting into car audio and began looking for distributors and parts.”

Today, the Top 50 company sits atop a mountain of offerings that span the 12-volt spectrum, including radios, speakers, remote starts, marine, off-road, LED lighting and wiring. Much of the store’s business has been generated out of

necessity, thanks to a local river, a lack of competitors and the frigid cold of winter.

“Remote start business grew the fastest because it’s cold around here and no other guys were doing them,” Davis said.

“In the last 18 years I think there’s been three other people who have tried to open a shop in Morris. I haven’t seen anybody last more than two to three months.”

me-mag.com 33

real world retail Finding the A-Team

things kind of small on purpose. I didn’t know any better—never worked in a shop.

I was teaching myself everything,” Davis said. “I opened my business because I didn’t work for anybody else. When my daughter was a couple years old, I ran the business however I wanted. If she had something going on, I locked the doors and I went. That’s not the way I run things now.”

After learning proper business methods, Davis now makes sure the store is fully covered by other staff before leaving for any reason.

With three store moves under his belt and plenty of turnover, Davis has finally locked in a strong staff of four, including two installation technicians, one www.tiptopcustoms.com part-time window tint specialist and a part-time Number of Stores: 1 bookkeeper. Lead Address: 1802 N. Division St. Suite technician Rob Colesby was found 503 Morris, IL 60450 through a method Facility Square Footage: 2,600 that Davis considStore Type: Boutique ers his bread and Number of Employees: 5 butter considering the difficulty KEY STAFF in finding experienced technicians Sean Davis these days.

Owner “I got my current staff with the Rob Colesby 12-volt careers Technician Facebook group.

Brett Russell I was by myself.

Apprentice Technician Rob posted on there and wasn’t Jen Davis (part-time) expecting anyWindow Tint Specialist thing. I messaged him off of there,” Kristina Davey (part-time) Davis said. “FindBookkeeper ing experienced staff is the struggle. You can run

With the store located an hour and a half away from the major metropolitan area of Chicago, it’s been a challenge for Davis to maintain a regular staff over the years. It was also out of necessity in some ways, due to a lack of experience as a store owner.

“For the first eight to 10 years I had part-time guys who helped me out. I kept

FAST FACTS

TIP TOP CUSTOMS

34 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

‘Help Wanted’ ads on Facebook. I got 30 inquiries off that, but no one with actual experience. There were a bunch of different guys with mechanical experience, working in the automotive field. That’s how we got the guy we did. A lot of it is talking with friends in the industry, using the 12-volt insider page. Craigslist doesn’t work.”

Training employees from scratch is one of the biggest ways Davis was able to move his business forward, but that comes with its own set of challenges.

“You need to train on your own or you’ll never get to the next level. A lot of people who come through have no idea what we do. It’s a lot harder than I would have thought,” Davis said. “A lot of people assume all we do is plug something in and it works. Finding the easy way to run a wire, that’s not how we do things. We do things a certain way here. It’s a little bit of a shock to people. They assume they put a radio in a car once for their buddy, so that’s how things are done. It doesn’t take them long to figure out that it’s not going to work for the customer.”

Employees at Tip Top Customs stay for an average tenure of about two years due to the remote location of the shop, according to Davis. “I had a guy not too long ago, drove for an hour and 20 minutes, was in next town over and said it was too far to drive. There’s no one who lives here that’s experienced with car audio.”

To help retain employees, the shop gives out bonuses and special incentives that are employee-specific. Davis devised this strategy after noticing his staff mostly gave their paychecks to significant others instead of using them for something that directly benefitted them.

“We found with giving big bonuses on paychecks, a lot of techs go home and hand their checks to their wives. It’s not a huge incentive for them to do better.

Also, how much they get taxed. They lose a chunk of it off the bat anyway,” Davis said. “I started to come up with more creative ways to do incentives. Rob likes poker tournaments. His bonus for next month will be me paying his entry fee and the day off to go do a poker tournament. He’s excited about it.”

New staff are trained by a combination of the MECP Basic book and some shadowing of experienced staff. They are given 90 days to get basic certification with MECP. Davis also emails training articles and videos to new staff from companies like Rockford Fosgate and JL Audio. He then follows up on that with hands-on training to review what they’ve learned.

The company believes strongly in continuous improvement by utilizing industry training resources like Jason Kranitz and his Kingpin University training courses, along with regularly attending KnowledgeFest. The majority of the trainings staff attend are from manufacturers to keep up with the latest installation techniques and technologies.

“We train a lot. I think it’s important.

It’s one of the most important things we can do. We have to constantly keep moving forward and getting better. That’s what the arrow means in our logo,” Davis said. “Once I went to a training and saw how it changed my life in how I do things, it’s just been a constant since then.”

Sean Davis, owner of Tip Top Customs, has been a lover of cars since childhood and opened the store at age 21.

A View From the Top With a total of 2,600 square feet, the shop’s current location is well-suited for its current workload. The installation bay consists of around 1,300 square feet while the rest of the facility is comprised of the showroom, office and inventory storeroom. The new showroom is located right on the main road with up to 28,000 cars passing by per day.

“We moved in here 2010 or so. When Circuit City went out of business, we bought their displays. We had a store nearby that was only open for a year. I bought everything in their shop, sound rooms and install bay,” Davis said.

Recently, the shop built a new showroom to accommodate all the product and displays, which include brand new Avidworx displays.

“The old showroom became our wood room. The new displays include audio and marine, with a separate room for truck and Jeep accessories,” Davis said.

“People don’t know we do those. That’s a big part of opening a new showroom to display all the categories we sell and

’Tis the Season

“As a boutique retailer we have to get a little more creative in our marketing campaigns. I figure like most shops, we have seasons. For our ‘Get ready for summer’ season we will pick what we want to push, selecting from categories like marine, Jeeps and classic cars/ hot rods. We pick based on several factors. Maybe one of our vendors released some new products or we had issues in the past with something. This has worked well for us no matter what we decided to push. One in particular is Corvettes. We decided to make a push to let our customers know we are the Corvette experts. We used Facebook and our website to get the word out.

“The goal was to grow the number of inquiries and Corvette work we were currently doing. We put this specific category on our marketing calendar, we worked with 1sixty8 media—our website designer—and had internal meetings to get our team on the same page and excited.

We used Facebook and our website.”

me-mag.com 35

real world retail

Italian Connection “Elettromedia has been a key vendor of ours for seven years. Rob Osheski from Echo Sales is one of the great ones. He has been a rep of ours for one product or another for most of the time we have been open. He has always gone above and beyond to make sure we are taken care of. After all these years I would say he’s more than a rep and would consider him a friend.

