Mobile Electronics News April 2011

WWW.MOBILEELECTRONICSNEWS.EU

APRIL2011

lEADING ThE wAy IN DAB INSIDE

EXClUSIVE SHOW REVIEW, DAB FORUM & ICE HEROES NIGHT

DAB PRODUCT GUIDE LOADS OF NEW STUFF HAS ARRIVED

VIBE DEMO CAR THE NEW VIBE BLACKAIR FOCUS

W W W. M O B I L E E L E C T R O N I C S N E W S . E U

CONTENTS

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APRIL 2011

38-39 PRODUCT GUIDE:

04 ED SPEAK:

40 OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS:

06-10 NEWS:

42 INDUSTRY PERSONALITY:

Trade/consumer clash warning and DAB niches

It’s amazing that so much news crammed into these hallowed pages

12 ICE HEROES AWARDS NIGHT:

Trackers – strong performers cut the mustard

More advice about marketing from expert Ted Unit

Kenwood’s Adam Handley has some serious things to say

46 RAYNER’S RANTS:

Adam tells it absolutely emphatically as it is, or might be

Evidence that the Mobile Electronics Industry knows how to large it

14-15 VIBE DEMO CAR:

48 V.C.E GUIDE:

Peugeot 3008 gets the VCE expert treatment

Vibe’s lovely white RS Focus has got a bootful of BlackAir

18-26 EXPO SHOW REVIEW:

49-50 M.E.N DIRECTORY:

Compiled this month by ed’s assistant Regina Beaver

MEN Expo 2011 was an excellent show for visitors and exhibitors

30 EXPO SHOW DAB FORUM

Industry pundits discuss the rise and rise of DAB opportunities

32 DAB FACTS FOCUS

The what where and how of digital radio development

34-35 PRODUCT GUIDE:

MEN looks at new DAB products from far and wide

36 EVENTS 2011:

Despite performance car decline, shows can be earners

Charlotte Body PUBLISHER Tel: 01268 754 897 or 07903 944666 Fax: 01268 754429 email: charlotte@creativemedialtd.co.uk Martyn Williams EDITOR Tel: 07768 083748 email: edunit@edunit.plus.com Peter Johnson ART DIRECTOR Tel: 01268 754 897 Fax: 01268 754429 email: peter.johnson@creativemedialtd.co.uk Loraine Winter DESIGNER Tel: 01268 754 897 Fax: 01268 754429 email: loraine.winter@creativemedialtd.co.uk Shauna Peters ADMINISTRATOR Tel: 01268 754 897 Fax: 01268 754429 email: shauna.peters@creativemedialtd.co.uk If Creative Media publish any supplied text or photographs by way of contribution to the magazine, you automatically and hereby grant Creative Media a perpetual, royalty-free, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and licence to use, reproduce modify, publish, translate, create derivative works from and distribute such text or photography into any from, medium or technology now known or hereafter developed. In addition, as between you and Creative Media, you assert and waive any and all moral rights in such text or photography.

The views and opinions expressed by any contributors (including advertisers) to the magazine are not necessarily those of the magazine and should not be taken as such.

GO 04/11

PLEASE DON’T DO IT More than a few industry personalities have used the throat-cutting imagery against some dealers in our marketplace and there certainly are a few lemmings out there still. I refer particularly to the practice of leaving trade magazines, often with wholesale prices, on public view on counters and in demonstration areas.

Consumers as we know, often have little understanding that without margins, there can be no service.

DEATH OF TRAFFIC? In this issue with a strong DAB content, it’s sad that Traffic Radio, the service that’s paid for by the UK Government, is to have its funding pulled when the current contract ends next summer. It has been claimed that the Traffic Radio service has cost taxpayers £10.4m which obviously makes it a dodgy prospect while we are settling our debts after bailing out the ungrateful bankers. Traffic Radio is managed and

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu Finding a niche A good example of tuning into a niche in our market is a company in darkest Norfolk that’s been going now for four years called Dabonwheels.

This e-commerce site is organised by Richard Taylor who used to run Norfolk Car Audio.

He told me “I needed a change” which Dabonwheels specialises in everysounds reasonable when you hear that thing DAB including aerial in-line he’s been retailing since the 70s. The thing connectors, F-plug adaptors and plugs which can be grafted on to I love about Richard’s site is the twiddly DAB aerial coaxial cable bits that installers might need when adapting aerials to tuners – all sorts of aerial connector plugs and sockets. In the next couple of years it’s rumoured that motor manufacturers will be installing DAB windscreen antennas before OE tuners become available, These just might need a plug or an adaptor to patch in to the system? www.dabonwheels.co.uk

Marty’s internet recommendation of the month: (You will laugh but you may also struggle to get to grips with the guy’s mindset… type ‘Steaurus’ in You Tube) http://www.detnews.com/section/videonetwork?bctid=587 223006001#/Autos/Woodward+Dream+Cruise%3A++Steauru s+2000/54146138001/111234545001/587223006001

produced for the Highways Agency by Global Traffic Network (GTN)

NEXT MONTH’S FEATURES INCLUDE..

and is broadcast on 30 local DAB multiplexes, as well as online and

• OEM integration - Patch-in processors and anything that plugs in to an OE • system to improve its sound or functionality Sound deadening materials Send me some info if you would like to be part of it!

via smart phone apps. The latest comment from a GTN spokesperson gives us some hope: “We are keen for the station to continue and are currently exploring alternative funding sources.” Maybe they should talk to a bank bonus-taker?

