Mobile Electronics Magazine August 2018 by Mobile Electronics

August 2018

me-mag.com

2018 Industry Awards Commemorative Issue #2

PLUS: Facebook Over Phone: Is It Your Official Communications Tool? – page 6 Winning Over Whine: How to Sniff Out Grounding Issues – page 46

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Volume 36 // Issue 8

Ad Index

40 FEATURED STORIES 18// Industry Awards: Meet the Top 12 Retailers, Installers and Top 5 Sales Pros Those who’ve risen to the top of the industry awards this year all have a few things in common. Each of them acknowledge their mistakes, examines areas in which they can improve and have made networking an important part of their professional lives. 40// Strategy & Tactics, Peer Series: The Five Steps to Success Chris Cope of Certified Autosound and Security in British Columbia offers his advice on how businesses can continue to evolve by implementing five specific strategies. Cope discusses defining the customer, ensuring the business’s structure is solid, implementing a brand that will be supported by clients, and more. 46// Tech Today: Check Your Ground What might cause alternator whine after an install is completed? David MacKinnon discusses how to check ground connection resistance, as well as aspects of modern vehicle manufacturing that technicians should take into consideration while planning an installation.

Accele Electronics....................................... p. 2 & 3 Alpine Electronics.................................................p. 5 Arc Audio............................................................... p. 44 AudioControl....................................................... p. 43 Audison....................................................................p. 17 Cadence................................................................. p.49 DD Audio.................................................................p. 31 Directed..................................................................p. 57 Escort......................................................................p. 33 Firstech: Nüstart................................................p. 59 Harman: JBL.........................................................p. 23 Hybrid Audio Technologies...........................p. 57 JL Audio....................................................................p. 11 K40 Electronics.....................................................p. 9 Kenwood...................................................................p. 7 Kicker.......................................................................p. 25 Metra Electronics: Axxess............................p. 27 Oncore.................................................................... p. 49 Orca: Focal / Mosconi / Illusion...................p. 13 Pioneer...................................................................p. 39 Race Sport.............................................................p. 12 Rockford Fosgate..............................................p. 55 Scosche................................................................. p. 45 SiriusXM.................................................................p. 42 Sony.........................................................................p. 29 SounDigital...........................................................p. 35 VAIS Technology.................................................p. 16 Voxx........................................................................ p. 60 Waylens..................................................................p. 37

Contents

On the Cover

COVER DESIGN: ANA RAMIREZ This issue marks the second out of three commemorative issues dedicated to this year’s industry awards. On the cover, we recognize the perseverance of the Top 12 Retailers, Top 12 Installers and Top 5 Sales Professionals who acknowledge that success is not an end-goal, and that growth happens every day as long as industry professionals are always learning, networking and recognizing the need for continuous improvement. We congratulate all of this year’s participants!

4 Mobile Electronics August 2018

54 6 Editor’s Forum 8 Feedback 10 Statistics 12 Helpful Stuff 54 Installs 58 From the President

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editor’s forum

Is Facebook Your FaceBiz?

If you use the social media platform to make money, keep in mind it reveals more than you might want. As I write this, I’m trying to remember how I lived without email. As the marketing manager at Code Alarm and later editor of Mobile Electronics magazine, I updated my voicemail message every day with the date so callers would know I was in the office. And I actually checked my voicemail because people actually left messages. Everyone had a “While You Were Out” notepad and little pink papers floated from desk to desk. We checked the postal mail because everything important came through the mail. And if you wanted fast communication, fax was the way to go. When email finally did arrive, it was more of a novelty than a necessity. You were cool if you had an email address, but few of your friends or co-workers did, so it wasn’t always used. The forces-that-be fought against it, but ultimately, the faster, less-expensive, more flexible medium won out. I remember the day the switch flipped and email went from optional to official means of communication. If you’re still wet behind the ears, this is ancient history to you. Today’s version of this is email versus social media. I find that, when I need an answer from someone and I send an email, I have no control over when they see it, if it will get read or when they might respond. Today, calling someone is almost considered rude. (Don’t believe me? Try calling your kid’s cell phone versus texting. See which one gets a response.) So I open up Facebook and send a direct message. I can see when they are online and know when they are responding. And I get my answer immediately. Are we in for another switch-flipping? Will Facebook officially surpass email for business? Depending on how you use it, you may answer that it already has. But there are some drawbacks to depending on social media as the No. 1 business option. 1. Social media was designed to be personal. Email was designed for business and migrated to personal use. Social media was intended for people to become closer to other people, and only later were adjustments made to accommodate business. But its roots sill lie in person-to-person connections. In Facebook, you must have a personal account in order to do anything. The platform’s algorithms are more favorable to sharing pictures of your pets with friends than showing your latest product to followers from a business page. 2. Social media etiquette for business is still undefined. Say you start a business relationship with a person at a

6 Mobile Electronics August 2018

company. Through Facebook magic, you appear on that person’s Suggested Friends list, and they send you a friend request. Do you accept and let this stranger into your personal social fiefdom? Or do you decline and risk the business relationship? What’s more, when business is concluded, do you un-friend the person or do they hang in your friends list as past-relationship residue? 3. Business or personal: you can’t (or shouldn’t) do both. If you use Facebook for business, you have to be careful what you post. Regardless of how careful you are in separating your business persona from your personal one, remember Facebook was designed to bring people together, so your personal stuff WILL come out. If you want to appear as the proactive thought leader of your generation, but post pics of your latest inebriated misadventure … well, a picture is worth a thousand words as they say. Looking for a job? Don’t think for a second that your Facebook profile won’t be part of the evaluation process. 4. Even if you’re careful, your friends might not be. Your friends list on Facebook says a lot about you. If those who post most on your feed are highly politicized, say-what-they-feel-anddamn-everyone-else types, it’s not hard to imagine that you have similar leanings. Or if you have a friend who loves tagging you in compromising photos—even if you aren’t in them—that’s a problem as well.

“Regardless of how careful you are in separating your business persona from your personal one, remember Facebook was designed to bring people together, so your personal stuff WILL come out.” I’ve come to the conclusion that Facebook has its place in business, but it will never be the main place. Like most, my personal friends mix with my business contacts. I make the decision to contact a person over Facebook if I know them well enough. And I try to keep my Facebook profile clean so that friends and clients see a person they like. If I want personal, I send a text or (gasp!) pick up the phone. And yes, I still have a fax number. If you want to send me one, my number is (213) 297-7052 … just for fun.

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 feedback

DEVELOP AS A LEADER

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

EDITORIAL Solomon Daniels 978.645.6463 • solomond@mobile-electronics.com Creative Layout and Design: Ana Ramirez Contributing Editors: Jamie Sorcher, Joey Knapp, Laura Kemmerer and Rosa Sophia.

Published by TM

Balancing all the needs of a business and its employees can be challenging. Andrew Woodward underscored the importance of funding one’s own leadership development, while George Smith stated that having a supportive network to rely upon is very helpful. “Always show that you care in all that you do. It doesn’t go unnoticed. Sometimes it may take some time for a client to realize, ‘wow, they did that for me,’ and return over and over with an open wallet.” Jon Lackey, Blvd Customs of Lakeland, Lakeland, Fla. “If you’re the owner of your company, it’s your job to ensure your customers are happy, your employees are happy, and that your company can make enough money to stay in business. This can be an extremely difficult thing to balance and many owners fail at one of these items. My weakness is in my ability to balance the profitability and satisfaction of my employees. Customers always come first in my book, so naturally the other two pillars of the company fight for second place. Admitting to this fault has allowed me to put profits aside for the short term and personally fund my own development in being a positive leader who will then have the tools to drive our company to even greater heights.” Andrew Woodward, Elevated Audio, Lakewood, Colo. “In business, it’s a learning curve. Some good, some bad, but having business connections where you can pick up the phone and ask questions and [share] ideas with another is so helpful. The networking helps so much.” George Smith, Mobileworks / Tintworks, Santa Maria, Calif. “I would highly recommend getting out to events with your business. The thing I would have done differently is having a mobile credit card machine so we could have taken deposits on-site.” Jeremy Czech, Muntz Audio Video, Green Bay, Wis.

8 Mobile Electronics August 2018

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 Tony Frangiosa, Chairman of the Board, MEA 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: Oct. 1, 2017. 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: October 2017. 6. a) Total no. copies (net press run) Average: 10,237 Single Issue; 12,826. b) Paid/Requested mail subscriptions Average: 6,039, Single Issue: 7,346. c) Paid sales through dealers, etc.; Average: 0. Single issue; d) Requested distributed by other classes of mail: Average: 435, Single issue: 520. Total paid and/or requested circulation; Average 6039. Single issue: 6024. e) Non-requested distribution by mail; Average: 3,860 Single issue: 4,973. Free distribution through other classes of mail: Average: 0, Single issue: 0. f) Non-requested distribution outside the mail; Average: 267. Single issue: 750. g) Total non-requested distribution; Average 3860, Single issue: 4,973. h) Total distribution; Average: 9,899. Single issue: 12,319. i) Copies not distributed; h1) Office use, leftovers; Average: 338. Single Issue; 507 j) Total; Average: 10,237. 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

We don’t know what it costs you to lease your space. We don’t know how much you pay your employees. We don’t know what you spend on advertising. We don’t know what your taxes and insurance are or how much your utility bills run. But what we do know is the only way you make money is to sell high margin, installed products that turn quickly and don’t come back with warranty issues. Sell the #1 radar brand preferred by independent retailers.

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Just a Shot Away: Peace, Love, and Tragedy with the Rolling Stones at Altamont BY SAUL AUSTERLITZ

If you love music festivals and soundoffs, then travel back in time 49 years ago to the Woodstock Music & Art Fair. Just a few months later was the Altamont Speedway Free Festival which is also legendary, but for different reasons. Just A Shot Away tells the story of “Woodstock West,” where the Rolling Stones hoped to conclude their 1969 American tour with an assist from the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and 300,000 fans. Instead, it was one mishap after another and it didn’t help that Hells Angels handled security. Shortly after the Rolling Stones went on, an 18-year-old was stabbed by the Angels in front of the stage. The show, along with the love and peace generated by Woodstock, came to a screeching halt. Using numerous interviews, Austerlitz shows that you can’t understand the 1960s or rock and roll if you don’t first understand Altamont.