“Bit products (bit Ten and Ten D) have been our biggest seller lately. They have an excellent price point and fit our installation style. We try to use a processor in every system we build. It’s hard to say what customers like about them because I don’t feel they completely understand all of what a sound processor does. I would say they love the end results the most.

“We are excited about the bit one HD and the new solutions it offers. Elettromedia has been great in supporting us and helping us grow. They offer a diverse product line so we have a great product to offer our customers no matter what their budget is. They also have great customer service and tech support both going the extra mile to make sure any issues, questions, or concerns we have are all taken care of. More than a vendor, elettromedia quickly became a partner we could count on.”

36 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

install.”

To help sell all those categories, as well as take advantage of the newfound space, the shop created a design center table to discuss larger builds with clients. Aside from specialty builds, the shop handles work through standard sales techniques, with Davis—the only salesman—learning what the client is looking for by looking at their vehicle and make recommendations in the showroom using displays.

Despite all the tools at the staff’s disposal, educating customers is still a necessity in making the sale.

“I find that some customers have no clue. I would love to move away from giving prices over the phone but we’re not there yet. For window tint and radio, we give prices. When it comes to bigger audio jobs, it’s usually way more involved than what customers realize, so we spend some time with them,” Davis said. “We show them how we do things by explaining about fabricating speaker mounts in the door, mapping out factory systems and coming up with a plan to interface with a factory system correctly. We spend a lot of time with customers showing them how we do it, how it’s different than how a lot of places do it and why it’s better. We get a lot of calls to fix expensive jobs for better tuning. A lot of people are not happy with how their car sounds and how it’s tuned from other shops.”

Customer retention is given a boost through the use of some special service practices. One technique is leaving aviator-style sunglasses with the company logo in the vehicle after an install. Glasses are attached to a clip on the visor. But that’s only temporary to coincide with the summer season, Davis explained. “That’s what we’ll be putting on customer’s cars for the next month or so. We’ll put cozies in cup holders for boats and key chains on their key rings. A lot of people like them,” Davis said. “We have seasons. We do a wide variety of stuff. Sometimes I find myself trying to cut back on some of the things people call for.”

For customers who wish to wait for their vehicle, a customer waiting area is available, complete with a couch and 52-inch plasma television. Waiting is not generally recommended, however,

considering the length of the typical install. “Generally the jobs we’re doing, even a simple radio install is a couple of hours. Waiting is not something we push for,” Davis said. “It’s better to take care of other customers. If we have somebody waiting, it’s hard to take care of them.

We’re trying to get away from the waiting area.”

Part of caring for customers is how employees are cared for, given they are the ones doing the work. Installation techs are paid a base pay plus commission. All techs are cross-trained to do any job that’s required. “Everyone needs to know how to do everything and work together as a team,” Davis added.

The team keeps work flowing through its check-in/check-out process. “We have sheets the guys use when pulling a car in. We go through basically everything on the vehicle, what works, what doesn’t, and any damage on the car,” Davis said.

“Before the vehicle leaves the bay, they go through the same process again. As long as you stay on guys to make sure they’re doing it correctly, it saves cars having to come back in.”

Left to right: Technician Rob Colesby, Owner Sean Davis and Apprentice Technician Brett Russell.

When a Plan Comes Together Customer acquisitions are largely word-of-mouth for the company, but about four percent of the sales budget is spent on marketing, which includes upkeep of the website by 1sixty8 media.

Social media is also a large part of the strategy with videos and photos of the shop’s work being posted regularly.

“We have 1sixty8 publish posts for specific things on the website we look to improve on. It works really well. It’s also crazy how well Facebook works,” Davis said. “We did a bunch of Harley-Davidson builds last year. It’s not really our thing.

We’ve done half a dozen jeeps in the last month and a half from Facebook. I’ll look at things we want to do or things we should be doing more of.”

Tip Top Customs also utilizes the Avidworx email marketing program, Businessworx, for email campaigns. “We’ll send out emails to customers once a month. We can set different times if we feel we need to double up,” Davis said.

“It’s a big thing for existing customers. It

Jason Kranitz of Kingpin University works regularly with Tip Top Customs as part of the company’s initiative to continuously train and improve. me-mag.com 37

real world retail

Paper Thin “Our worst marketing experience was running newspaper ads. We used to get huge returns on advertising remote starters in the local newspaper. We had stopped for a few years and on a whim decided to give it a shot. We worked with a salesperson at the paper and came up with several articles and ads to run over a 45-day period in different areas of the newspaper. The goal was to grow our remote start sales.

“We didn’t plan very well and strayed from the plan that was in place. This was more of a spur of the moment or ‘I wonder if this will work’ deal. Everything was wrong from the beginning. We didn’t follow our marketing calendar and went against everything we had been doing for years. If I had looked back, I would have remembered there was a reason we stopped newspaper advertising. Times have changed and we need to embrace it, adapt and change our ways.”

has a concierge program we’re going to be setting up as well.”

Seasonal marketing campaigns are run to boost sales during specific holiday seasons and for seasonal products like remote start systems. Given the company’s diverse offerings, the seasonal strategy may be its best asset in generating both new and return business. But like any independent business, it comes with a price for the owner.

“We keep the word out there through Facebook and our website and it works really well for us. As simple and easy as I make it sound running ads, I put a lot into Facebook. I don’t sleep because I’m a business owner. If I’m getting inquiries at midnight, I’m responding to those. If someone is looking at my Facebook ad, they are looking at three others as well. If

38 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

Part-time Window Tint Specialist Jen Davis works on a vehicle in the install bay.

The installation bay can house up to two full-sized vehicles and a motorcycle at one time.

you respond first you’ll look like the hero.

That goes for comments or reviews as well. Not everyone gets the same results we do. It’s really because of the time I put into it.”

Time and patience are key ingredients in the success or failure of any business. Davis has proven his business can withstand the test of time thanks to his marketing strategy, training practices, product offerings and customer service skills. They’ve led to not only company growth but other achievements.

“We’ve made the Top 50 five years straight. We’re the only store in Illinois that can say that. Another achievement is having a full-time technician for the last year. The processes we have in place, the standards we have for our work and how we take care of our customers are a big

contributing factor to that,” Davis said.

For other retailers looking to reach similar heights, Davis recommends one key concept. “Plan. Even if it’s just playing it by ear, work with a budget and stick by it.

Really plan for what you’re doing.”