Maybe Traffic’s demise will be reversed like Radio 6 Music which the Beeb decided to slash thinking there wasn’t much of an audience. After the announcement a seemingly huge audience rose up and started a mighty protest. Nice to see a bit of people power working..

MARTYN WILLIAMS Editor Mobile Electronics News edunit@edunit.plus.com

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For further information or to become a dealer please contact our Sales Office on 0845 2712890, Tim Kent on 07866 725298 or Colin Wroe on 07866 725302 Laserline S.p.a Limited 73 Manchester Road, Woolston, Warrington, Cheshire WA1 4AE

NEWS

WHAT A SHOW!

The mobile electronics industry may not be as big as it used to be but all at Mobile Electronics News are highly chuffed at the significant turnout of dealers and installers who made time to visit the MEN EXPO Show on March 15 and 16. Our thanks to exhibitors and visitors for making the MEN EXPO 2011 a terrific success. It was attended by more than 800 people and a poll of exhibitor opinion was extremely positive about the overall quality of visitors to the stands.

Connects2, sponsors of the Show name, were busy on the stand throughout the two days. Sales Manager Angie Dimmack said: “Another great show! It was pleasing to witness all of the buzz about the upcoming DAB products which we all hope will give the industry the boost it needs!”

Commenting on the Show, Midbass’s Chris Etheridge said: “Definitely a better show this year with plenty of people speaking positively. Lots of our key dealers turned up which meant we could spend time talking to them

PRO-PLUS distributes MAXXONICS PRO-PLUS SOUND is the new exclusive distributor and sales representation for US company Maxxonics in the UK. Pro-Plus Sound can now offer two of the world’s most famous car audio brands; Hifonics and MBQuart, with two other brands on the horizon - Crunch and Autotek.

Each brand offers unique selling features and market positions and Maxxsonics proudly claim that they all provide ‘best in class’ performance in sonic reproduction, long lasting quality, and exceptional design applications.

Maxxsonics is celebrating 10 years of performance as the brands’ parent company and has built them all to world-wide recognition. Big power for instance, is available from Hifonics’ D-Class Mono block amplifiers and Crunch is recognised as a leader in Maxx power performance and costeffective design. Autotek is a premiere entry level amplifier in the market offering great performance and good looks. MB Quart offers a range from moderate entry-level speaker systems to its new ultra-high-end Q series.

Pro Plus 01707 650140 www.proplussound.com

Hifonics and MB Quart names available again with the possibility of Crunch (HP tweeter shown) and Autotek coming onto the scene later

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about product and for them to network.”

Scorpion’s Gary Kirby was one of the many who was pleased with the Show, he said: “EXPO this year was outstanding for us – it was really busy and we should have brought along more staff.”

The Heroes party on the Tuesday night was a hit with over 200 attending (see who won what Awards in the Ice Heroes news page in this issue).

Like the Olympics, MEN EXPO has been confirmed for 2012. It will be at the same venue, the Ricoh Arena, Coventry and will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday March 13 and 14. Bookings for next year have already been made by some manufacturers and distributors.

Commenting on the bookings, Charlotte Body, Creative Media’s Publisher said: “We are expecting to have a bigger event for next year so please book early for good rates and position in the hall.”

Charlotte and the team can be contacted on 01268 754897.

NEW JVC DOUBLE DIN Better than ever display and functions, the stunning new KWAVX640E 6.1 inch unit offers quicker control for touch screen functions and a removable panel for security.

Combining easy to use screen buttons with a rotary control and discreet manual buttons makes this unit easy to use even on the move. Add JVC’s unique KS-BTA100 Bluetooth interface for hands-free call handling and music streaming. Superb AV performance and the ability to upload your own wallpaper images and a whole host of playback format support completes the picture.

Main Features of the unit include MOSFET 4 x 50W amplifier, USB Port (WAV/MP3/WMA/iPod & iPhone Audio), GIGA MP3 MULTI WAV/MP3/WMA Compatible, (DVD/CD/USB) JPEG/MPEG 1, 2 compatible, (DVD/CD/USB) DivX Compatible (DVD/USB), WVGA Display, Bluetooth ready, Dolby Digital, three-band parametric iEQ, RGB input, 4.0V line and subwoofer pre-out level line input terminals (AV + Video), front AUX-IN, 3 RCA pre-out terminals (Front + Rear + Subwoofer), line pre-out (Video), subwoofer control, multilingual display, high-pass filter (on/through), steering wheel remote ready.

NEW FROM CLARION Clarion’s exciting 2011 range benefits from some subtle tweaks, and the entry-level CZ101E features CD-R and CD-RW playback, MP3 and WMA file compatibility, a 3.5mm mini jack AUX input on the fascia to support a stand-alone MP3 player, four channel audio pre-out for front, rear and subwoofer speaker control, and an RDS-EON tuner with 18 FM, 6MW/LW station presets. With the optional addition of a BLT373 Bluetooth adapter, the new unit also allows for the safe receiving and making of phone calls, via a Bluetooth enabled and paired mobile phone. With the look of the 2010 range proving popular, the starburst style button illumination has now been set to mirror the rotary volume control, with greater safety through more sophisticated control.