12 Mobile Electronics August 2018

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With everyone communicating constantly, it’s a regular thing to get notifications all the time on your phone. When a text comes in, your first instinct is to look at it. Not a problem, unless you’re driving. If you have an iOS 11 phone, your iPhone will automatically go into Do Not Disturb mode while driving. So do Google’s Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones. With this app, you

can do the same. Flip on Do Not Disturb for any Android smartphone, saving you the time and hassle of doing it manually each time you get in the car. The app detects when you’re in a moving vehicle and toggles Do Not Disturb, silencing alerts for the rest of your ride. (You can set up exceptions so you don’t miss a critical call.) When you get out of the vehicle, regular operation is restored. Detection stops either by walking a short distance away from the car, or remaining parked for more than 15 minutes.

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Get ready for the new frontier in music streaming: IGTV is the latest offering from Instagram. It’s specifically designed for how you use your phone so that videos are full-screen and vertical. Unlike the IG Story feature, videos can be longer than a minute. In fact, they can be as long as an hour. In IGTV, the creators are

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Sometimes you have a project that requires additional manpower, but just for the short-term. Finding help can be a huge time drain if you don’t have the right resources. Upwork lets you find freelance talent by submitting details about your

the channels, so just follow a creator and their IGTV channel will show up for you to watch. Anyone can be a creator. You can upload your own IGTV videos in the app or on the web to start your own channel. It could be a great way to share event footage from regional shows or an install in the making.

project. Upwork then searches for and targets the right person for the job and sends you a short list of top options. Candidates submit bids and you can even schedule an online chat to discuss details. When you find a freelancer you like, click “Hire” and the job begins. There are built-in collaboration features and an easy payment system. Upwork makes it simple and cost-effective to find freelance help.

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 retail news

WORDS BY LAURA KEMMERER

Sound Wave Customs Builds System in Homeless Mobile Outreach Vehicle Sometimes simply giving back to the community is the best thing to do. For Virginia Beach-based Sound Wave Customs, this meant volunteering to build a custom box truck for 99 for the 1, a mobile homeless outreach nonprofit. The build consisted of a custom-built audio system for these clients to enjoy while being cared for, out of weather conditions. Ethan Blau of Sound Wave Customs met the man who manages the nonprofit when he came in one day looking for product, with plans to install it himself. Blau offered to do the work. Each truck in the fleet is equipped with amenities that include a stand-up shower, a water tank, a generator and a snack station. The trucks also have other items, such as clothing, available for the homeless. Sony donated the hardware for the sound system, while Sound Wave Customs volunteered to do the build, according to Blau.

14 Mobile Electronics August 2018

“We’re using all Sony. We did the Sony high-powered single-DIN radio, and we did two pairs of 6-by-9s, and 6-by-9 boxes and mounted them to the front inside and rear inside. They’re bread trucks, basically, so you can’t really hide wires much in there. “We did a Sony single 12-inch sub in the back for low-frequency response, and we’re going to do some LED interior lighting.” Parts used in the build include: a Sony-MEX-GS820BT CD Receiver; two pairs of Sony XS-R6946 6-by-9-inch speakers in Atrends 6-by-9-inch enclosures mounted to the truck, front and rear; a Sony XS-GSW121 12-inch subwoofer; and Heise CREE LED white accent lights for interior lighting. The team dubbed the vehicle the “Duck Truck,” as it has a rubber ducky painted on it, Blau noted. The founder of 99 for the 1 is reportedly the only one doing this in the seven cities region, which includes

Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. Blau was inspired to get involved in realizing music could mean more for those without. “The key for us is that these less fortunate people probably haven’t heard their favorite songs in a long time,” Blau said. “We take it for granted because it’s at our fingertips, but for someone like that, they don’t have it. “While they’re taking a shower or getting a trim or getting a snack or change of clothes, they get to blast their favorite song. With technology, we can get whatever song—whatever genre—and play a song and artist through the systems we’re putting in these trucks.” As of writing, the Duck Truck is 90 percent complete. “We just have to finish up the LED lights. The shower in this one needs to be installed. They will put a 55-gallon water tank in there and a water heater.”

Who’s Who

Faces in the Industry Alan Roath

Blvd Customs of Lakeland Contemporizes Shop Exterior KnowledgeFest continues to be an educational and networking asset for those in the industry. Jon Lackey, owner of Blvd Customs of Lakeland, has been working his way down the list—a bit of knowledge from KnowledgeFest—of things to update on his shop, and most recently, he chose to update the appearance of the shop. “Normally I start from the outside in, but the inside had already been done, so I had to start from the inside out,” Lackey said. Most recently, the shop had the chance to get the building painted. Previously, interior upgrades took around three years. Taking care of the shop’s exterior has also extended to filling in parts of the parking lot where asphalt has fallen away, and Lackey plans on recoating the whole thing once that’s finished. Lackey remains focused on reinvesting what money he can back into the shop. Previous adjustments to the shop included turning a two-story stock room into a waiting room for customers. “Customers are first; they’re the most important.”

SoundsGood Auto Hires Out-ofCountry Talent Finding skilled labor has become increasingly difficult for shops, and shop owners may need to look beyond their local pool in order to attract talent. Keith McCumber, owner of Coquitlam, British Columbia-based SoundsGood Auto, recently hired from outside of Canada to fill out the shop’s work force. McCumber qualified two candidates who fit what the shop needed: one new team member is from Brazil, and has been in the industry for roughly four years. The other team member is from Malaysia, and has been in the industry for 15 years. “It costs enough. $1,000 [CAD] goes to the government so they can vet the person, and there’s a bunch of paperwork to go through, but in Canada it’s actually pretty simple,” McCumber said. Before he could get to that step, however, McCumber had to advertise the positions to potential parties in Canada. In other countries, like Malaysia, the car audio industry is booming, so McCumber thought it prudent to turn to these potential resources, as labor in both Canada and the United States is somewhat tapped out. “One of the perks as an owner is that I get to travel a lot. So when I travel, I check out car stereo shops around the world, and some countries are killing it while [others aren’t].”

Store: Cartronics City: Miami, Florida Position: Owner Years of Industry Experience: 36 Hobbies: Fishing and spending time with family. What you’re really good at: System design.

Moe Sabourin Store: Soundcrafters City: South Daytona, Florida Position: General Manager Years of Industry Experience: 40 Hobbies: Golf, shooting pool.

Andrew Woodward Store: Elevated Audio City: Lakewood, Colorado Position: CEO Years of Industry Experience: 13 Hobbies: Storm chasing and aviation. What you’re really good at: Building financial projection spreadsheets.

facebook.com/MobileElectronics 15

 retail news

Mobileworks Uses New Tactics for Growth Santa Maria, California-based Mobileworks has seen significant growth in the past year—somewhere in the vein of being within six digits of last year’s earnings, and it is only July as of this writing. The trick has been “knowing your numbers,” according to shop owner George Smith. One of the significant steps toward seeing this kind of return was going to KnowledgeFest and listening in about analytics, Smith noted. Knowing how your customers are getting to you—through Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.—remains imperative. Smith also moved to working in the shop fulltime, rather than going back and forth to the garage. He has also made a concerted effort to increase the shop’s efficiency, which involved “cutting dead weight” from the business. Part of the plan for increasing efficiency included Chris Labonte moving to California from Canada. Labonte himself specializes in industry efficiency. “December is when we noticed we really have a problem here,” Smith said.

16 Mobile Electronics August 2018

Muntz Audio & Video Features Motorcycle Work at Local Car Show To attract the kind of business you want, sometimes getting out in the field and involved with local shows is the ticket. Jeremy Czech, owner of Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Muntz Audio & Video, said that the shop was recently invited to participate in Motorama, a local mobile electronics event. “We had two [motorcycles] there with Rockford Fosgate audio systems,” Czech said. “We had people around constantly throughout the weekend. It was just a huge hit.” For the Harleys they had onsite, “we had the Rockford Fosgate Element-Ready products,” which the shop has had “huge success” with. “We’ve probably done around 50 bikes since January. Our shop kind of transformed from a car audio shop to what looks like a Harley dealership now.” Since Motorama, the shop saw an immediate uptick in motorcycle business, but over the longer term it’s been a steady trickle, according to Czech. “The approximate number of bikes we’ve done from the show is kind of unknown, but

[I’d guess] we picked up 12 to 18 because of that show.” That estimate does not include the business attracted from car audio, either. The shop also showed off audio systems installed in classic cars. During the Motorama, the shop did use the Rockford Fosgate sound lab, but, according to Czech, it was so loud that it irritated some attendees. “The guys right across the road from us, we sent them pizza the following week, and they became customers of ours. They recently purchased a big stereo system from us for one of their hotrods, so it turned out to be a positive.” Czech has already committed to doing the same event next year. “[Motorama] was just wonderful for us. Most people came straight to us, just from the noise from the sound lab. […] We just attracted a lot of attention.”