Maintaining its foothold in the local market is also done through its use of the company’s mission statement, which Davis sums up with one word. “A part of our mission statement is that I use the word superior. I was looking up definitions to words, and superior popped into my head. It means better than anyone else,” he said. “I want my customers to feel they get treated better than anyone else and have the best work over anyone else. That’s a big part of what keeps us going every day.” 

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me-mag.com 39 www.InstallerNet.com • 800-444-1644

 behind the scenes

Quiet

Giant

With a commitment to its core video offerings while embracing an ever-changing market, SAVV stands steady as a 12-volt resource.

Out on the west coast of California where many car audio and video companies are headquartered, SAVV Entertainment Systems makes its home, too.

A manufacturer and importer of 12-volt video products, dash cams, and its range of Smart-Link products, the company has its own engineering lab in South Korea and manufacturing facility in China.

In business since 1998, SAVV has steadfastly built a strong network of regional distributors and retailers. A regular in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center during CES for more than a decade, SAVV has also through the years established itself as an OEM partner to automakers and to other 12-volt companies.

Interestingly, the company established itself on a product category that is diminishing every year, and while it will never go away, rear seat entertainment has been forever changed.

40 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

“We have been doing video products for years—and that is our specialty,” said Daniel Lee, vice president of SAVV. “That includes headrest monitors and overhead monitors which we have offered since the company began back in 1998.”

Today, the most popular size for the overhead monitor is still the 10- inch, according to Lee. For the headrest, the most popular sizes are between seven and nine inches. “That has been the standard for years,” he said. “A few years back, there was a demand for larger screens so we brought out a 10-inch headrest monitor.

We were the first company in the U.S. with that product, but the market demands have changed. It has been steady for years now at seven to nine inches.”

Zone Alone Not that long ago, in-vehicle entertainment systems became a pretty big deal. Whatever options the consumer

chose—overhead monitors or a pair of headrest versions—having movies in the car started out as a novelty. Ultimately these monitors became big sellers for families as a way to keep the kids entertained on vacations, road trips, or even just rides around town while getting errands done.

But with the continued popularity of tablets (the iPad came out in April of 2010) and the even bigger proliferation of smartphones that kids have learned to use practically at pre-school age, the idea of an overhead and or rear seat monitor has gotten some serious competition in the car.

More common than ever these days is that everyone has his or her own zone in a vehicle. In-vehicle entertainment—rear seat entertainment, in particular—is still an important and enjoyable convenience for a family to have, but it has meant some rethinking for SAVV. “There is no question that the market is reducing every year,” Lee said. “I have

Started in 1998, SAVV headquarters is located in Norwalk, Calif. with manufacturing and engineering facilities in South Korea and China.

Considered a staple of the SUV, rear seat entertainment options from SAVV include the LOH-T108D-WF. With its 10.1-inch wide monitor, it also boasts the company’s built-in wireless Smart-Link feature and Full-HD 1080p digital media player.

The FSC-909B is an OEM license plate security camera with WDR and Super Night Vision. Shown here in Titanium Black. me-mag.com   41

 behind the scenes

The LM-T908D headrest monitor with 9-inch wide screen has all the bells and whistles. It has ultra bright LED backlighting and comes with three different color headrest skins—beige, black, and gray.

been talking to our sales reps and regional distributors and the headrest monitor and overhead monitor markets have definitely been impacted because of the smartphones, iPhones and iPad products that every kid has these days. Every child has his or her own entertainment monitor right in their own hands for car rides and that is a reason why.”

As the market has changed and continues to do so, Lee said the company is realistic in terms of how it plans to handle things. “There is nothing we can do about this to stop it and we cannot compete with it either,” Lee said. “That is one of the main reasons why we came up with one of the unique features in our video products that allows a user’s smartphone or iPad to be easily connected wirelessly to our overhead monitor and headrest monitor.”

Generally known as smartphone mir roring technology, what Smart-Link enables SAVV to do is capitalize on the video in the car, but on the consumers’ terms. As consumers’ interaction with their

42 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

mobile devices continues to increase, these passengers in the car want the ability to connect their personal devices with their in-vehicle infotainment systems.

“Now instead of having a 3-inch or 5-inch video on their handheld device, they can wirelessly transmit to a bigger screen and enjoy the movie or video,” Lee said.

“We’re doing this to stay competitive with the current market status.”

Toe in the Water While the Smart-Link technology has helped bridge the divide between the new age of personal electronics and the traditional rear seat entertainment and overhead monitor options, SAVV has also tapped into alternative product categories to balance its business portfolio.

In fact, at CES earlier this year, the company showed off new products in several categories.

“Category-wise, we introduced about five or six products,” Lee said. Those included a backup camera and dash cam—two areas

where SAVV sees potential.

“Rear seat entertainment will always have a place in the automotive market, but we know it will be shrinking every year due to these portable personal devices,” Lee said. “In order for us to survive, we have to have a plan and that is why it is essential that we come up with different categories in the 12-volt industry. The dash cam is becoming more popular and is a hot product for us. We have been researching and developing product in that category for the last two-and-a-half years. Right now we just have the two models.”

SAVV offers the FDC-30HH, which is a 2-channel true HD dash cam with 3-inch wide full touch control LCD, and the FDC35HH, also a 2-channel true HD dash cam but with a 3.5-inch wide full touch control LCD. By the end of the year, Lee said, he is expecting the company will introduce several more models. “We hope to expand our product lineup to include six different products to suit the different needs of

customers,” he said. “We see this as a video product as well so it makes sense for us.

We are pretty confident that we can grab some market share with these new products, and thankfully, this is a market that is increasing every year.”

According to a recent TechSci Research report, the global dashboard camera market is expected to exceed $3 billion by 2021. Rising automobile sales, awareness of in-car safety, and an expanding young population are all factors.

based on the installation part of it. Generally, the overhead monitor retails between $400 to $500 and that is for the 10-inch with built-in DVD and wireless capability.

For the headrests, in a pair, it is from $300 to $500.”

An area that SAVV won’t tackle anytime soon, Lee said, is the head unit.

“We have not specialized in that area,” he said. “It would take a lot of hype for us to get involved in that. Most of the car manufacturers are developing and designing their vehicle where they are making it very hard to change the factory head unit. In order to change one of the newer vehicles’ head units, you have to change the whole dash kit. That is a big market and a difficult market— and one that would be difficult for us to penetrate. So even Ready When You Are though we see potential for it, we Along with diversifying its have no plans to do that.” product mix, SAVV is also staying What SAVV does have plans relevant with its network of dealfor, according to Lee, is revampSAVV offers both the FDC-30HH, which is a 2-channel ing its website and getting a ers and distributors by true HD dash cam with 3-inch wide full touch control keeping things simplified and stronger social media presence.