The CZ101E delivers 4x45 Watts output, plus Beat EQ, Magna BASS EX and a low pass filter for subwoofer sound enhancement options to boost enjoyment and allow for greater customisation to suit individual taste. The Clarion CZ101E is offered as an ideal entry-level upgrade priced at a RRP of £99. Upwards in the range with an RRP at £199 is the CZ501E CD tuner, This, the latest from in-car entertainment giants Clarion, has a power output of 4x50W per channel from its ultra-efficient MOSFET amplifier, combined with a high degree of sound adjustment to suit all ears. The CZ501E’s peripheral connectivity is impressive, able to interface with music libraries from Apple’s iPod, iPhone and any mobile MP3 device will plug and play instantly via the USB port on the front of the facia, with Album/Artist/Song details displayed on screen. It has an integrated Bluetooth module with A2DP protocol allowing music files to be streamed wirelessly from similarly equipped Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones and PDAs together with the safe, hands-free phone calls.

Clarion GB 01793 870400 www.clarion.co.uk

New Autoleads products Autoleads has addressed the age-old problem of having the right lead to contact device to device, in-car or out-of-car with the new Tech Connect range.

It does what it says on the tin by offering connectors to a large range of devices. Whether it be an iPod, 3.5mm audio jack, RCA or USB - it can connect all these devices.

Additionally, there are some options in the style of lead from standard black leads to coiled and retractable variants for people who prefer the cable to hide itself away when not in use.

This comes in handy when an OEM auxiliary input is armrest or glove-box mounted. There will be more to follow as connectivity types and styles change.

Get stocked now and stop sending your customer to your local electrical store.

Also new from Autoleads is a range of iPod interfaces allowing the consumer to control and charge the iPod without replacing the head unit or adding an accessory device. The iPod interfaces allow the play, charge and control of an iPod through the OEM head unit; using the OEM head unit controls. Ideal for providing a solution for those customers that wish to retain the original head unit but integrate an iPod. Armour Auto 01420 487110 www.armourauto.com

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NEWS

DEEP SPACE 12 Launched at CES 2011 the new SPACE 12 Bandpass enclosure is now available to UK dealers. It’s loaded with VIBE’s best-selling Space 12 Dual 4. subwoofer, known worldwide for reproducing deep hard bass punch without compromising on sound quality. The Space subwoofer has been described by pundits as “perfection in low frequency sound reproduction” and is ideal for those looking for a reference-quality subwoofer capable of powerful SPL. The Space Bandpass 12 was engineered using VIBE Audio’s pressure wedge enclosure geometry resulting in dramatic performance increases. This band-pass design develops three times the bass power of a conventional sealed or ported enclosure. It’s finished to high standard with a sleek Carbon Fibre effect and features dual four inch flared VIBE TurboPorts to give smoother airflow and cleaner reference tight bass. The VIBE Port Plugs supplied can be used for variable tuning options of +/- 5Hz. Midbass claim that it will outperform the vast majority of sealed and ported enclosures on the market. Designed to deliver bass punch and depth on an epic scale, the Space Bandpass 12 cannot be ignored. The UK RRP of the Space Bandpass 12 Enclosure is £349.99.

Midbass 0870 7658423 www.midbass.co.uk

FREQUENCY IS NEW UK DISTRIBUTOR FOR BRACKETRON RANGE The Frequency mobile communications distribution group is the new UK distributot of the Bracketron range of car mounts and accessories for mobile and hand-held technology.

The Bracketron portfolio covers GPS units, smartphones, mobile devices, lapbooks, netbooks and tablets. Bracketron mountings can be installed via window, dashboard, air vent, visor, cup or charging socket. Each product is carefully developed to ensure maximum flexibility and functionality.

Frequency will distribute Bracketron products through its established European retail and wholesale mobile channels and explore other relevant channel opportunities. Frequency’s sales and purchasing Director John Willoughby said: “As Frequency expands its range of quality brands, we are delighted to welcome Bracketron into our portfolio. Bracketron offers innovative, well-engineered solutions for the latest devices and we’re confident that there is a growing demand for these products.”

Mark Overgard, Bracketron’s Vice President of Strategic Sales and Marketing adds, “We are delighted to be working with such a professional distributor as Frequency in the UK and Europe, we look forward to a successful relationship between the two companies.”

Frequency Telecom 020 8397 2222 www.frequencytelecom.co.uk

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STEVE MCLEAN JOINS DMC Although you may not have heard of them, distributor DMC are celebrating 20 years in business this year.

Having acquired the assets of the Imcopex Group in 2010 they have procured the services of Steve McLean to spearhead their new venture in the aftermarket vehicle electronics sector. Steve told MEN “DMC have an enviable reputation in their core business for competitive pricing and excellent customer service and I am proud to be associated with them”.

Call them now for all your in car electronics needs.

Contact: DMC 0844 736 1144 or email steve.mclean@dmcplc.co.uk

Nextbase Click & Go Nextbase introduces the world’s only iPad active car mount for enjoying car journeys at the back seat of your car adopting the patented Click & Go technology.

Nextbase’s Click & Go iPad Active Car Mount provides a safe and neat way for rear seat passengers to use an iPad. When going on a long journey simply slide your iPad into the car mount where it will automatically connect so you can work, watch or play while re-charging your iPad. Passengers can enjoy great sound via optional infrared head phones. Another outstanding feature is the built-in iPad camera connection kit which supports USB flash drive and card reader.

Photos can be easily transferred from your camera to iPad anytime, anywhere during journeys.

Nextbase’s Click & Go system is an automotive safety-tested mounting offering superior convenience and design factor to mount rear seat entertainment systems like Nextbase iPad Active Car Mount and Nextbase In-Car Click DVD players. The whole system is tested to be safe and be easy to use. After the initial installation the user can slide in and out DVD players or iPad car mount without connecting any cables.