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Ata Ehdaivand. “We overcame it in manufacturing. It works for just by leaning out on inventory and about everything, and it’s where being prepared for when something a lot of our improvements come came. We weren’t prepared for a from.” complete onslaught, but we didn’t have $30,000 dollars worth of “We changed the layout of the product on the shelf, we had $15 sales floor to be much more invitinstead,” ing. We are chasing the high-end clients and we need to look the “We’re up 25 percent revenue this part,” Cope explained. “The main year over last year,” Pate said. reason we have been successful in the change stems back to “As a business owner, and as a customer service. Those high-end leader, seeing all the talent under clients want the same experithis roof,” Layton said, “the chal- ence as when they bought their lenge is, how can I put the right $200,000-plus car, and we give specialist in front of the right that to them.” opportunity at the right time?” Those who’ve risen to the top of “This year we’re ready to launch a the industry awards this year all “We’ve overcome it just by steadily company-wide vinyl wrap program,” have things adding staffaasfew the need was in common. said product manager John Haynes. Each them their required, andofnot gettingacknowledges too far “We’re just about to launch that mistakes, which ahead of ourselvesexamines or adding tooareas with ain third party company. There’s can improve and have manythey employees at once,” Lindsalwaysmade the challenge of, how do we ley said. networking “We’ve beenan successful important at expand?” part of that.their professional lives. “Fulfilling a need beyond what ben“Continuous Improvement,” efits us as a store serves as a which is based on concepts cregood example to the rest of the Mobile Electronics August 2018 ated 18by the Toyota Production industry.” Jc Audio

way of seeing this industry has really evolve. Something new could com changed how our procedures flow.” tomorrow and I’ll have to change Mccumber again.” “Maintaining a positive attitude is “Making sure the policies are in important first and foremost.” Fra place as far as the install bay, how “I have a new facility. I have a gro techs work on cars, vehicle check-in,” of guys, one guy who works with m said owner Charles Brazil, listing a now, and another guy who has his few. own shop in a different city. We ar all teaming up,” Weir said. “No experience is a bad experience. “When I have guys working for me The worse the experience, the more I always expect things to be done you learn from it.” Ethan Blau quickly—not as fast as I do them “We do a lot of Volkswagen and Audi, because I have a lot more experie and we have tools to recode comthan the guys I hire, usually,” he s puters to do what we need. If we are doing a full audio system, we can “I don’t have it figured out yet, bu recode the radio down to the basic there is progress every day, learnfour channels and we don’t have ing new things from the managem to deal with the factory amplifier,” side of it,” Tyler Neault . Murley said. “I’ve got some big goals to hit “Changing my ways and trying to within this industry, and this was become better has been the biggest big accomplishment for me.” The challenge,” he said. “I think you don’t award creates more of a push to totally overcome this [always better- strive toward being the best, May ing yourself] because the industry is added. “There’s always room for constantly evolving. You have to con- improvement.” stantly evolve, and if you plateau, facebook.com/MobileElectronics 19 you’re falling behind. I always try to “I will be completing my twentieth

WORDS BY ROSA SOPHIA

hile each retailer and installer has their own methods for attaining success, a common theme involves focusing on a particular skillset and narrowing down to a specific type of customer. Charles

Brazil of First Coast Auto Creations, which was named a Top 12 Retailer for this year, stated that one of the key components that led to the store’s success was narrowing down the type of work they do. “When I opened, I wanted to take everything,” he said. “That was the main thing—focusing on what we

do the most of, which is more project-based, bigger bills, instead of trying to take every customer that comes in the door.” The 2018 Top 12 Retailers and Installers, and the Top 5 Sales Professionals, each shared their thoughts on the awards process and how they continue to excel within the industry.

Top 12 Retailers Share How They Continue Improving Daily Absolute Electronix Rockville, Md. Last year was slow for Absolute Electronix, according to owner Ata Ehdaivand. “We overcame it by leaning out on inventory and being prepared for when something came,” he said. In the last four months, the business has had more success than they did the year before, Ehdaivand added. “To me, the most important part of my business is my people. Instead of cutting their hours, when I talk about going lean, we went lean with product not with people. That’s more important.” Now, they’re too busy, he said, adding that rising in the industry has a lot to do with offering feedback and building a network. “I would attribute that to the Mobile Electronics Syndicate on Facebook,” Ehdaivand said. “Overall, I want us to look more professional as a community. We need to take the industry as seriously as the customers take it.”

Mobile Toys, College Station, Texas Christerfer Pate, owner of Mobile Toys, said the business is up 25 percent in revenue this year over last year. The retail side has been strong, Pate added, but finding people who are knowledgeable enough to take care of the production side of the business has been difficult. “We approach our business in a production manner, more so this year than any other year. I do 24 pickups a week,” Pate said. “You see that many of the same vehicle, you want to have pre-designed systems. There’s still the custom side of things, but ultimately, we see a lot of the same vehicles.” Pate said online presence has been key to attaining success in the industry. “We changed up advertising, got rid of things that weren’t providing results, stayed with what does provide results, and increased our social media presence,” he explained. “We built a bigger following on Instagram and YouTube and targeted the market nationwide as opposed to just within our territory.” Pate’s hope for the industry is that other retailers see how much things are changing and that it will never be the same. “The sooner we embrace the way it is, the better. The companies that can change and adapt and those that can diversify are going to be the companies that will grow and thrive.” As an industry, he added, it’s a much smarter and more diverse field than it was. “There’s a lot of engineering in new vehicles. You have to be smart, educated, train and approach your business differently than before. You have to look at things outside the box.”

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Sound FX, Lewes, Del. At Sound FX, owner Brian Layton’s focus has been integrating numerous facets of the business with social media to create a powerhouse of efforts that continue to keep Sound FX top of mind. Their efforts have made them a nationally recognized business. Most recently they had a client from Huntington Beach, Calif., who picked up a 2018 Tesla

in Maryland and drove it to Sound FX to have Matt Schaeffer give the vehicle an audio upgrade. “As a business owner, and as a leader, seeing all the talent under this roof,” Layton said, “the challenge is, how can I put the right specialist in front of the right opportunity at the right time?” Layton feels that Sound FX’s business model—inspired by car

dealerships—helped contribute to being named among the Top 12. “I have a dedicated service manager. We do a thorough check–in when the vehicle is dropped off,” he said, adding that they make sure that the vehicle leaves in either the same condition it arrived in, or better. The service philosophy is to make it easy for the customer to do business with Sound FX, Layton said. He also wrote a nearly 6,000-word sales manifesto that he shared with colleagues via the Mobile Electronics Syndicate Facebook group. “If it helped one business owner, or if it helped 30, that was my ultimate goal—to provide something that works for me, and to ultimately get feedback.”

Titan Motoring, Nashville, Tenn. Titan Motoring’s biggest challenge, according to owner Philip Lindsley, has been balancing the line between overhead and maintaining the workload. “We’ve overcome it just by steadily adding staff as the need was required, and not getting too far ahead of ourselves or adding too many employees at once,” Lindsley said. “We’ve been successful at that.” Last year was Lindsley’s first time attending KnowledgeFest as an owner. “It helped me start looking at the big picture,” he said, adding that a combination of this, and meeting other owners, helped his business “step things up,” including when it came to procedures, sales and work orders. “Everything has evolved. That evolution came from classes I have taken at KnowledgeFest, connecting with other owners, seeing other stores and more. It only happened because of KnowledgeFest.” Titan Motoring rose up from almost nothing, Lindsley said, beginning at working for $90 to $100 per week, to finally arriving at where the business is today. “We started with a van, a cell phone and some tools,” he said. “Growing to 19 employees was a combination of hard work and the right people. That’s been a big one for me. That really helped us step our game up and brought this perspective from other high-end shops and integrated it to the next level.” Now, Titan Motoring has been open for eight years. “We did 2.5 million last year, and we’re on target to do 3.5 million this year,” Lindsley said. “It’s been a little overwhelming at times, but those are all good problems—trying to figure out how you’re going to get all this work done. That’s a problem you want to have.”

Showtime Audio, Chicago, Ill. Every day, Showtime Audio works on trying to become more productive and more efficient with less staff, according to owner Jerry Villa. The business has implemented a method called “continuous improvement,” which is based on concepts created by the Toyota Production System, Villa said. “It’s something that was invented by Toyota in manufacturing. It works for just about everything, and it’s where a lot of our improvements come from.” Villa said there are a couple of books on the topic, but the basic focus is becoming as efficient as possible. “In all their processes, they try to eliminate down to one tenth of a second,” he explained. “They are looking for every tenth of a second that facebook.com/MobileElectronics 21

they can use to improve processes. It’s pretty intense. We have done a version of that. We go through all our processes and try to find ways to make it more efficient.” With a love for what Showtime Audio provides, including a positive customer experience, the business tries its best to demonstrate how a business can work to continuously improve itself. “We try to be the best we can be and hopefully other retailers see that and want to improve themselves, too,” Villa said. “It changed things for me,” he added, referring to the continuous improvement method. “We have been doing it for a little while longer than a year, but it has definitely helped. It helped a lot. We are doing a lot more work with a lot less guys,” Villa said. Because it is difficult to find qualified employees, this method can be a big help when it comes to achieving more with less people. “We try to be better than any other automotive experience our customers have anywhere else. Even down to a high-end car dealer.”

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Certified Autosound Maple Ridge, BC As a growing business with four locations, Certified Autosound’s biggest challenge recently involved completing their newest store in Langley and defining their target customer. “We worked day and night to develop our culture both in that store and in our company in general,” said Chris Cope of Certified Autosound. Cope and his business partner, Pat Lee, own Certified together. “First, we had the new store adopt our policies and procedures and we also came up with new ways to make sure the company ran cohesively. To define the customer base, first we had to do a massive facelift with the showroom including the Certified Lounge, as we call it.” With the addition of new demo boards, the entire area was painted. “We changed the layout of the sales floor to be much more inviting. We are chasing the high-end clients and we need to look the part,” Cope explained. Cope said he felt their success is a direct result of their store culture, echoing other businesses who have found the same key to continued improvement. The business’s profits are way up this year, he added, and so is the amount of the average ticket. “I’ve always said that I want to be one of the leaders in changing our industry’s dirty reputation by completely changing how a car audio shop runs and the image we portray,” Cope said. “We’ve done that. Now I want to help other people with doing the same, and we have had tons of other shops reach out to us. We try to help every single one.”