LCD, and the FDC-35HH, also a 2-channel true HD dash stress-free.

“Social media is one of the cam but with 3.5-inch wide full touch control LCD. The “The market has changed biggest marketing strategies and company plans to expand its offerings to six models by dramatically so we are not we hadn’t really considered it the end of the year. requesting any type of minibefore,” Lee said. “Now we are mum order or anything like that updating our website and then anymore,” Lee said. “We are mostly doing we will be looking at Facebook and Twitter business with the big regional distributors All The Right Friends to promote our products to the consumer so their salespeople are the ones who are Another reason that SAVV has weathas well as to the dealers.” promoting our product in the market.” ered some of the aftermarket’s twists and As Lee noted, the company’s target Lots of dealers, Lee said, do not stock turns is that the company has positioned customer has changed. “It used to be the overhead and rear seat entertainitself as a provider for automakers and to someone 25 to 35 or 40 years old, but ment products so instead what they have other local mobile electronics companies. with the younger generation we cannot in-store is literature. “They might have “We supply one of the major automakhave the same kind of marketing as we one or two items on display, but if a cusers with the overhead monitors,” Lee said. did previously,” he said. “Now we need to tomer is interested in purchasing, then the “We had been developing product and then emphasize more on Facebook, Twitter, and retailer can get what they specifically need within the last year we officially launched Instagram.” from their local or regional distributor and started supplying to them. We have a Additional marketing plans, Lee said, either that same day or the next day,” Lee lot of opportunity to talk with car manuinclude expanding beyond just CES for a said. “With us being located all the way on facturing engineers and marketing people show. SAVV plans to exhibit at Knowledgethe West Coast, if a dealer is on the East so it gives us an idea of what the market Fest this August and possibly SEMA next Coast it would take four to five days if I looks like now and where it is going.” year. shipped it UPS ground. They cannot wait What has been critical for SAVV, Lee Looking ahead, Lee is optimistic and that long, so that is why we make it possisaid, is the company’s control over its unfazed by what the future holds. ble for them to get it from their regional development and manufacture of products.

“We see the dash cam as a segment distributor. That way they can have the “One of the main things that differentiate that is growing pretty fast and we would product in their store in a day or two at us is that we own our own factories and like to focus on that,” he said. “We have the most.” we manufacture all of our own products,” been working to develop this category While there are no minimums required he explained. “Lots of aftermarket brands and only just launched the product in the to work with SAVV, the company has set just source the product from overseas and U.S. market in the last year so it is an area some pricing guidelines. then put their name on it, but we’re not where we hope to be successful. Yes, the “We do have a price structure for our like that. We develop everything and do rear seat entertainment business is shrinkdistributors and dealers, but we realize everything on our own. That is one of the ing so we are just planning to keep doing that most of the dealers who are purchasreasons that OEM is successful for us and what we do best—offer product that can be ing these products are earning their money we have the market share we do.” connected for the consumers needs.” 

me-mag.com 43

Brand Awareness Through Social Media

Sound Depot and Performance in Gainesville, Fla. uses a pinned post to focus attention. “Typically responds instantly” is also shown to viewers, so they know they can easily get in touch with the business via Facebook.

Retailers and experts discuss the pros and cons of various online mediums, and best practices for maximum return on an investment of both time and money.

WORDS BY ROSA SOPHIA

When it comes to raising awareness for your brand, the first thing to consider is how you see yourself and how you define your brand. Perception is reality, according to Jon Dewar of Modern Media Geeks in Kingsland, Ga. “If you look the part, you are the part,” he said. “If you exude confidence and are living and breathing your brand, that will allow you to stretch the boundaries.”

Creating brand awareness through social media must be done in conjunction with a solid online presence, as well.

Mitch Schaffer of 1sixty8 media noted that without quality content on a website, a business won’t get a complete return on its investment.

“Social media is a very important aspect of online marketing but like

44 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

pay-per-click and directory listings and things like that, without a solid web presence first, my opinion is that your money could be better spent,” he explained.

Quality content on a website must come first before a business begins investing in social media, he added.

From The Screen To The Store When “likes” begin to appear on a Facebook page, our tendency is to hope the people liking our posts will be our next clients. But retailers should not focus solely on turning likes into sales.

Instead, build the brand. Income will go up over time as a result of demonstrating passion for the industry and a willingness to educate and help clients find what they are looking for.

“Engagement has to do with it, not likes,” Dewar said. “If you’re living and

breathing your brand on a social level, your confidence in that breeds participation.” For example, Dewar explained how Google picks up on a mainstream brand that is actively being shared and has become highly visible on the Internet.

“There’s a massive organic advantage that you can’t buy. It’s beyond Adwords; it’s an organic advantage. Live and breathe your product in an organic way on a regular basis following best practices.”

Jerry Villa of Showtime Audio in Chicago, Ill. said that he has recognized names on job tickets as people who have liked posts on the business’s Facebook page. “Sometimes it’s not right away but down the road they’ll come in and get jobs done and they’re people who are further away than normal. They aren’t local,” he added, stating that they’ve been able to reach a wider audience through

Facebook that they might not have otherwise reached.

Just recently, a post on a build for an F-150 attracted unexpected attention. “A client contacted us from Quebec, Canada.

[It was] an enclosure for a subwoofer box, and he wanted one like that.” Villa added that Showtime takes part in a lot of car shows, and they used to get their business from such events. “Now it’s an online car show all the time,” he said.

Sean Davis of Tip Top Customs in Morris, Ill. agrees that engaging an audience is important. “I think the biggest way we set ourselves apart is how interactive and responsive we are with people on social media,” he said. “When someone leaves a comment or asks a question on one of our posts, we respond. We get several inquiries every single day via Facebook messenger and respond quickly to them.”

It’s important to keep potential clients interested and engaged without spamming them. And in the current climate of social media and online information gathering, people are also less likely to go to a business that does not have a solid web presence.

“The content on your website is your online showroom, your foundation to everything you do, what everything points back to,” Schaffer said. “Unless you have that in place already, your social media campaigns aren’t going to perform as well as it pertains to register rings. It works hand in hand.”

Facebook followers. To drive traffic on a regular basis, any website content should be shared properly with a teaser and corresponding tags. Traffic can be measured, while liking, sharing and commenting is encouraged. “That creates an ecosystem that is healthy,” Dewar said. However, he warned that a business shouldn’t allow more than three days to pass without posting, or else the algorithm will change.