Nextbase 0203 195 0877 www.nextbase.co.uk

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NEWS

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NEW MUTANT ARRIVALS Addressing the mass market area for entry-level audio, Mutant have created the M Series range. The MT-M69 with a suggested retail price of £19.99, is the first product introduction in the range, a 6x9 inch three-way speaker which is already seeing large volumes moving through to consumers and should be worth stocking up to maximise on this market.

Another Mutant introduction is the MT6201DVD head unit, a CD/DVD Tuner with three inch touch screen. This high specification head unit, as well as playing DVDs and CDs, has USB and SD inputs, EQ,

dual zone and a remote control all for £129.99 retail price.

Armour Auto 01420 487110 www.armourauto.com

NEW KICKER KIT New for 2011 is an improved version of the market-leading L7 square subwoofer. Modifications include a stunning new cone and basket design. Sizes available for the L7 are from eight to 15 inches with SRPs ranging from £189.99 to £349.99.

Additionally the consumer can now be square for less with the brand new L3. All the same square benefits of shifting more air than its round counterparts, the L3 requires less power to run.

They are available in sizes from 10 to 15 inches from £129.99 to £229.99 suggested retail prices.

Kicker has also upgraded all of their amplifier ranges for 2011 not only to give them a new appearance but to now include Kicker’s new FIT - Fail-Safe Integration Technology system that enables easy integration to any audio system whether OEM or aftemarket.

FIT accepts output from virtually any source unit, be it factory or aftermarket, from low signal level to high level speaker input. FIT also has isolated inputs which reject electrical interference for noise-free operation. It has three amplifier activation modes to interface with virtually any vehicle’s electrical system. All Kicker amplifier ranges include Mono, two, four and five channel variants in a variety of power ratings. Check out the new range at HYPERLINK “http://www. kicker.com/amplifiers” www.kicker.com/amplifiers. Kicker has also come up with a new app that is designed as a sales/install tool for dealers. It offers handy hints and tips plus specifications for impedance for single/ dual voice coils. Other useful info includes box building calculations and technical specifications for its subwoofers. The app works with iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad and can be found on iTunes by searching for ‘kicker u.’

Armour Auto 01420 487110 www.armourauto.com

OBITUARY Pete Dennis - 1979 to 2011 With its links to the performance car industry, all the MEN team were saddened to learn that Pete Dennis, Managing Director of The Performance Company, has died after being tragically involved in a motorcycle accident in early March. General Manager Matthew Wootton said: “It’s a huge shock for everyone including his work colleagues, friends and family. We’ll all miss you Pete very, very much.” Publisher Charlotte Body added: “Pete had a real zest for life and his passion for the performance industry was infectious. It’s tragic that his life has been cut short. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this very difficult time.”

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SOCKITOOME!

Big installs sometimes require removal of under-bonnet components and here Laser Tools has a solution with its newly released 3/8 drive socket set specifically designed to tackle access to pipe connectors and wired sensor units and can be used for the loosening of ABS pipes etcetera. The set comprises six sockets: 10mm, 11mm, 12mm, 14mm, 17mm and 19mm, mounted on a socket rail. A useful and time-saving addition to the professional’s toolbox all for less than forty quid.

Tool Connection 01926 815 000 www.lasertools.co.uk

NEW FROM KENWOOD Kenwood has launched its first SD and SD HC card player, the KDC-4751SD. It also has USB and iPod Direct plus MOSFET 4x50W. A new look mid-range model KDC5051U, has new direct radio preset key and log key This log key allows you to select ‘last used’ function such as contacts, iPod selections and radio stations etcetera.

The new KDC-BT31, 41 and 51U models get inbuilt Parrot Bluetooth with optional external mic option on all but the entry models, the same applies to iPod Direct and even the entry model gets a USB input.

New look double DIN model DPX404U is a great OE head unit replacement with a pair of stereo pre-outs and OEM wired remote interface plus Apple/USB connectivity.

The Multimedia DNX5280BT has a detachable front panel and ‘photo view’ junctions and multi option route selection (only one route offered previously).

Kenwood Electronics 01923 816444 www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk

The new KDCBT31, 41 and 51U models get inbuilt Parrot Bluetooth with optional external microphone

New look double DIN DPX404U

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ICE HEROES NIGHT

|2011

THEY CALLED IT A NIGHT TO REMEMBER Beer, curry and burlesque – one hell of a night with the industry celebrating the Ice Heroes Awards held on Tuesday evening at the Lady G’s Casino at the Ricoh Arena. It provided a great chance to network and have fun.

The Awards were presented by the lovely Burlesque dancers of the evening and the master of ceremonies for the event was the irrepressible Adam Rayner up on stage to present the Award-winners with their commemorative framed mementos of a great fun night.

Curry was munched and the drinks flowed freely and the highly revealing dancing girls (all done in the very best of taste!) strutted their stuff to the delight of the crowd.

What time did it finish? Well it was a bit late and there were some not-so-early starters in the morning but that’s show-bizz!

Charlotte and the Creative Media team would like to thank everybody who came along and made it such a great night. Roll on 2012!

ICE HERO AWARD WINNERS ICE HERO HERO AWARD (Sponsored By Connects2): Graham Johnson – ex-Alpine sales director – this man has seen it all in the industry, but is not telling!

UNIQUE SALES APPROACH & BRAND SUPPORT: Waz at B&B, Prestige Installations.

Awarded by popular demand, this man is definitely is unique!

REAR OF THE YEAR: Anthony Merrick, Kenwood’s Marketing Services Manager – Undisputed Champion of Rear of the Year.