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Al & Ed’s Autosound, Los Angeles, Calif. With 64 years in business, and 15 franchise locations, Al & Ed’s is continuously innovating. “There’s always the challenge of, how do we expand?” Mobile electronics is shrinking by numbers each year, Haynes said, but Al & Ed’s Autosound must continue to grow. Haynes stated that what makes the business unique is that it’s comprised of franchised locations, and their business model allows individual store owners to be creative in what they enjoy doing and how they develop their customer base. “But we provide them with a structure, an operational box to exist in, and that makes it easier for them to run and operate their business,” Haynes explained. The company has a history of getting into certain

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categories prior to other businesses, he said. “Everyone is abuzz about safety, but we have been doing blind spot detection and safety before anyone else was really doing it. We have a long history of firsts. Haynes noted that while the industry shows a small decline each year, in recent years, Al & Ed’s shows an increase in business. “Over time, we’ve been able to only have top-tier brands. We have an amazing reputation for our installation skills. We don’t have warranty issues,” Haynes said. “This is a transformation in the company. Twenty years ago, it was a chain-wide operation, very mainstream, such as, ‘Here’s a limited selection of what we do or don’t do.’ But with franchising, individual business owners are more willing to take risks. They’ll make something happen. They’ll help the customer build their dreams.”

JC Audio, Jackson, Tenn. JC Audio is about 25 to 30 percent finished with a total remodel, according to owner Jeff Cantrell. Along with working on the remodel, which they anticipate finishing by January or February, they’ve also hired someone new from out of state to help ease their staffing shortage. “We’re going to get into a busy season and we have several events coming up,” Cantrell said. As an active member of the mobile electronics community, JC Audio is involved in teaching at KnowledgeFest, and they’ve also hosted their own training. “Fulfilling a need beyond what benefits us as a store serves as a good

example to the rest of the industry.” Even if someone is new to the industry, Cantrell said, they still have something to give. “Giving back to the industry and teaching other people to be profitable is something we’ve done well,” he added. “The industry has been good to me through the past 24 years.” He advised people to be prepared, be prudent and to look forward. “I know there are some situations that are unavoidable. But the norm is that people use any excuse they can to cover up what’s wrong with their business instead of dealing with it,” Cantrell said. “You have to deal with things as they come along. It seems so simple to me, but I have been doing it a long time. Do the right thing, take care of your people, be honest with your customers.” JC Audio has made mistakes, too, Cantrell said, but the important thing is to have self-awareness. “There are things we don’t do right. I’m aware of them, and you just have to choose your battles,” he said. “I try to deal with the most important thing first. That’s different than just ignoring it, instead of fixing what you have control over and not worrying about what you don’t have control over.”

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SoundsGood Auto, Coquitlam, BC To combat staffing difficulties, SoundsGood Auto has already hired from outside the country. According to owner Keith McCumber, they plan to find more qualified people from other countries, “who want to come here to Canada to grow their families and have a life with all the freedoms that are available here.” McCumber has noticed that other countries he’s visited—such as Brazil and Malaysia, where recent hires originated—are doing things very similarly, but on a much different scale. “Looking at how to learn from their way of seeing this industry has really changed how our procedures flow.” “The key components that led us to look at this solution was visiting other countries to see how they took on modifying vehicles. I was super

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impressed with the attention to detail, putting the customers first, protecting the vehicle, ensuring great sound quality through high quality components and installation techniques.” McCumber hopes to provide a good example of what other retailers can accomplish when they think outside the box in terms of looking for eager, qualified staff members.

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First Coast Auto Creations, Jacksonville, Fla. Applying administrative policies and procedures is a big challenge for any retailer, and this is something that First Coast Auto Creations had difficulties with, as well. “Making sure the policies are in place as far as the install bay, how techs work on cars, vehicle check-in,” said owner Charles Brazil, listing a few. “That was the biggest thing. Everything always changes, as far as working on different types of cars goes. Is there a better way to store parts? Or is there a better policy for checking the vehicle in? Who’s responsible for that?” Brazil said. “When something happens, that’s when you make adjustments. As your business grows, your policies change.” Brazil hopes that First Coast can provide a good example of how things should or could be done. “This is a shop that started from nothing,” he said. “We’re trying to hold high industry standards and maintain high quality customer service.”

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Sound Wave Customs Virginia Beach, Va. Ethan Blau, owner of Sound Wave Customs, learned from a mistake he made when two hires who moved from out of town ended up not working out. However, he added, “No experience is a bad experience. The worse the experience, the more you learn from it.” Blau stated that he’s grown a lot from his friendships in the industry, and from KnowledgeFest. “I think making different policies [is important] and growing with the store. This past year, the company has had a lot of growing pains, but not in a bad way,” he said. “When the company reaches a certain level, there are things we have to implement. We have a great team, everyone gets along.” The industry awards push you to do better, Blau added, noting that his team makes it possible for him to take time off if he needs to, such as in the case of a personal emergency. “They handle everything. That’s a blessing, to have a staff that stands together,” he said. “The store has grown a lot. Looking back, I can see the growth, the changes in the showroom, the fab shop, the bay. The employees have gotten raises.” It’s too easy to complain, he added. “If you look at a negative experience,” he said, like the hiring of an employee who doesn’t work out, “that made me grow. I’m glad it happened. Looking back, it was gut-wrenching, but it made me grow. I have to thank that situation for happening. If it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t have learned that.” Blau stated that it’s important to be positive. “Lead by example.”

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Cartunes Inc., Atlanta, Ga. Cartunes Inc. has been around 40 years, according to Richard Grimm, who added that a lot of their experienced employees are getting older, “and we lose those to other industries that might not be as demanding in terms of time and physical effort.” “All we can do is just continue to march. You have to provide an exciting, comfortable place to work and a place where you’ll get paid well if you deliver a high standard of install and sales expertise, whatever your job is,” he added. “All that’s just been made more difficult by the staffing environment.” Cartunes Inc. doesn’t do anything very differently from anyone else, Grimm said, but they’re always looking at how to do things better. “We operate with a mental attitude of never stop improving,” he explained. “We’re always looking at how to be flexible as the market changes and we just try to operate at a high standard. We’ve made a lot of changes over the years. The remodel was the biggest operational change we had recently.” Grimm noted that they want to be a place where people want to come back because they like doing business with them. “We don’t pressure people. We are here to send you away happy,” he said. “People often expect intimidation and high pressure. We’re here to sell you what the right thing is for you to buy, and if you don’t need to spend more, we’re not going to make you spend. We’re basically built on repeat and referral. That’s kept us going.”

Top 12 Installers Discuss How They Continue Honing Their Skills Shaughnessy Murley, Visions Electronics Red Deer, AB Recently, Shaughnessy Murley has been teaching classes at KnowledgeFest, and he stated that he felt it was his biggest area of growth. “I’ve done it twice now in the last year, once in Dallas and then in Long Beach,” he said, adding that he was never a public speaker before. “Getting up in front of people, I would close up, shut down and stumble on my words.” Now, he said, he can take what he knows and share it with others. One year ago, he also retook the MECP exam. “This time, I had to do it on the new information, and it was infinitely harder,” he said. “They revised the guide about a year after I took the exam the first time.” Murley said his shop has invested in the tools of the future. “We do a lot of Volkswagen and Audi, and we have tools to recode computers to do what we need. If we are doing a full audio system, we can recode the radio down to the basic four channels and we don’t have to deal with the factory amplifier,” he said. In the future, Murley hopes to get more involved in advance accident warning and safety equipment. “That’s a market we need to grow into,” he said of his shop. “We do background cameras, but we want to get into more advanced stuff like lane change cameras and blind spot detection.” Murley said he’s been doing this for just over 25 years now. “I don’t know how much longer my body will let me do it,” he added. “Once I’m ready to retire from the bay, training and tech support will be in my future. I’ll be on the back end helping these guys do their day to day jobs a lot more efficiently.”

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David Cruz, Avant-Garde Design Palm City, Fla. Being in Palm City, Fla. is new for David Cruz, who recently moved there to take a position at Avant-Garde Design. For a little while, Cruz didn’t know where his permanent home would be as an installer. “The biggest and scariest transition or challenge was coming to grips with the fact that I’m not working anymore, so where am I going to go?” Cruz added that it’s a blessing that he knows so many people in the industry. “I knew a lot of people in the industry who reached out and helped out because I said, if you need any help, I’m open.” Cruz spent a couple of weeks at Kingpin with Jason Kranitz, and a little over a month at Mobile Toys with Christerfer Pate. Then he got a lead that Avant-Garde was looking for someone, and he made the move from Texas to Florida in December. Cruz now uses an iPad to design—instead of pens and pencils—and shows these designs to his clients. “It makes it a lot better for the customer. The customer sees you’re ahead of the curve,” he said. “Even though there’s no difference to me, on the perspective of someone who is paying $50- $60,000 for an interior, I can see how they would find more value in that.” When it comes to setting a positive example for others in the industry, Cruz stated that it’s important to be humble. When someone is engaged, and they want to learn, it’s okay that they’re starting from the bottom, he added. “I was cleaning a floor at a shop, installing speakers, and little by little, I picked up on stuff. I think a lot of people get put down or feel they’re not worth it. To me, we all started somewhere,” he said. “There’s no such thing as a perfect workplace.” Cruz stated that he feels everyone can achieve in their careers. “Everyone can do that. It takes mentality and patience,” he said.

T.J. Carlson, Musicar Northwest Portland, Ore. This past year involved a change of workplaces for T.J. Carlson, too. “I changed locations from Kingpin Car Audio to Musicar Northwest,” he said. “This last year has been a lot of learning and adjusting to different ways of doing things and different techniques to accomplish different goals.” At Musicar Northwest, the focus is making everything look as OEM as possible, he added. “There was a certain point where I felt like I had a pretty good grasp of how factory systems worked and how audio signals were different, but I was just breaking the surface. After changing shops and working with Ken Ward for a while, I looked up to him and learned from him in terms of OEM integration,” Carlson explained. “I learned a lot more about different signal types, EQ, all pass filters, how to test on an OEM system that I didn’t really know before. I knew what the features were, but I didn’t know how to test for them on a factory audio system.” Because of how things are constantly changing, Carlson said he knows he needs to continue to be willing to adapt. “As the industry changes, as manufacturers change the way they are processing signals or designing audio systems, you need to adapt and change or you’ll be left in the dust.” Carlson makes himself available to help out wherever he can. “If I know the answer, I share the information.”