Where are the likes coming from? The quality is more important than quantity, according to Davis. “We concentrate on specific areas where our customers come from for marketing efforts,” he said. “We make it a priority to keep the people following us on Facebook local so that we know we are marketing to our customers.

72 percent of our Facebook fans are 60 miles or less from our store.”

Monitoring social media and being responsive when people comment or send messages helps build the business’s brand as an expert in their niche, ensuring

that customers remember them in the future. Jawad noticed a direct correlation between Facebook marketing and those who eventually come into the store to buy. “I read the likes, look at our sales, see a name on our ticket and I see they liked a post,” Jawad said. Creating a positive online image for the brand helps to build awareness, and between $350 and $450 per month is spent on Facebook boosting for Sound Depot and Performance’s Facebook page.

The most positive aspect of Facebook is that a business can optimize its targeting efforts extremely well. “If you have an amount of money and you want to advertise, you want TV and billboards, and Google Adwords, but it’s a shotgun approach. On Facebook, if I only want to show 42-year-old women that have one child, who are divorced, who drive Jaguars—if I only want to talk to those people, I can, and there’s nothing like it.

That’s what makes it so powerful. You can

A Focus On Facebook Building brand awareness using Facebook is like anything else because it utilizes impressions, according to Omar Jawad, General Manager of Sound Depot and Performance in Gainesville, Fla. “We have to stay top of mind. I don’t consider it different,” he said. “If we are doing something unique on our website, we promote it on Facebook. Sometimes you get clicks or likes—as long as I’m in their feed consistently, it seems to work. I treat it like anything else. It’s an impression. It stays in front of people.”

Quality content can be provided by educating consumers via the business’s website, then sharing these links with

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Showtime Audio in Chicago, Ill. works on a lot of show cars and posts about it on Facebook. They also use Facebook Live to attract attention when they have several of the same cars in the shop at once.

really hone in and every cent is spent on who you actually want.”

Dewar described a common error, in which a retailer might advertise for remote start season and use the keywords “car starter,” without realizing the terminology is too broad. “What about the mechanic working on his 1973 van who needs to change his starter?” he pointed out. “You’re paying to have that guy click on something that has nothing to do with it. You can’t focus on that.” A business should ensure it has formulated a plan—a strategy—before carrying out marketing endeavors on Facebook, in order to avoid such an occurrence.

“Anyone who promotes constant sales on Facebook is making a grave mistake,” said Dewar, noting that once a business has slashed their prices, they can only continue to go down from there. “A special sale is fine, but always promoting a sale is bad. Promote your brand.

I instruct my guys to send me a picture of the bay packed with cars. I post an organic post, ‘What an amazing day. First come, first serve, we still have an opening.’ Spend 10 or 20 bucks [boosting

46 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

the post], we fill that spot.”

A Visual Experience Many businesses have a YouTube channel. Others use Facebook Live to bring viewers into their world. But which is better, and how can you use these tools to connect with your target audience?

To be effective, videos have to be promoted properly. “YouTube is the second largest search engine,” Dewar said. “If you have Facebook Live videos on a regular basis, it’s cool because people are engaged and saying hi. It’s like a reality show.”

Dewar recommended that Facebook Live should be used at least three times per week in order to be most effective. If a business is using YouTube, it’s important to avoid sharing the video link directly to Facebook. “It no longer populates a full video profile,” Dewar warned. “It shows a little square if you try to share it [that way] on Facebook.” This is not visually appealing, and likely won’t garner as much attention.

YouTube videos should be promoted through Google rather than Facebook. “Use Google Adwords to promote

YouTube videos,” Dewar said, adding that a student at the Window Tint School in Jacksonville, Fla. made a video and put it on YouTube where it got 10,000 views. “I said, ‘That’s awesome,’ then I uploaded it to Facebook and I’ve seen 20,000 views there.”

Jawad said that Facebook Live videos have become a very effective tool for Sound Depot and Performance. “When I do a Facebook Live video, it seems to get a lot of attention and I hear about it from customers,” he said. “When I have a sale or promotion, I’ll walk people around the bay and show them what’s going on, that kind of thing. It’s the most responsive thing we’ve done.”

Furthermore, Jawad has hosted giveaways in connection with Facebook Live videos. When there were extra Pioneer six-by-nine speakers in stock, he made a Facebook Live video and offered free speakers to anyone who liked or shared the video. “The speakers were gone within a couple of hours,” he added. “It got people in the store, and we ended up with more likes on the page.” However, Facebook Live videos remained best for

THE HIGHEST EXPRESSION OF SOUND

For Tip Top Customs, Facebook is crucial as it is one of the few ways they advertise to customers. keeping the business top of mind—not necessarily pushing for new business.

Instagram For Business For some, Instagram works in terms of raising awareness for the brand. For others, it doesn’t work as well. Jawad noted that his business uses Instagram, but they don’t post a lot yet. “I see a lot of Instagram likes are from people in the industry or friends,” he said. “But I’m not heavily with it yet, so I don’t have enough to say about it.”

Dewar noted that Instagram can be very useful for manufacturers. “They need to live and breathe their brand, and their job is to produce a product we can all make money with that people want,” he explained. “It’s their job to make people want it. They need to be on Instagram doing it. They need to be on Facebook as well.” However, according to Dewar, the retailer exists in a much smaller bubble. “They don’t need to be on Instagram as much because they’re focusing locally. Unless they have something they’re shipping, or if you make something so unique people are willing to come far distances to see you.” In which case, Instagram would be a wonderful option.

With Instagram, a user is unable to make the same type of call to action that can be created on Facebook. This is where the medium becomes less useful. “I find retailers think they need it when they

don’t,” Dewar said. “Instagram drives zero traffic because there’s no call to action. If you’re an everyday shop and do installs, then it’s fine to participate but not necessary.”

Showtime Audio uses Instagram, and Villa noted that they try to put things up that are very visually appealing. “We try to do some of the nicer builds and installs, a little more out of the norm so it will make people stop and look at it,” he said. A photo of a job involving an F-150 Shelby was posted, and “when we put that up, we tagged all the F-150 forums or Instagram pages. Ford has an Instagram page that has thousands of followers, so there’s a possibility of having 67,000 people seeing it. They may not be from here, but may think about it like the guy from Canada. There’s more potential of clients from further away.”