MOOBS OF THE YEAR: Adam Rayner, MEN journalist and MC and Talk Audio dude (Moobs – man boobs! Just in case you were wondering).

BATMAN & ROBIN AWARD: Tony Green and Andy Marsden, CEL TRADE’s Dynamic Sales and Marketing Duo (MEN Publisher Charlotte would like personally like to thank them for

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keeping the Mobile Electronics Industry safe at night!)

NORTHERNER OF THE YEAR: Source Sound’s Paul Ellis – possibly the most astute installer in the industry today.

SOUTHERNER OF THE YEAR: Mike Smith, Armour Automotive’s Marketing Manager is actually SOUTH WESTERNER OF THE YEAR being a Gloucestershire boy. A goodhumoured man on a mission who even likes northerners!

WONDERWOMAN: Bradina Freedman, ACIM, Parrot’s Trade Marketing Manager is our switched-on arch-marketeer and woman!

(And good at keeping journalists on their toes!)

SUPERMAN: SmarTrack’s honest Jim Mather, dynamic Managing Director of a company devoted to service – he says he doesn’t have to do it, he’s doing it to show how it’s done!

Could this man work any harder? Just keep the Kryptonite at bay..

XMEN AWARD: Celsus – Although they don’t look like mutants(?) they come together to make one of the most powerful teams of all times.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Emilia Cops, Creative Media’s hard-working Associate Publisher has to put up with Adam Rayner and Martyn Williams – that’s showbiz!

SUPERWOMAN: Charlotte Body. Creative Media’s Publisher usually knows about everything going on, but not this one! Plenty of exhibitors agreed that sure, the Show is a commercial venture, but an essential display of the health and continuity of the Mobile Electronics Industry. Good on yer Charlotte!

Smartrack’s Jim Mather is Superman

Wonderwoman Bradina Freedman

ICE Hero winner Graham Johnson

Mike Smith celebrates his win in style

MEN publisher Charlotte Body gets her award (far left). Designer Loraine Winter (left) Emilia Cops and PA Shauna Peters (above) ensure the evening runs smoothly

VIBE DEMO CAR

Fully loaded with Vibe’s BlackAir, this white monster is has 350bhp under the bonnet and 10.5 kilowatts in the boot

WHITE, BLACK AND LOUD With a 2.5 litre engine and 350bhp, the Ford Focus RS is the ultimate hot hatch.

Intensely desirable and with the performance to back it up, the RS is the perfect vehicle to showcase VIBE’s BlackAir range. The Focus has three BlackBox Bass 1 amplifiers (max power 2,500 Watts each) and three BlackBox Stereo 4 (max power 1,000 Watts each) so there’s a potential maximum of 10,500 Watts in all.

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|2011

VIBE Ford Focus RS Kit List

T

he Focus RS has one of Vibe’s best installs to date, with the brief simply to ‘make it loud’! The install was completed by Midbass’ in-house workshop team and VIBE Technical Manager Rob Gurney. To start with the car was completely stripped of all interior trim and all the seats were removed. Once the car was a blank canvas to work with, the Vibe install team covered the whole car in AntiVIBE Sound Deadening to reduce rattling and vibrations for a cleaner bass sound.

l Six BlackAir 12 inch Subwoofers l T hree LiteAir 6 inch Component Speakers l T wo BlackAir 6x9 inch Speakers l T hree BlackBox Bass 1 Amplifiers l T hree BlackBox Stereo 4 Amplifiers l One DeltaBox Bass Generator lV IBE Critical Link Wiring and Accessories were used throughout

install at every stage can be seen on VIBE’s YouTube Channel - youtube. com/vibeaudio.

The prime directive of the system was to build an install of exceptional the quality that seamlessly integrates with the car – almost like it rolled off the Ford production line with the audio already installed. Although it would never be on Ford’s agenda, it has the sort of integrated quality expected if they did!

The VIBE Ford Focus RS will be at UK events and VIBE Superstores throughout 2011.

A walled enclosure was constructed from one inch thick MDF which was jointed, glued, screwed and braced for absolute rigidity. The unique shape of the bass box with its triangular ports were chosen for their unusual aesthetic which makes the enclosure look like two boxes stacked (it is in fact one very large single enclosure). The pavement-shaking bass is provided by six 12 inch BlackAir subwoofers.

Custom door cards were designed to seamlessly integrate with the look of the car and built to accommodate three LiteAir six inch woofers. A trio of LiteAir tweeters are housed in custom MDF tweeter pods in the A pillars and finished with a carbon fibre trim. The boot has a full laminated glass fibre section housing an amplifier rack and 6x9 speaker pods and is enhanced with blue LED down-lighters to complete the effect.

A VIBE DeltaBox Bass Generator is hidden in the glove box, allowing fine tuning of the system. Its built-in tone generator provides bass on demand. A video diary following the Ford Focus www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

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EXPO 2011 REVIEW

|2011

E R O C HARD SIASM ENTHU PO SHOW FOR EX When times get tough, the tough get going – never has an Expo been quite like the Ricoh Arena bash of 2011 which goes down in history as being the most positive experience for exhibitors confronted by a breed of dealer who is surviving the storm and is hungry to find interesting products that they can successfully market to their customers. Our review covers the many opinions and some products and services seen for the first time at the Show. If you missed out this year, you may be missing new opportunities that maybe your rivals haven’t! Our thanks go to everyone who put in the effort to make MEN EXPO such a feel-good Show. It will be back next year at the same fantastic venue, the Ricoh Arena, Coventry on Tuesday and Wednesday March 13 and 14 in the Olympic year 2012.