Erick Markland, Markland Designs of Atlanta Lithonia, Ga. A main focus of Erick Markland’s career, he said, has been learning to integrate better and giving customers a fun experience. “You have to constantly evolve, and if you plateau, you’re falling behind.” Markland chose to be okay with not having all the answers. “I [tend to] put pressure on myself to always know the answers,” he said. “Taking a deep breath and exhaling and realizing you don’t have all the answers, opens you up to being able to look at things more objectively. I don’t put as much pressure on myself anymore. I know my weak points,

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my strong points, and I focus on learning.” He added he always wants to learn more about OEM integration. “Signal analyzing, that type of stuff, is always intriguing to me. There’s so many different options and every car is different.” As a matter of course, he makes it a focus to be as positive as he can. “I am very open to people. I don’t exclude anyone,” Markland explained. “I try to spread that in the industry. There’s enough work for everyone to make money. Why not work together instead of separating ourselves? Let’s be positive and try to learn and grow from each other and keep our brotherhood and sisterhood of installers in the 12-volt industry.” Markland added, “My mother and father always taught me, if you see negative things, always try to be a positive light. Keep pushing forward and motivating yourself.”

Sage Weir, Sounds Good Stereo – West Park, Fla.

Andrew Evens Industry Auto Designs Las Vegas, NV Nicholas Frazier

As the summer continues, Sage Weir is Innovative Concepts moving his business to Nashville, Tenn. West Springfield, MA and for him, this is one of the biggest Adam Lewis challenges he’s faced. “Another big thing Sound FX for me is splitting up my time between Seaford, DE my installer job and my technical support job [with Orca Design]. It’s a huge growth Shaughnessy Murley year, a lot of change. It’s exciting and not Visions Electronics easy,” he said. Red Deer, AB “I think my biggest area of growth is staying on top of what’s going on with all Carlos Ramirez the new vehicles, but also learning how NVS Audio to collect that information and share it Roselle, NJ with other people on my team and others in the industry,” he said. “I concentrate on audio and OEM integration, so I’m constantly staying up on what’s going on in the new platforms and audio systems, training, learning, figuring out different techniques of testing and tuning.” Although Weir is very fluent in DSP, he stated that he wants to get a better understanding of frequencies. “How different frequencies sound in our hearing, and how to get better at EQing. Understanding the sound portion of it, the acoustics a little bit better,” he said. “I want to better understand what each instrument’s bandwidth is, and all that type of stuff.” He also hopes to teach. “That is my goal in the coming year, to do more trainings,” he said. “I talk to other dealers constantly, but I really want to help others with the knowledge I have gained.”

Nicholas Frazier, iNNovative Concepts West Springfield, Mass. Despite having to wear many hats as a sole proprietor, Nicholas Frazier stated that his business has seen a 25 percent increase in revenue each year. “The challenge has been balancing work and home life,” he said, adding that he felt his biggest area of growth was in fabrication. “Just being in the New England market, it was never something that was a large part of the business when I started until I went off on my own,” Frazier said. “In the last year or so, from design and a fabrication aspect, I have grown tremendously. I want to continue growing as a fabricator and learning different parts of fabrication that I am not as comfortable with.” Frazier also wants to learn more about CNC and 3D printing. “I am a newbie when it comes to that kind of thing,” he said. “Maintaining a positive attitude is important first and foremost.” Frazier added that it’s good for the industry, “if people have simple questions that maybe you might think you’re supposed to know, to more complex or detailed questions, it’s important to treat someone with respect and answer the question and not down them for not knowing. Always maintain a level of professionalism.”

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Chase Norman, Tint World Orlando Longwood, Fla. Recently, Chase Norman has grown a lot in the categories of paint protection and vinyl. “That is a good portion of my daily routine now,” Norman said. As he continues to remain proficient as an installer, Norman hopes to learn more about business management skills, as well. “As we get older, we might start to lose our ability to be efficient under the dash,” he said. “The next growth step is more business management and ownership.” Echoing the thoughts of other installers, Norman also hopes to learn more about CNC. “I have dabbled in it, but it can be something that can be extremely useful if you are proficient in it.”

Jaime Palafox, Agoura Autosounds Agoura Hills, Calif. Time management is a difficulty for Jaime Palafox, who stated that he’s such a fast worker that he tends to expect others to work very quickly, too. “Sometimes I’ll come in early and stay late and finish a project for one of my guys because I know I can do it in a third of the time. That’s a big problem for me,” he said. “I’m getting better, but this is something I want to improve. I have come a long way.” Palafox said that he’s grown a lot in terms of tuning. “For years, I did a lot of tuning. I used some tools, but not the right ones and not enough of them. I started attending more events like KnowledgeFest. I went last year and I grew a lot.” The industry is uniting in recent years, more than it has in the past, Palafox said, and this unity has played a big part in his own development. He encouraged attending as many trainings as possible, and added that continuing to learn more about OEM integration is essential because that’s where the market is headed. “There is a market out there that we have to pay attention to. I went to Mobile Solutions, and that was the key to really get me out there,” Palafox explained. “After I took my training with Bryan Schmitt, I became really efficient. I already knew how to do it, but I was doing it the wrong way. Bryan always says there is no wrong way, but there is a better way. Grow, learn, that’s my key. If we don’t learn anything today, we had a wasted day. You have to learn something new every day.”

Tyler Neault, Certified Auto Sound Maple Ridge, BC While Tyler Neault’s main job is installing full-time, he’s also a store manager, which he said presents a lot of new challenges when it comes to balancing duties. “I don’t have it figured out yet, but there is progress every day, learning new things from the management side of it,” he said. “I’ve reached out to people like Jason Kranitz, and I’ve had long conversations on the phone with him about dealing with situations as a manager. Networking has helped a lot.” Recently, Neault has grown as a fabricator, too, and credited Kingpin University and Mobile Solutions’ classes with helping to take his install abilities to the next level. “Tuning and diagnosing are definitely skills I am working on getting better at. Realistically, to stay on top of that, I need to keep taking classes with guys like Ken Ward and Jason Kranitz. That’s the only way,” he said. “It will get harder and harder to integrate.” Neault said it’s best to stay positive for all the other installers out there. “Whether I agree with their techniques or not, I try to lift them up,” he said. “And if they ask if there is anything I would do differently, then maybe give my insight on how I would do it. I want to help guys out and keep a positive focus on what they do.”

34 Mobile Electronics August 2018

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Adam Lewis, Sound FX Lewes, Del. As the Road Warrior for Sound FX, Adam Lewis travels in the local area and completes installs in all kinds of weather—which he said is always the biggest challenge. “I work outside. I’m on the road. I’ve been in snow, sleet, rain and everything else this year,” he said. Because of the kind of environments he’s accustomed to working in, Lewis has been able to share a lot of insight. “Last year, someone invited me into an online forum and I started coming out of my shell,” he said. “I’ve gotten more involved in social media. I’ve been posting a lot more, talking to people, taking advice and giving advice.” When it comes to branding, Lewis stated that there are improvements he could make. “I think I need to learn how to better brand myself and what I’m doing, to make people aware of my skills.” Online, he is able to accomplish a lot more networking than he could ever manage in person. “I’ve been making friends on Facebook with a lot of dealers that I work with, and that’s helped me in the past year. I think I need to learn to do it better in order to continue that growth.”

Ata Ehdaivand, Absolute Electronix – Rockville, Md. Training provided the most knowledge and growth for Ata Ehdaivand this past year, much of it from Mobile Solutions. “I think every installer, myself included, needs to be more humble,” Ehdaivand said. “Being humble is the most important rule because that allows you to learn. If you think you know, then you don’t know.” The problem with the industry, he added, is that too many customers don’t expect maturity from those they interact with in mobile electronics businesses. “I think maturity is key to our longevity,” he said, “so that we are looked upon more legitimately.”

Aaron Garcia Perfectionist Auto Sound Anchorage, Alaska In his position as installation manager, Aaron Garcia said he’s learned that everyone absorbs knowledge at different rates. “Everyone learns through different techniques,” he said. “I’m constantly working on this with my team. Everyone needs to be approached or taught differently.” “I need to constantly improve my fabrication skills and knowledge of the 12–volt industry and to be passing all of it down to my technicians so we can grow stronger as a team.” Garcia added that he prefers to lead by example by being as supportive as he can for his team. “As for others around the world, I am constantly posting my fabrication techniques on social media, striving to get better with every build.”

Top 5 Sales Professionals Aim to Inspire Others Amari Schwartz, Perfectionist Auto Sound Anchorage, Alaska It’s all about growth and self–reflection for Amari Schwartz, who said that the awards process offered a chance to take a step back and analyze how Perfectionist Auto Sound handles things. “We get a chance to see where we are failing, acknowledge it and fix it to be better,” she added. Schwartz also said the addition of the Top Sales Professionals awards is necessary for the industry. “This award will hopefully push other sales professionals to change their sales technique, and take more pride in what they do,” she explained. “Their position is crucial to their business, and they deserve the recognition.” Being named among the Top 5 is an “amazing reflection of our store,” Schwartz said. “After submitting my video, I told very few people because I was so nervous. Then, winning Top 20 was a whirlwind of emotions. I didn’t think it was real.”

36 Mobile Electronics August 2018

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Jason Kranitz, Kingpin Car & Marine Audio Wilsonville, Ore.

Jayson Cook, Columbus Car Audio & Accessories Columbus, Ohio For most of his life, Jayson Cook has been in the industry. Making Top 5 hasn’t sunk in yet, he said. “It’s nice to see salespeople recognized.” At the end of the day, Cook added, success depends on the whole team. “When I started, I didn’t want to be a salesman. I wanted to be a tech. I would have cleaned the toilet, swept the floor, whatever it took, I just wanted to be a part of the industry and I have proved myself.” He went on to state that salespeople can fight back against the stigma that was once attached to sales. “You can be a salesperson without being a sleazy guy who is out to get every last dime out of someone’s pocket and not even listen to the customer,” he said. “If we don’t start giving back to these younger guys, we’re going to die out.” Cook recalls being “that kid” and going into a mobile electronics shop. “I didn’t have two pennies to rub together, let alone buy a $500 CD player. It wasn’t a $100 CD player then,” he said. “When I came in to get one, this guy spent an hour with me. He wanted to get me hooked. I think that’s what we have to do. Get past the stereotyping and show them the cool stuff we can do.”