In this case, Instagram is a great option. However, it’s hard to weigh the results—if not impossible—and Davis has given up on it. “I have actually stopped putting time into Instagram because we don’t see results from it,” he said, revealing the other side of the situation.

When it comes to utilizing any form of social media, an organized and focused strategy is key. Dewar stated that if a business is properly building a brand as a specialist and remaining consistent with marketing, customers will know where to go. However, he added, “It does take time, momentum and dedication.” 

16691 Noyes Ave Irvine, Ca 92606 (877) 567-3030 www.elettromedia-usa.com me-mag.com 47

 tech today

Installation expert Joey Knapp took the trip of a life time last year to the Focal factory in France. Highlights of the trip included the staff of Orca, how speakers are made and the experience of being in another country as an installation tech.

WORDS BY JOEY KNAPP

W

e are just starting a series on tuning that I am very excited about. First we had Ken Ward show us three simple steps to finding a good signal. I wanted to have him start the series because without a good signal, no amount of tuning can result in a great sounding audio system. Next, we had some fundamental groundwork laid out by Andy Wehmeyer. Andy shared with us some basic information on sound and how we hear it, and how the automotive environment affects that.

Moving forward we will hear some more perspectives on tuning from a few other guest writers. The series will wrap up with an overview of multi-channel tuning

by Andy Wehmeyer. Before we proceed further in that series, I wanted to take a break and give what you have read so far a chance to really sink in.

As the outside temperature begins to

48 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

heat up, my mind and body remind me summertime is upon us. I can’t help but think back fondly on an adventure my wife and I went on last year with a wonderful group of people. Every year, Orca Design & Manufacturing sends a group of its dealers to France for a tour of the Focal factory. Last year I was able to go as a representative of Simplicity In Sound. As I do with most trips, I documented it with many photographs.

I thought it would be fun to share the experience of the trip and some of the cool tech-related things I learned while there.

Jumping the Pond The hop across the Atlantic was my second, so I had a general idea of what to expect. Thankfully, our flight was pretty uneventful. We touched down in France and were greeted by the smiling faces of Nalaka Adikari and Carrie Sahotsky of Orca. After a short bus ride, we

were at our hotel and sitting down to a wonderful dinner. We were introduced to a few Focal employees and given an agenda for the next day. The first day was going to be a tour of the factory in which our plus-one guests were invited. The second day was to be a more in-depth factory tour and more technically oriented discussion. The plus-one guests were treated to a trip into Lyon for shopping.

The next morning, we had breakfast and took a short bus ride to the Focal factory. The factory is located in the beautiful town of Saint-Étienne. We started the tour by meeting Pierre Pérard. Pierre was our factory liaison for the next two days. I was captivated

by Pierre’s passion for speaker manufacturing and the Focal culture.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the history of Focal. After a brief review of Focal, its history and culture, we moved on to the factory tour. k

First Impressions Before I tell you about the actual factory experience, I wanted to share what I thought it was going to look like. Up to this point, I had never been to any speaker manufacturing facility.

My exposure was limited to a few pictures I have seen of workers building speakers in the JL Audio literature. So, my thoughts were that we would be

The first station we arrived at, there was a gentleman (not in a lab coat!) who was stretching a square of yellow Kevlar over a metal form. The form was the shape that creates the K2 Power woofer cone. A combination of pressure and heat are used to bond the Kevlar to a foam form (we later saw the foam forming process). The back also received a layer of material to seal the foam. This system is called the K2 Power sandwich cone. We were able to hold one of the completed cones. I was really surprised by not only how light it was, but also how incredibly stiff it was, as well. The cone is made from squares of material, and overlapping the corners were the three different materials that were not bonded together. Each layer, by itself, seemed weak and fragile. But the combination of the three bonded together created quite a structure.

The first station we arrived at, there was a gentleman (not in a lab coat!) who was stretching a square of yellow Kevlar over a metal form. The form was the shape that creates the K2 Power woofer cone. A combination of pressure and heat are used to bond the Kevlar to a foam form (we later saw the foam forming process). The back also received a layer of material to seal the foam. This system is called the K2 Power sandwich cone. We were able to hold one of the completed cones. I was really surprised by not only how light it was, but also how incredibly stiff it was, as well. The cone is made from squares of material, and overlapping the corners were the three different materials that were not bonded together.

Each layer, by itself, seemed weak and fragile. But the combination of the three bonded together created quite a

touring hundreds and hundreds of feet of conveyor belts that paused briefly at times for machines to complete their tasks on the belted product. I expected to see a few lab-coated individuals with clipboards walking around, making sure the machines were in proper order. What I found, though, was quite different.

We entered the factory to see people.

People either holding speakers, or parts of speakers. As we paused before going

any further we were told that some of the machinery we would see was manufactured by Focal, specifically for a task unique to some stage in the building process. I was unable to take photographs of these proprietary machines. However, I was able to take photographs of many other machines, which I will share for the amusement of those of you who have never been to a speaker manufacturing factory.

A worker begins the process of layering the K2 Power cone.

structure.

From the K2 Power cone station, we moved on to a machine that was creating the Flax cones. Yes, a machine.

The Flax cones are not made by hand. The machine that makes them, however, was. The machine that sandwiches a layer of flax between two layers of glass fiber is a proprietary machine created by the Focal engineers. The resulting cone is unlike any other in our industry.

Because the glass fiber layers are translucent, the flax fibers are visible. And because the flax material is organic, every cone will be just a little bit different.

Flax was chosen because of a number of factors. The two that stood out to me most were its

me-mag.com   49

 tech today lightness and rigidity when combined with the glass fibers.

Remember the foam forming I mentioned when talking about the K2 Power cones? That is what we got to see next! Focal has a proprietary foam that comes in various thicknesses for different cones. We saw some foam up to ¼-inch thick. The foam used on car audio drivers was about 3/16-inches thick. This foam was formed by a machine that uses various stamps and applies heat. The operator of the machine has been doing it for many, many years. If you have seen or owned a set of Focal speakers with a foam core, this guy stamped the foam!

Heart of the Factory

Our next stop was a quick look at a woofer assembly station. Here we watched an employee (still no lab coat, but he was wearing gloves!) attach the woofer cone assembly to the basket. The basket was on a motorized plate that would spin it. This allowed the employee to evenly glue the ledge that the spider and surround would attach to. From what I could tell, he was using some sort of CA glue for the adhesive.

We continued to follow this woofer along its path in the construction process. With the cone assembly mated to the basket, it was time to make the electrical connections. We paused briefly to watch the tinsel leads be soldered to the terminals. The lady doing the soldering was using an interesting solder gun that would self-feed the solder into the joint.