Just a reminder that bookings for next year have already been made by some manufacturers and distributors. Get in early for prime position and top value rates by contacting Charlotte Body, Creative Media’s Publisher. Charlotte and her team can be contacted on 01268 754897.

ALPINE There were dealers in deep discussion on the stand throughout, looking at the 2011 kit, especially the new high end processor and that superb IVA-D800R single-DIN motorised screen AV paragon used in the Infiniti. Keith Holness said, “It’s the major show for our industry. We loved it and look forward to next year. We feel we should be there and were glad to meet our dealers. A very high percentage of our dealers go – and two days isn’t like the eleven days of motorshow….”

There is a video to be found on the YouTube Presenterbloke channel all about the Infiniti, filmed with Atsuhiro Takeda at the show.

Contact: Alpine Electronics, 0845 3131650 or alpine-electronics.co.uk

ANTENNENTECHNIK ABB Antennentechnik was giving away its latest 2011 catalogue at the stand and showing lots of antennas designed to improve borderline DAB reception.

Fraser Marketing’s Barry Gough on the stand was impressed with Show attendance, he said: “Loads of dealers were positive about DAB and loved the hideaway tuner. We found that most dealers were looking for an auxiliary output rather than an FM modulator.”

DAB tuner offerings on the stand included two single DIN and one double DIN unit all with SD/USB inputs and FM tuners and the soon-to-be-launched H-9000 ‘black box’ DAB tuner designed to be hidden away and seamlessly integrate with OE and aftermarket head units. It displays station names via an AV output or uses a small LCD screen which can be fixed to a convenient spot on the dash.

Contact: Antennentechnik on 07734 420864 or www.antenne-ag.de and Barry Gough on 01536 407196

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EXPO 2011 REVIEW

|2011 ARMOUR AUTOMOTIVE The ebullient and infectiously enthusiastic Mike Smith (left) was in his element at Expo, really enjoying the new thrust that Armour are putting behind Autoleads. It remains a core strength for them and is directly targeted towards those who come to expo - the dealers and installers of comms and ice. They had a serious wall full of everything Autoleads on show. Dead impressive. This writer wanted to start at one end and collect up some tool storage and hardware from the Autoleads-offered Draper kit, then go along the system collecting a heap of stuff like a trolley dash! Mike pointed out that while most dealers know they distribute Orion, Focal and Autoleads, they have now added Oxygen written as ‘O2’ with their fabulous iPhone-affixing headunit and that the TechConnect cables are a fabulously popular item and will keep your customers from needing to go off to that big out of town computer store. Along with installer tools of gentle genius – like the cable-running rod system, and all the cradles and mounts you can ever need (there’s 400 phone brackets, f’rinstance) there’s HushMat sound deadening products as well. So more than ever, Armour really are that one-stop from highest of high end to the outer limits of boom, via everything sane in between. Mr. Smith was very impressed with the show and said, “Expo is still the definitive industry show to come to and it’s a step change in terms of the bar being raised this year.”

Contact: Armour Auto 01420 487110 www.armourauto.com

AUTOSOUND Blaupunkt are not just alive and well at their new UK distributors Autosound but thriving and the same engineers in Germany are still the blokes making and developing the products. The huge sea changes in the background needn’t register to your Blaupunkt-demographic end customers and I can reveal that Blau stuff will also be being written about in the consumer magazine on www.talkaudio.co.uk in future in a deal secured at the show! A perfect adjunct for their status as kings of the big bus install, Autosound have been equipping the UK’s coaching industry with Blau multimedia for twenty five years.

Their Funtoro media on demand system is like an aircraft media delivery system for use on the road. Made by notebook PC maker MSi, they are high end quality. Primarily for buses, it is configured six seats per hub unit up to a bus full. Would be awesome in a people carrier!

Contact: Autosound, 01274 688812 or autosound.co.uk

BURY TECHNOLOGIES A major player in the Bluetooth world, Bury had their latest products on show, with Nick Burrows and Paul Harrison amongst those on hand to offer detail to dealers. The new entry level Bury Classic CC9060 and Crystal CL1010 were their big stories with the lovely USP on offer that a Bury kit can save your customers money by use of the mileage logger function. With easy laptop transfer, you can keep records of personal versus business mileage on a company car and avoid some tax. TUV certified of course, we see Christian Spaul voted into the corporate shot by his bosses. Conversely the product also enables even large organisations to have their staff use their own vehicles for work. A wicked fleet-sale tool you should investigate.

Contact: Bury technolgies:, 01489 881118

BASEZONE Wolverhampton-based company BassZone had a really heavy demonstration Merc Vito van loaded to the gills with 16 subs of 15 inch diameter with 78kWatts of amplification.

Company owner Al Moses (right) had an excellent show, he added: “I am one hundred percent sure about being here next year.”

Al was showing some new double 12 and four-port boxes and was talking about one of his latest big boxes, an eight by 12 inch monster.

Contact: 01902 731178 www.basszoneex31-3.co.uk

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EXPO 2011 REVIEW CEL TRADE

CAR AUDIO & SECURITY Car Audio & Security’s Raj Sangha was enthusiastic about the Show and was able to talk to dealers in a relaxed atmosphere, he told MEN: “We are a onestop shop with a vast range of products from ISO leads to big JBL packages.

Something we avoid is trying to push stuff onto the trade just because it’s where we make the most margin, we like to advise dealers about products that will sell well in their shops.” Most popular of all were the demo cars and JBL’s MS-8 processor. The MS-8 has an excellent stereo focus in the car with exceptionally high staging, all helped with a measurement process inside the car which features a microphone fixed to a headphone arrangement to ensure accurate speaker-to-ear measurements. Raj reports a good level of sales for the processor, he commented: “It’s very reliable too, we have had zero returns so far.”