38 Mobile Electronics August 2018

Brian Layton, Sound FX Lewes, Del. There’s something to be said for following your passion, helping clients achieve desired results and having those clients reward you with referrals, said Brian Layton. “The more successful I am, the more customers I can inspire, the more people’s lives I can impact, whether it be clients or employees,” he added.

“For those who do work hard, you can be the king of the mountain you create.”

“It feels nice to be recognized for all the processes and procedures I’ve developed and honing my craft as a sales associate,” said Jason Kranitz, who added that he hopes other salespeople will see the awards process as a challenge and continue improving their skills. “People complain it’s hard to find a good tech, but it’s hard to find a good salesperson,” he said. “Manufacturers have rewarded salespeople with products and trips by how much they sell, and technicians were left out. Now that’s all changed, and I feel this can really inspire salespeople to want to do a better job and to be appreciated for being recognized for their work.”

-Brian Layton, Sound FX “I will be completing my twentieth year in October. Hard work pays off. Act on your ideas and be able to carry them out.” Personal time has to be sacrificed, Layton added, “to get your dreams to happen faster.” However, there are rewards to be had. “For those who do work hard, you can be the king of the mountain you create.”

Corbin May, Visions Electronics – Grande prairie, AB To be named among the Top 5 is a dream come true, said Corbin May. “I’ve got some big goals to hit within this industry, and this was a big accomplishment for me.” The award creates more of a push to strive toward being the best, May added. “There’s always room for improvement.” May’s hope is to lead by example. “Create a positive culture for staff and clients. Remember to have fun, stay creative and think outside the box.”

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ď&#x192;Ž strategy & tactics

40â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Mobile Electronics August 2018

The 5 Steps to Success

Utilize each of these simple strategies to become a leader in the industry—and don’t forget to ask for help if you need it. WORDS BY CHRIS COPE

There are five simple steps that I believe anyone can use to make their business more successful. We have applied these steps at Certified Autosound and Security in British Columbia, Canada—with locations in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Maple Ridge and our newest location, Langley. Each step that I will share with you has garnered positive results. Here is a closer look at the strategies we have utilized to become one of the top retailers around.

Define Your Customer Defining your customer can be one of the hardest things for a business owner to do. Everyone wants to be everything to everyone when they start a business. I know that I did. The best thing we ever did for ourselves was define our customer. I have been asked many questions since we began turning away

certain customers to focus on the customer base we wanted. These questions included: How do you say no to money? Why would you walk business out the door? Let me share an example. My business partner and I bought one of our locations last February and it was a retail powerhouse and a great business, but it did not portray our company’s image or ideal client who shopped there. What did we do? We completely renovated and basically fired all of the, for lack of a better term, “riffraff clientele,” so we could appeal to the clients our company pursues. This is because we know we have a business model that works! So, how do you go about doing something like that? We renovated the whole showroom to appeal to a higher-end client and to allow them to feel comfortable spending their hard earned money with us.

We have a specific image we shoot for at Certified Autosound. We don’t use any manufacturer demo boards because we push Certified before any products. We are a company built on culture and the staff oozes our culture, and that gets relayed to the customer while they become very comfortable in our showrooms. We have a customer lounge, for example. Ask yourself what other businesses have a nice lounge for clients? We asked ourselves the same question, and our answer for the clientele we were chasing was Mercedes, BMW and Porsche. That’s what we tried to mirror. Something we do well is professionalism. This starts with the image of the showroom and our uniforms. Sales and technicians all wear golf shirts so they look very professional. Our greetings are consistent, and every client is offered a cup of coffee or a bottle of facebook.com/MobileElectronics 41

 strategy & tactics Maintain a Positive Business Culture

water before we even start the sale process. Because we have done so well defining our customer, we are able to get a much higher ticket amount since the day we bought that location. Our customer service is even better because we deal with about 100 less invoices every month than we used to. You’d think doing 100 less invoices would affect our numbers. Nope! We do the same gross as before, but since we took over the store, the profit is way up. And this is all attributed to defining our ideal customer.

A positive store culture is the main reason our business has become as successful as it is. Having a culture-rich company is incredibly challenging, but it all starts with your employees. Your staff has to buy into what you believe in. For us, we believe in giving the best service possible and the end product being installed at the highest level. Our staff believe in the same thing, and it shows. This trickles down the customer and the business is instantly able to build trust with them. The important thing to remember is that culture isn’t something that you can instill over night. It takes time. Also, if you don’t fully believe in this culture, or care much about it, your employees will never buy into it either. That will result in your customers not feeling that culture as well. Our culture stems through our staff in many ways. They all have stereos in their cars or trucks because they love what they sell and install. They exude passion, which is very important in any company. Because we treat our staff so well, they are very happy to come into work every day. When it

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42 Mobile Electronics August 2018

The 5 Steps to Success

This boat, belonging to Certified, helps the company demonstrate marine stereo installations to potential customers. Here, Chris Cope shows the boat to Caleb Allen, a client.

comes to training sessions or car shows, all of our staff jump at the opportunity to work car shows or attend in-house or out of town trainings. Our culture is so strong that our staff doesn’t ask to be paid or compensated in any way for the extra time they spend at shows or trainings because they love passing on the passion for what they do.

When it comes to training sessions, they know they are bettering themselves. That’s culture! We grow and develop our culture by doing monthly goal dinners at each store, and we love when they hit a goal because we take the whole store out for a very nice dinner. We do a huge Christmas party with some crazy prizes instead of a

conventional Christmas bonus. We gave a trip for two to Mexico as the big prize of a reverse drawing. We hold our own awards night and hand out awards that we created, such as “the golden mallet.” The golden mallet goes to the tech who had the least warranty jobs or broke the least amount of stuff! We get a DJ to come in and we have a great night with everyone, including their significant others, because they are also part of the Certified family. We always say that we bleed green, and that to me is culture to the core.

Ensure You Have a Solid Business Structure Structure is incredibly important in any business. However, traditionally speaking, car audio shops are more of a “fly by the seat of your pants” type of business, where cash is king. Unfortunately, they can be known as a “shady” kind of place to go. We wanted to

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 strategy & tactics

change the image and reputation of our industry. That kind of change starts with structure. The structure we have implemented is huge in our business and it begins with our employee handbook. The handbook outlines what Certified expects—from how we request vacation time to our core values. We have vehicle damage forms, as well, which thankfully we don’t have to use very often.

Once again, we thought, “What does Mercedes do when a customer drops their vehicle off for an appointment?” Well, they go out with the customer and go over what needs to be done while filling out a vehicle check-in form. We came up with our own vehicle check-in form and it has saved us thousands of dollars. So, what does the tech do when he comes to pull the vehicle into the bay

to work on it? Techs are dressed in clean, professional looking clothes and they put seat covers down to protect the interior. We do this as part of our procedure. All our vehicles are also checked out after the job is completed. This allows us to catch careless errors which everyone makes at some point, no matter how good you are. Ultimately, this keeps our reputation at the highest level. Each employee also has a written job description which is incredibly important six months down the road when you both have forgotten what was promised and what was expected from your staff member. All of our roles are clearly defined. Having structure like this saves time and ultimately money. Knowing that every staff member knows who they answer to, and in what order something moves up the ladder, saves everyone so much time.

Implement a Brand Your Clients Will Support

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)

44 Mobile Electronics August 2018

Having a brand your customers can get behind is so important. The more your customer believes in how good you are, the more they will talk about you and your work to their friends and family. The other huge bonus in having a brand everyone talks about and respects is that even more people will want to work for you. Usually, these end up being very good people as they are already passionate about your business. We have benefited very well on this front. Our competition has a hard time finding staff members, but we are the opposite. We have people banging down the door to work for us because we pay the best and we treat our employees the best. Designing a logo that will support your brand isn’t as easy as people think. I suggest considering every possible use for the logo that you can. How will it look on signage, stickers or shirts? Consider just about any application you can. In our case, we chose to push the Certified brand before any manufacturers

The 5 Steps to Success because this is who we are. The response we get from our customers in doing this is outstanding. They love Certified just as much as we do, and every day I hear another customer saying, “Why didn’t I find you sooner?” They tell us they will never go anywhere else because of the positive feeling they get at Certified. That all stems back to having a brand people can get excited about. To create a brand like ours, we also have a lot of demo vehicles plastered with the Certified logo. We do car shows a lot, and that solidifies our brand in the car community.

Your Business’s Online Presence Should Support Your Values In retail business today, having an online presence is critical to success. It is a consistent contact straight to potential customers if utilized correctly. Having a website that is built properly so it can rank well in a Google search will pay off over and over, so don’t be cheap!

A professional-looking website should also represent the specific client you want. Always update your website, because this will help you rank much higher on Google and it will keep your clients up-to-date regarding the jobs you have been working on. Another great avenue for that is Facebook, which has become a huge platform for business use and will add great value because it’s free. Always have a consistent stream of posts and keep your followers engaged. We have built up a great amount of followers, and our business usually gets at least one job here and there just from someone seeing our posts. You can also pay for ads, which I have had success with, but once you get big enough you can reach a ton of people without spending anything. We’ve started making YouTube videos, as well. This will be huge for your business because everyone loves to watch a quick and to-the-point video about products or builds you’re working on.

Another awesome way to reach people is through Snapchat and Instagram, for all the same reasons. Having the online presence has made our business grow at a very rapid rate. We built it up over time, which was hard at first, but it was well worth it in the end.