Moving along, we got to see the woofer

50 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

This machine tests the mechanical motion of each woofer.

enter a pneumatic device for checking the alignment of the woofer parts. The machine would push down on the cone of the woofer to make sure it had a free range of motion. I should take a moment to mention quality control. This stop is just one of many, many quality control checks that the speakers go through during the assembly process. Quality control happens at every point of interaction with a human. Each of the stations had the responsibility of making sure the product in their hands was meeting rigid standards. Throughout the factory, we saw bins of speakers that for some reason or another did not meet the standard.

The level of commitment to perfection by every person in the factory was impressive.

Our final stop for this area of the factory was at the last quality control checkpoint. At this station, the employee visually inspects the driver for flaws. The speaker is then hooked up one more time to power so the employee can listen for

any mechanical issues. If a speaker passes these final tests, it is on its way to packaging.

After making our way through a maze of machines and people, we came to another area of the factory.

Here we got to spend some more time with the Flax product. This staIt was common to see discarded parts that failed some tion was where level of QC in trash bins. the cone and voice coil were mated. In between this station coil assembly on a jig and gluing the two and the conveyor belt we previously saw, together. Once that glue joint had set a number of things happened. The outer (with the aid of what seemed to be CA edge of the cone was trimmed. The surglue activator) the cone was removed round had been glued to the cone, and from the jig and the front side of the joint the hole for the voice coil assembly had was glued. I was amazed at the employbeen cut. Assembly at this station conee’s precision and uniformity when sisted of setting up the cone and voice gluing the two together.

The final step before being sold. me-mag.com   51

 tech today

K2 Power speaker kits being boxed up.

Pierre laughing with the winner of the audio system.

People of France

where the speaker is checked after final assembly. Once again we find an This photo, while not the best I have employee giving a visual inspection. Once taken, tells an awesome story. Here the speaker passed the visual inspection, we see Pierre laughing with one of the it was also tested acoustically. A range of employees. She was shy and not very tones were played through the speaker interested in having her photo taken. At to verify that there were no mechanical this time, I do not remember her job, but noises or misalignments. what I do remember is the story about The next station we visited was the her. She is a long-time employee of the packaging station. Here we found an company who recently won a contest. employee hand-packing the K2 Power We were told that every so often the component sets into their boxes. Again, company has a party for the employees.

I was blown away by the human aspect This lady was the most recent winner of this job. As I said before, I expected to of that contest. Her prize? A new car see machines in charge of most stages of audio system for her vehicle. She was the process. Instead I witnessed a caring very excited about it, but reluctant to be employee meticulously packaging the photographed. hand-built speakers in preparation for As we continued to see the path of shipping. And the little “Made in France” the Flax speaker, we came to the station stickers on the boxes? Those are affixed by hand, too!

The final car audio related part of the factory we were shown was the area where the Beryllium tweeters were formed. This was another one of the proprietary machines and I was, unfortunately, unable to take any photographs of A critical listening test before being boxed up. it. It was at this

52 Mobile Electronics  July 2017

station, though, that my envisioned labcoated spacesuit type employees could be found. Beryllium is apparently not very good for you. The employees working with it had to be in safety suits and also wear respiratory equipment. They were very secretive about how the tweeter domes were formed. From what I saw, it looked to be some combination of heat and stamping. For all I know, though, there could have been alien workers from another planet in that machine working their outer-space magic! Beryllium is a hallmark material for the Focal tweeters. It offers unmatched strength, very low weight, and rigidity. The down side to this material is the cost. Beryllium, we were told, is 80 times more expensive than gold.

That concluded the factory tour for the day. The remainder of the time at the factory was spent listening. Our hosts had set up three different listening stations for our groups to rotate through.

The stations featured the Grande Utopia speakers, a studio environment with the SM9 studio monitors, and a station featuring five different employee cars with different levels of equipment.

Even the stickers are hand applied!

Fresh Demos

Nalaka enjoying sonic nirvana.

The first station my group went to was the listening room for the Grande Utopia speakers. This room was purpose-built to provide the most revealing environment for the speakers. The demo started like many other residential speaker demos I have heard. A bit of classical music at a moderate level. I thought the speakers sounded great. Shortly into the demo, the music and volume was ramped up. I was blown away. The dynamics, intensity, articulation and experience were overwhelming. It felt like they had opened up my soul and connected the music directly to it. It is an experience I will never forget.

From the listening room, we moved on to the studio. We learned about the various studio speakers offered by Focal. We then got to experience the reference-standard SM9 studio monitors for ourselves.

Each person got to sit in the recording engineer’s chair and sample the speakers.

The room was set up just like a recording studio booth and the volume control was even via a DAW interface.

The final station was outside. There was a row of five cars for us to listen to. The cars featured speakers from the Auditor, Access, Integration, K2 Power and Ultima lines. While they all sounded great, I think I was most impressed by the Access car. The combination of well-balanced sound, suitable output, good low end extension, and a reasonable price stood out to me. I later learned that a few of the cars had the recently released Focal FSP-8 processor in them, too. Each

to take a moment to personally thank Nalaka and Carrie. It can be a little unnerving (for me at least) to go to a foreign country and basically place your life in the hands of others. I can happily say that during the whole trip, I always felt well cared for. Nalaka and Carrie covered the bases of organization, hospitality, guided tours, hosting, cultural liaisons and more. They made an exciting trip into an awesome experience.

I hope you have enjoyed this look at a speaker manufacturing factory and a bit of insight into how speakers are assembled. I am thankful I had the opportunity to view it firsthand. For someone who has been in love with mobile electronics for over 30 years, it was a real pleasure. Next month, we continue our series of tuning and learning about the automotive acoustical environment. 

one of them sported a very factory-looking installation. Nothing too flashy, with just the right amount of accent to highlight the speakers.

The final station concluded our time at the factory that day. It was an experience I will never forget. Reflecting back, I think about the extreme contrast between what I expected to see and the actual factory.

Instead of lifeless robots, I found humans. Passionate, “. . . a radical departure from caring, enthusiasjust about every other camera on the market.” — Car and Driver tic humans. From Pierre to the shy assembly line woman, everyone seemed invested in their role in the Focal family. I was not surprised to learn that one of the women working on the new headphones project had been employed by DRIVE CAPTURE SHARE the company for 29 With the only Performance data and Like a pro with years. The engaging camera built for every moment in simple mobile and culture they have auto enthusiasts HD precision desktop app created leaves little doubt in my mind that many other DEALERS WANTED employees will be there that long, too.