Contact: Car Audio Security, 020 85969 1543 www.caraudiosecurity.com

The largest and the most constantly busy stand was CEL TRADE with its pink and green theme of Muc-Off and CEL TRADE’s hard launch of Fusion products (previously soft-launched late 2010 to test the market). Ice Heroes Award-winners Batman and Robin - Tony Green and Andy Marsden, were on the stand and, talking about product, Andy said: “We are offering excellent MucOff deals to stand visitors and we now have a serious launch of Fusion, a brand which will make dealers a decent margin and have signed up a lot of new accounts and dealers are enthusiastic about Fusion.

We are planning on only having a limited number of dealers around the country handling Fusion.”

CEL TRADE’s IT guru David Smith was demonstrating the company’s IT portal designed to make dealers accounting, orders and direct shipping easier. It’s an interactive tool which allows dealers to streamline the order and administration cycle. It is designed to be customer configurable to help integration with dealers back office ordering systems. Whilst this is in its beta version, anybody who would like to have more information can call David on 0116 244 9848 or email ds@celtrade.com. Also on show was the brand new Sony 2011 range and the launch of the TOM TOM Professional Fit – an excellent profit-making opportunity for installers. Plenty of info was available including a range of product brochures for trucking, commercial, motor bike, marine, tracking and fleet management.

The 2011 Garmin automotive range was on show and attracting interest, as was Cobra tracking and the SIM card-based speed cam warning system, Coyote.

Some extra special EXPO-only offers on the stand were popular with dealers – don’t bother to phone up about them now as they were exclusive to the Show!

Contact: 0116 2449846 or www.celtrade.com

CHAMELEON

CELSUS UK Celsus ICE, purveyors of the JL Audio, Dynamat, MTX, Caliber Stinger, Helix Plug-and-Play and their own Celsus branded connection products, were as bullish as ever. Especially with the only-just-arrived Helix Da Box DAB product.

Chris Bennett was a big part of the crucial DAB seminar that was held at the show, with the chap from the not-for-profit Digital Radio Switchover organisation there to explain some government policy to dealers and answer questions. Afterwards, Chris Bennett said, “We are on a DAB mountain now and ready to kick the snowball off and watch it gain momentum.

For 2011, DAB is the hot potato, the shot in the arm to kick-start the industry again.” He added, “I have to say that Expo was very impressive, with the highest quality attendees I have ever experienced. No Tyre Kickers, lots of new customers.” So if you have urges in the DAB direction and you should, Celsus are top-drawer experts on OEM solutions.

Contact: Celsus 01202 664 390 or www. celsusice.co.uk

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Chameleon distribute a vast range of automotive enhancement products from parking sensors to cellular items and were showing their Econospeed fleet management product. The ultimate in Big Brother vehicle management, it can control rates of acceleration and top permitted speeds. The crucially important fact is that since their products are intensely technical in application, they support a network of one hundred and twenty engineers, 70% of whom have worked with Chameleon for over ten years.

The Econospeed product plugs into the OBD socket (On Board Diagnostic) and works from the speed pulse. Best of all, it gives the fleet manager complete remote control from £149 per vehicle – and that includes a proper margin for dealers.

Contact: Chameleon 01206 500848 or www.thechameleongroup.co.uk

C-KO INTERNATIONAL There was a Show launch of a lifetime warranty for all C-KO parking sensors which was well received.

Much interest was shown in C-KO’s range of screen units designed to fit the increasing range of OE active headrests which after making an appearance in up-market Mercedes and Audi for instance, are now becoming more common in Vauxhall and Chevrolet cars to name but two.

Regional Sales guy Tony Rook thought that the vast range of finishes available brought extra interest from dealers, he said: “We can supply car-specific leather colour and finishes including matching stitching.”

Contact: C-KO 020 8863 8333 www.c-ko.co.uk

|2011 COBRA Sales Director Miles Garner reported lots of interest in the AV7700 Rosen screen built for active headrests with only a 1.5 inch mounting depth. Dealer interest was also focussed on the NSV Bluetooth hands-free systems which doesn’t require a software upgrade if the customer changes to say, an iPhone 4. Other items of interest included the new Parkmaster OE-style flushmount sensor which only requires a 17mm hole. Lots of interest also in Coyote, Europe’s leading speed camera safety solution which is automatically updated via GPRS without the need to plug it into the internet.

Contact: Cobra Uk Limited www.cobra-at.com/uk

CONRAD ANDERSON One of the most popular products at the show attracting enquiries is the company’s non-CAN-Bus cruise control and speed limiter. One of the fastest-selling units is the GC90SL speed limiter, ideal for small fleets where the operator wants to control the maximum speed of the vehicle, particularly when it is running in. Sales and Marketing man Nathan Onions told MEN that Speed limiters sales might be heading for a boost in the 3.5 tonnes to 7.5 tonnes commercial vehicle sector is limiter legislation, rumoured to be on the horizon, is introduced.

Contact: Conrad Anderson 0800 279 6939 or www.conrad-anderson.co.uk

DALTEC & NOVERO CONNECTS2 Show sponsors Connects2 had a large well-manned stand as befits the leading supplier. Connects2’s UK Sales Manager Josh Beddow was on hand to talk us through the very latest product being shown for the first time in public at Expo, C2Mobile, an application downloadable to Apple and Android phones. Once installed it allows a quick search across Connects2’s full product guide including information, specifications, images and fitting instructions. There’s also a quick link through to C2’s Twitter news feed showing new products and for the latest videos and product demos there are links to Facebook and YouTube.