Don’t Be Afraid to Reach Out and Ask for Help if Needed These five steps molded our business into what it is today and have been instrumental to our success. You may not use each step the same way we did, but what matters is that you use all of them in some way, shape or form. I suggest you start right away. You can become a leader in the industry by following these strategies. Each one will help your business find success. There will always be someone willing to help you, including myself, to get where you want to be—one step at a time.

facebook.com/MobileElectronics 45

 tech today

CHECK YOUR GROUND

What might cause alternator whine after an install is completed? David MacKinnon discusses how to check ground connection resistance, as well as aspects of modern vehicle manufacturing that technicians should take into consideration while planning an installation. BY DAVID MACKINNON

Since the dawn of aftermarket audio installation, one of the biggest sources of frustration for mobile electronics technicians has been system noise caused by installation issues. Hearing alternator whine when you finish a big install is akin to getting punched in the gut. You’ve slaved and sweated to do everything right, and you think you are at the end of the project, only to find you need to dig in and start

46 Mobile Electronics August 2018

troubleshooting. In this issue of Tech Today, we’ll talk about what causes alternator whine in an audio system, explain the proper method to test ground connection resistance and provide some insight into modern vehicle manufacturing that needs consideration when planning an installation.

Automotive Charging Systems The rotor and stator inside an alternator produces alternating current, not direct current. You can see the

output of the three rotor phases in Figure 1. The regulator connected (or sometimes built in) to the alternator contains six large diodes that rectify this AC signal into a positive voltage signal as shown in Figure 2. There is a DC voltage associated with the output of the regulator, but there is also an AC component riding on top. This AC signal is smoothed somewhat by the presence of different loads on the electrical system and the presence of the battery.

Check your Ground

Figure 1: The yellow, blue and red waveforms show the output of each of the three phases of the alternator. You can see that the signals contain both positive and negative voltages.

Figure 2 : Here you can see the output voltage waveform from the voltage regulator. The negative waveform has been inverted.

Vehicle Construction Methods Let’s interrupt our discussion with a bit of history about vehicle construction. In years gone by, we had sedans and SUVs based on a steel frame. The body of the car was made from stamped steel welded together, then bolted to the frame of the car. This construction method is known as a body-on-frame design and is still used in heavy-duty pickup trucks and large SUVs. The invention of the unibody chassis in the mid-1930s was intended to save weight and simplify the construction of a vehicle. In a unibody, the engine and suspension components are bolted directly to the body of the car, rather than being attached to a separate frame. Some body panels need to be thicker to support the additional stresses, but overall, a unibody car weighs less than a body-on-frame design.

Ground Problem 1: Different Ground Potentials Imagine a scenario in which an amplifier is installed in the trunk of a sedan and an aftermarket radio is mounted in the dash. Most modern radio installations use a wire harness adapter to provide the ground connection. In many cases, if you follow the ground wire from the radio, it’s likely connected to a lug on the chassis of the vehicle somewhere above the kick panel area. At the opposite end of the car, we need to find a location to ground our amplifier. Some may choose to screw the ground to the floor of the trunk after removing the paint and primer while others may use a nut and bolt with a lock-washer for a better connection. If we look at the construction of a typical vehicle, we’ll find that the bottom pan of the trunk is welded to the main floor pan. The firewall and kick panels

are separate components that are also spot-welded to the main floor pan. The inner front fenders of the car that are visible in the engine compartment are spot-welded to the firewall. For the amplifier, all of the current from the ground connection has to pass through at last four welded panel seams before it gets back to the battery. The factory radio ground is at least two spotwelded seams away from the amplifier ground or the battery ground. When the car or truck is brand new, these spot-welds should be clean and free from corrosion. As time goes by, these panel connections will flex and weaken, and corrosion will form. If you’ve ever looked at the floor of an older vehicle, rust typically starts at the seams and rarely in the middle of a panel. It’s not difficult to see that we may not have a solid electrical connection facebook.com/MobileElectronics 47

 tech today The body of an Aston Martin Vanquish is constructed from cast and stamped aluminum components that are bonded together.

between the radio and the amplifier. Add in the potential for connection points in the wire harness in the dash, and our chances of a ground loop increase dramatically.

How We Get Alternator Whine So, now we have our source unit in the dash and an amp in the trunk. If we have more resistance on the ground return path from the amplifier than for the radio, we may see a voltage difference between the two. We can measure that resistance with a voltmeter. If you connect an RCA cable to the radio and subsequently to the amp, current will always take the path of least resistance, and you may find that the amp is trying to ground itself back through your interconnect cables. That noisy rectified output waveform from your alternator is, in some amount, now flowing through your audio conductors and may be reproduced by the amplifier. This noise phenomenon is called a ground loop. It’s worth noting, amplifiers that use differential inputs are less susceptible to ground loops because the shield of the RCA input jack isn’t referenced to the ground connection of the amp.

Modern Vehicle Construction Issues In the last decade, automobile manufacturers have been tasked with increasing occupant safety while reducing fuel consumption. These requirements have led to the use of different materials and construction techniques to reduce weight and increase

Application of highstrength adhesives used to bond aluminum body components together.

48 Mobile Electronics August 2018

strength. Look at any of the body graphics we’ve included and you can see that aluminum, plastic, magnesium and many different grades of steel are used to optimize strength and safety while keeping weight to a minimum. Where dissimilar materials need to be joined, many factors have to be taken into account—differences in thermal expansion, galvanic corrosion, assembly time, post-assembly processing, aesthetics and weight are just a few criteria. For obvious reasons, automakers won’t attempt to weld aluminum components to steel, and aluminum castings, magnesium and plastic parts all present unique assembly challenges. So, how are modern vehicle bodies assembled? In most cases, using adhesives. Companies like 3M, Hernon, Henkel, Sika and Bostik offer a wide variety of adhesive products that are used to attach body panels together. Adhesives offer a dramatic increase in strength, longevity, corrosion resistance and reductions in cost, assembly time and post-assembly cleaning. An automaker can bond a roof panel to the A, B and C-pillars using adhesives without any fear of sparks from a welding process contaminating the paint roof surface.

Likewise, the lack of heat from a welding process eliminates the chance of expansion and misalignment of panels or other thermal distortions.

Ground Problem 2: Non-Conductive Vehicle Assemblies For those of us in the mobile electronics industry, adhesive construction poses a massive problem. Adhesives are not conductive. Consider the different conductive properties of aluminum versus steel and we quickly run into situations in which getting an appropriate amount of current to our amplifier is a problem. Many vehicles these days are constructed from a variety of different metals, each chosen for a specific strength/weight/malleability characteristic.

Diagnosing a Ground Problem If ever there was a topic that makes people with formal electrical or electronics training wince, it’s the discussion of ground return path resistance. If you are adept at using Ohm’s law, then you’ll know exactly what I am talking about. There have been hundreds, if not thousands of examples of a technician saying, “The ground is okay if it has less

Check your Ground than one or two ohms of resistance.” Let’s look at this statement from the perspective of Ohm’s law. Say, for instance, we are talking about a small amplifier installed under the seat of a car. The technician will have used their DMM (digital multi-meter) to measure the resistance between the ground terminal of the amp and another location—such as the ground terminal of the battery— in hopes of quantifying the suitability or efficacy of the chosen connection points. For the sake of very simple math, let’s say the tech states that there is one ohm of resistance. When you turn on an amplifier, most conventional designs draw about 0.8 to 1.5 amps of current. We call this the idle current. Again, for simplicity, let’s say the amplifier draws one amp of current. Ohm’s law dictates that if we have an amp of current flowing through a resistance of one ohm, then one volt will be produced across the resistance. You can measure this by putting your DMM across the resistance and looking at a voltage reading. I’d bet that with a good quality ground return path, you won’t see a one-volt drop with the amp at idle. Let’s go further into this before I explain. Say you turn on the stereo and bring the volume up a little bit—not loud, just a nice comfortable listening level. The amplifier is likely drawing five or six amps of current. Ohm’s law dictates that the voltage across our resistance of one ohm would then be five or six volts. Have a look at the Ohm’s law equations for a better understanding. Now, what happens when we decide to set the gains on the amp and we crank it up? If it’s a 200-watt amp, and we assume all channels will be producing full power playing a sine wave, the amp will draw about 20 amps of current and there will be 20 volts across our resistance of one ohm. Given that we only have 12 to 14 volts to start with, that doesn’t make sense. So, what’s wrong? Is it Ohm’s law? Not likely. I’ve tried to fight that battle for decades, and I keep losing. Chances are, the issue is the accuracy of our

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919 Canada Court City of Industry, CA. 91748 (800) 477-2328 (626) 465-3363 WWW.CADENCESOUND.COM

(626) 465-3383 www.oncore.audio

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 tech today ground measurement. Because the resistance in conductors and ground return paths in a vehicle are so small, we can’t accurately measure them with an Ohmmeter. In fact, in most cases, when you short the leads of your DMM together, most units still read around 1.2 ohms of resistance. Given that we are trying to take measurements in the milliohm range, this error negates any measurement you’d take.

How to Accurately Measure Ground Resistance

Audi uses a combination of aluminum and steel to create a chassis that is both light and rigid.

Looking at this breakdown of Mercedes chassis materials it is easy to see why modern audio integrators need to understand the vehicles they are working on.

The easiest way to accurately measure the resistance in a ground path is to use two meters. The first DMM will be configured to measure current while the second is configured to measure voltage. Set the first meter up so that all the current from our load passes through the meter. Be very careful; most meters can only handle about 10 amps of current. Connecting an amplifier or head unit where the internal capacitors aren’t charged will produce a current spike much higher than this rating. For whatever load you choose, adjust the meter so that you have as much detail as possible on the screens of the meters. Step two is to measure the voltage across the resistance you are trying to measure. If this is an amplifier ground, put one probe of the second meter on the amp ground screw and the second on the battery ground connection. There is no significant current passing through your test leads when measuring voltage, so you can use an extension wire if required. Take reading from both meters at the same time. By way of a typical example, let’s say you measure the ground resistance of our amp in the back of the car. If I had to guess at a reading, I’d say that for an amplifier at idle that was drawing 1.6 amps of current, you’d see a voltage measurement around 3.1 millivolts, assuming you have a reliable, low-resistance return path. Ohm’s law says that if we have a voltage drop across a resistance of 3.1 millivolts and we know that 1.6 amps of current is flowing, the resistance is 1.928 milliohms. If we double the current, we will read double the voltage because the resistance should stay the same.