To learn more visit Waylens.com Before I wrap this up, I wanted

The Ultimate Automotive Camera System

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 installs

Aquatic Rescue SUBMITTED BY KIMBERLY TRAINER, CAR-TUNES, INC., GREENVILLE, MISS.

A customer brought his boat in for a wiring rescue and audio upgrade. The man had just purchased the boat for his son and felt something was off with the sound system. It turned out the boat had severe wiring problems with a mess waiting for the team inside the boat.

The technicians set him up with four Memphis Extreme Audio 6 1/2-inch speakers to match the pair he already had in the interior of the boat and four Kicker marine 6 1/2-inch speakers for the wakeboard tower. Two KICKER marine amps, which were already in place and in good shape, were realigned and mounted, along with securing the battery correctly and using appropriate fusing. 100-percent oxygen-free copper wire was used.

To pay for the job, the man’s son came in with a $500 check from his dad and the rest of the money from his own lawn service. “Situations like that, when people see where it started then pick it up and hear what it sounds like it makes all the difference,” Trainer added.

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Ready for Battle SUBMITTED BY MIKE SCHWITZ, SOUND CONNECTION, INC., BAXTER, MINN.

This 2013 Mustang Convertible was given an audio upgrade of epic proportions to prep it for upcoming IASCA and MECCA sound quality competitions. The entire vehicle was sound deadened front to back to cut down on rattles and road noise.

A Kenwood 9902S receiver was installed using an ADS Maestro dash kit and Maestro interface, allowing factory climate control and gauge functions to be displayed on the Kenwood receiver, including the track pack. Mesa wiring was used throughout the install including power wire, speaker wire, deadener and power distribution. An Audison bit Ten D handles the processing for the entire system with one- and two-seat settings. The Audison DRC MP was custom-mounted next to a boost gauge to allow for easy control of the system. A set of Hertz High Energy coaxials were mounted in the factory read locations and are powered by the Kenwood’s speaker outputs but usually are turned off. Audio Frog GB components were mounted in custom kick panels and custom sail panels.

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Three

Days in

August

If you are a mobile electronics professional, plan your trip now for the only event focused on your industry.

I challenge you to join us this August in Dallas for KnowledgeFest, the only industry event dedicated to the Mobile Electronics Specialist, the installing dealer. This event delivers on our (MEA) mission to educate, inform and empower the industry, and provides you the tools to have the advantage over retailers who continue to follow the same old methods. The three-day event is packed with more than 40 hours of top-notch educational workshops, great networking opportunities, over 50 hours of manufacturer training sessions, and an exhibit floor on which new products and categories are available to discover. Educational workshops and manufacturer trainings will empower you to deliver exceptional customer experiences and grow your business.

First There Was ‘Shift’ This year’s theme for KnowledgeFest is “Accelerate.” It is a call for industry professionals to take their expertise, drive and professionalism to a higher level. The KnowledgeFest program will accelerate as well. The conference’s educational tracks will focus on more advanced topics created to build a more professional industry. The three-class course format introduced last year will be enhanced with a building-block learning approach, as well as a broader view of how the chosen curriculum works within the store structure. Attendees who complete each course will receive wall certificates marking their achievement.

The event has moved to the Dallas Convention Center allowing grow both in attendance and number of exhibitors, including several new exhibitors from growth categories such as power sports, connected car and driver assistance. The expanded exhibit floor gives attendees the opportunity to look at new product and business opportunities.

Learn by Profession The education is comprised of three tracks that focus on each area of expertise. For the installer, there is the Technician and Fabricator track. This track provides a balance of the top techniques for making physical modifications to the vehicle as well technical expertise for key topics like remote start and audio upgrades. The Sales and Marketing track will appeal to owners, managers, sales professionals and those responsible for marketing. You will learn tried-and-true processes taught by retailers who use these techniques effectively in their own businesses.

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Also, for the entrepreneur there is the Owner and Manager track.

This year the focus will be on essential practices that every CEO should live by; topics like a day in the life of a CEO and learning the best way to calculate your true hourly rate. In addition to these business building topics, a special keynote address will help you define what success in your business and life should look like.

Get and Give Peer Advice; Meet the Makers KnowledgeFest provides the best networking opportunity in our industry! Talk one-on-one with people with whom you do business (or should be!) Participate in your choice of 50+ product training sessions to get real insight on product characteristics and selling strategies to make you the expert in your market.

Specialized training for owner/managers, sales professionals and installation techs to keep your business on the cutting edge of profitability.

Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a relative newcomer to mobile electronics, KnowledgeFest has something for you. Learn from the experiences of others in our industry who have dealt with both failure and success. Many social activities after hours add fun to the mix.

The Wrap-Up and the Awards To finish off this year’s education, our first-ever Mobile Electronics Experience will provide an executive summary of the entire event with a clear set of actions to implement your plan to accelerate your business upon your return. And of course, the Mobile Electronics Industry Awards presented by Sony will honor retailers and technicians who have taken these very same lessons to heart and utilize them daily to be the best examples for our industry.

Taking part in KnowledgeFest will help you accelerate your business into the next level of performance. Registration for KnowledgeFest 2017 is open to all mobile electronics retail industry professionals and technicians, and attendees will be able to select and reserve space in education courses in the coming weeks.

See you in Dallas,

VOXX is delivering more choices in device connectivity, more capability to enhance entertainment and more value than ever before. Our NEW Overhead and Headrest systems incorporate certified HDMI/MHL inputs, giving the user direct connection to any HDMI/MHL enabled device: smart phones, tablets, even Smart-TV devices such as Roku, Chromecast and Amazon FireTV Smart Sticks. VOXX Mobile Video products make your entertainment possibilities endless, delivering high-definition content and the best quality in sound. VOXX Mobile Video Systems offer the latest technology enhancements, giving users optimized features and functionality that fits into a more convenient lifestyle.

“Tops and Trends has had great success with Voxx mobile video products. Car Dealerships may tell you the mobile video category is stagnant due to handheld mobile devices, however we disagree. Mobile video preload programs work when sales staff are properly educated, vehicles properly displayed and customers encouraged to view a demonstration. We find consumers are excited about SmartTV and web streaming functionality that allows for expanded in vehicle viewing options that were previously unavailable. The relatively low increase in monthly payment makes this an easy up sell.”

- Joey Johnson

TO BECOME A DEALER VISIT:

www.voxxelectronics.com/become-dealer/ ©2017 VOXX Electronics Corporation

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