How Do We Know if Something is Wrong?

High strength and even ultra-high strength steel are incorporated into Teslas to help stiffen their chassis.

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Well, to be honest, chances are you aren’t going to make any measurements unless you suspect something. Once you know the resistance of a ground connection, you can calculate a predicted voltage drop for a given current draw. With the system turned on and playing a constant tone (you don’t want the current level bouncing around), you can measure the voltage between the ground terminal of your amp and the ground terminal of the radio or the battery. If it’s more than a few millivolts (with no audio playing), chances are, you have a problem. This same method works for remote car starter installations. If you aren’t getting accurate or reliable CAN-Bus communication, measure the voltage between the starter

Check your Ground

ground wire connection on the module and pin 4 of the OBD-II plug. Many companies suggest using the wire on pin 4 as the ground for starter systems and integration modules that need to communicate with the vehicle data network.

How Do You Fix a Bad Ground? Where we have a ground voltage potential difference, or a lack of current delivery capacity, the solution is to run an additional ground wire. In the case of a ground loop, you will want to improve the ground connection between the radio and the amp. You can use a single 18 AWG primary wire for this upgrade. If you have current delivery problems to an amplifier, run a ground wire that is the same size as the power wire directly to the negative terminal of the battery. You should leave the amp grounded at the back of the vehicle as an additional ground path. This new ground conductor is often called a Parallel Ground. I first heard the Parallel Ground term used by Steve Turrisi (JL Audio) more than a decade ago. I’ve heard countless people claim that running a ground will cause noise or interference. No, it won’t. We don’t get abnormal noises in boats, side-by-sides or motorcycles,

and most of them have amplifiers connected directly to the battery terminals. Running an extra ground in a vehicle is perfectly fine and a practice I’ve used on my vehicles for decades without a single problem. To keep your life simple when it comes to amplifier installations, sell your clients equal amounts of power and ground wire, run everything safely and securely to the battery and let them enjoy their upgraded audio system. Here’s the ground wire in my 2015 Hyundai Genesis sedan. It, like many modern vehicles, incorporates a current sensing resistor on the ground lead from the battery to tell the BCM how much power is being provided to or drawn from the battery. With some reasonable confidence, based on our measurements, we can deduce that the current shunt (resistor) in the ground lead has a value of about one milliohm and produces a voltage of 1mV for every amp of current flowing through it. Measuring the voltage across the chassis and the ground lead shows 5.2mV with the doors open and the ignition set to the accessory position. With the car started, the voltage across the ground lead shows -29.6mV, indicating that current is now flowing into the battery. facebook.com/MobileElectronics 51

 installs

Fantastic Ferraris SUBMITTED BY BRIAN MEGHOE, BRIAN’S CUSTOM AUDIO, ZOETERMEER, NETHERLANDS

Over the past few years a shop out of Zoetermeer, Netherlands has been building up quite a repertoire of impressive builds. From professionally integrated car audio, to elaborate multi-zone audio/video systems in yachts, Brian’s Custom Audio has been wowing their clients and the Internet. At the helm of Brian’s Custom Audio is Brian Meghoe. Brian routinely travels from the Netherlands to Dubai to craft some exquisite audio upgrades for some of the world’s top vehicles. This month, Brian is sharing with us a number of different Ferrari-based installations he has completed over the past year. While these installations cover a variety of Prancing Horse vehicles, they all share the common theme of superb cosmetic integration.

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ď&#x192;Ž installs

54â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Mobile Electronics August 2018

THE PERFECT FIT. . 5X7 replacement speaker for Harley-Davidson® bikes . Element Ready™ to stand up to the harsh outdoors . Easy to install with factory connectors . Fits in factory equipped Harley-Davidson® BOOM!™ Audio Stage-I and Stage-II bag lids Learn more at: www.rockfordfosgate.com

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 installs

GUSTO GOLF SUBMITTED BY NICK APICELLA, APICELLA AUTO SOUND, STONY POINT, NEW YORK This 2016 Volkswagen Golf R came to Nick Apicella from a client who had an existing audio system that he wasn’t happy with. The plan was to evolve the system to something that not only would sound much better, but also look much better, too. Over a period of a few months, and with feedback from the client, Nick crafted a system that exceeded the expectations of his client. The front speakers in the car are installed in the sail panels, A-pillars and kick panels. Satori TW29BN-B tweeters were installed in custom sail panel pods. When the door is closed, the tweeter pods mate up to a set of Scanspeak 12M midrange speakers also installed in custom A-pillar pods. The midbass duties are handled by Audio Development W800NEO woofers that are integrated into the kick panels via 12-lb kick panel pods. While work was going on in the front of the Golf, Nick also addressed some source unit concerns. He removed the lower pocket in the dash and installed a Sony RSX-GS9 head unit in the spot. A trim piece was molded and painted a matching piano black color, for a seamless look. The Sony becomes the source unit that outputs the audio from an iPad mini. The iPad mounts to the side of the dash via a removable dock. The Onkyo hi-res audio app allows the client to stream high resolution audio throughout the system. To wrap up the work in the front of the car, the Director for the Helix processor was mounted in the overhead sunglass storage pocket. The rear of the VW also got a Apicella Auto Sound makeover. Nick added a pair of Tangband full-range speakers in custom pods for rear fill. To give the client the augmented bass he was looking for, a sealed enclosure was fabricated to hold two Audiofrog 12-inch subwoofers. The enclosure was wrapped in a matching black vinyl. Visible in the floor of the boot, once the trim cover is removed, are two Brax MX4s. Additionally a Zapco Z-2KD ii, an Arc Audio KS125.2, Helix DSP Pro and a JL Audio Fix82 were hidden in the floor.

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Have you checked out Directed lately? More than just security!

www.directed.com

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from the President

DOES NETWORKING AT KNOWLEDGEFEST MAKE YOU NERVOUS? Networking in person can be difficult for some, especially if this is your first time planning to attend KnowledgeFest. Here are some tips on how to break the ice so that you can build and maintain productive relationships within the industry. Networking is the art of communicating with longtime friends, as well as meeting new people while focusing on a rich exchange of information that supports you both personally and professionally. This is the opportunity you have at KnowledgeFest. Networking truly is an art. And like any art, each of us have a different approach. Regardless of your personality type, to build relationships that benefit both you and others, you must be prepared for discussion and you must take time to listen on a variety of topics. You will also need to take the time to engage others. If you don’t talk enough, you may be perceived as unapproachable or standoffish. If you talk too much, others may perceive that you are too self-centered. It’s a delicate balance and it may take some time to get it right. To help you avoid the common pitfalls, I will outline some tips that will go a long way toward making your social time more productive.

going to meet new people and expand your network? Have you ever noticed that some people are always part of the same group regardless of the event? I get it, you’re just hanging out with your friends. But this is networking time that should be focused on expanding your influence and learning about others. Enjoy your time with friends and take the time to make new ones, as well.

The Introduction

Build Connections

Share who you are and what you do, and then ask the same of the person you’re talking to. Make sure you tell them what you do in a way that engages them. Ask real questions that show you’re interested in this person and their professional focus. Think of ways that you might be able to help them with something, even if it is just a sincere piece of advice based on your experience. Let them know that you would be glad to be a resource for them in the future.

It’s one thing to chat it up with someone new and another thing to learn something about that person. Look for commonalities or differences. Take the time to share your successes and failures. When you find a good connection, make sure you offer an exchange of contacts and then follow up with an email to confirm the conversation. If action is warranted, set a date and time for the next discussion.

Dare to Leave Your Comfort Zone

Networking should be fun. Don’t let it turn into work. Your mission is to discover new people, reconnect with those you know and be part of a passionate industry that sees value in getting together to share knowledge and experiences. KnowledgeFest includes over 30 educational workshops, 75 manufacturer trainings, and great networking opportunities. It is your best chance to speak one-on-one with people you could be doing business with, or sharing information with. Every major manufacturer and many specialty manufacturers will be in attendance with training sessions that are designed to make you an expert in your market. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran, or a relative newcomer to mobile electronics, networking at KnowledgeFest is an opportunity that should not be missed! See you in Dallas.

Cliques are formed by those who tend to stick with the same people. It is natural to gravitate toward the same group. It’s comfortable. You may only see these people face-to-face at events like KnowledgeFest—maybe once or twice a year. It’s easy to only hang out with people you know you get along with, and it can be tempting to stay with them for most of the time while you’re at an event. But don’t be afraid to venture into the unknown and talk to another group of people with whom you may not be as familiar.

Don’t be a Follower There is nothing wrong with spending time with your best friend, but you should avoid being that person who’s always hanging out with the same person. Otherwise, how are you

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Be Positive It is easy to fall into the trap of talking negatively about others. Some people make it their mission to disparage others. I am not saying you need to defend those whom others tend to malign. You should, however, consider with whom you are speaking. If this is someone you have just met, you should hold your tongue and not engage in negative chit-chat. You never know what the future holds. The person you are talking about may be the person you need for a new business relationship or advice.

And Finally, Enjoy KnowledgeFest!

GO ALL THE WAY ACROSS WITH

DETECTION

VOXX takes BLIND SPOT DETECTION across to the rear, into reverse adding another level of Driver Safety and Awareness!

REAR CROSS TRAFFIC ALERT

senses approaching vehicles when in reverse

both systems equipped with front interior LED indicator audio/visual alerts

sensors are built into the frame that is mounted around the license plate

sensors are installed professionally inside the rear of the bumper

BLIND SPOT DETECTION 2.0 (ACABSD20)

LICENSE PLATE BLIND SPOT DETECTION (ACABSDLP)

@voxxelectronics For more information or to become a dealer visit us at: www.voxxelectronics.com/become-dealer/

A VOXX International Company