TK30 integration kits were on show and Connects2 unveiled one of the most exciting products at the Show, their integrated DAB tuner (for more details see the DAB product focus pages in this issue).

Contact: Connects2, 0845 2575588 or connects2.com

Steve Warren on the stand reported high levels of interest in the Novus Eye BlackVue witness camera. He said: It’s like having a fleet manager sitting next to the employee - fuel economy and general wear and tear is improved and it’s also ideal for proof of delivery. People are also buying them for track days.” The BlackVue will also motion-detect making it ideal for in-car CCTV. It’s a unit that can be sold anywhere and has been bought by light aircraft pilots and baloonists Contact: www.dal-tec.com, tel: 0208 515 7820

CLARION GB Clarion staff were impressed by this year’s turnout of enthusiastic dealers, a couple of them brought up the subject of fellow dealers reselling on-line and asked about more orderly marketing of product. Also mentioned was the preference for USB sockets on the rear of head units – just one of the reasons why Clarion’s double DIN units are popular.

Contact: Clarion GB 01793 870400 or www.clarion.com/gb

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EXPO 2011 REVIEW KENWOOD Kenwood had their Smart Car sat on a nearby stand belonging to the Digital Radio Switchover people, as well as their Huets-built Scirocco demo car and a set of easy to understand demo stands on their own, with a DAB emphasis. Mike Edwards told our reporter, “It’s all about DAB this year for the 2011 range of products.”

Mike went on to explain that he sees the potential business for DAB as phenomenal and revealed that they are going to be putting a big effort behind their dealers with help with local paper and radio station advertising support while the car is with them on its national tour.

Contact: Kenwood, 01923 816444 or kenwood-electronics.co.uk

DENSION Dension’s new Car Dock for iPhone attracted much attention for its simplicity of control, particularly the big button graphic interface.

Peter Oughton, Dension’s Automotive Product Manager, told MEN: “We’ve had dealers asking us about web radio and I think there could be an internet verses DAB question in year’s to come when 4g comes to the UK. This will result in a better 3g network and could be a boost for web radio.”

Contact: Dension, 01494 898950 or dension.com

JVC JVC’s Neil Stewart told us, “It’s been really good, we have seen a lot of new customers that are very excited at our new range, DAB of course being at the forefront of it.” They had a brilliant dealer competition open to all, with a prize of two tickets to the Porsche Driving Experience.

You just had to guess the SRP of the kit in the car…..

Contact: JVC, jvcmobile.com

DIGITAL RADIO UK

ELECTRONICS WORLDWIDE Owner Chris Williams was extremely busy on the Electronics Worldwide stand. Popular items were CAN-Bus xenons which don’t upset warning lights and wiper motors on Audis. He was also surprised at how fast the under-floor LED kits sold.

Chris said: “We have an internet service which is going well with installers called in-car-installs. co.uk which works like a dating agency – people with product are hooked up with installers – it’s as simple as that. Give me a call if you are interested.”

Contact: Electronics Worldwide, 01928 759239 or electronics-worldwide.com

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Sam Bonham and Laurence Harrison were talking about digital radio coverage, content and listening, as well as the benefits of digital radio. If you have any questions, email sam. bonham@digitalradiouk.com.

They were on Kenwood’s sub-stand showing their DAB demo Smart car available to dealers on request (book early!)

Contact: Kenwood, 01923 816444 or Kenwood-Electronics.co.uk

FUSION Matthew Forbes, general manager of Fusion’s shiny new UK operation told M.E.N. “We’re back!”

He has Ed Harmer on the case as his National Account manager and they work directly for Fusion in NZ. Distributed and sold by CEL TRADE, the brand is here again with a vengeance.

There’s the CS entry level range, the S for slim stuff and the CP performance product as well as serious mature marine line that is established as the leader in the southern hemisphere. There are some amazing products in the pipeline we are told, with headunits, screens and others.

Contact: 0116 2449846 or www.celtrade.com

|2011 GEMINI One of their most popular on products at the Show was the 931T Thatcham 2-1 CAN-Bus/universal PLIP upgrade with a single touchkey override. Gemini’s Neil Hayes was demonstrating their latest product, a very high specification hydraulics locking system aimed mainly at site vehicles called the Mek Lock system designed to offer complete immobilisation essential for tamper-free safety.

Contact: Gemini 0870 2402554 or www.gemini-alarm.com

MEDIA IN MOTION Not part of the Midbass empire, despite being at the same address, this is a three-SKU business with three ascending levels of cool of the essentially same device – a media server for the car. Boss Jason Beddow filled us in, “It’s all about retaining factory equipment and yet achieving full integration with it.” Dubbed the DVB Logic, Blue Logic and USB Logic, they comprise a black box and connecting hardware. DVB adds telly and AV via an extra input, while the Blue Logic adds telephony at remote and the USB product allowing up to a whopping TWO Terabytes of movies, pictures, music, whatever, to be appended to the system. Jason stated, “It’s been an excellent show for us as a new company, we have made sixty or seventy contacts.”

Contact: Media in Motion 0121 311 9011 or www.media-in-motion.co.uk

IN CAR TECHNOLOGIES The brainchild of Steve Patient, who started Autoleads before it got swallowed up by Armour, Steve is the single most reverseengineered designer in the UK and supplied the very first generally available power wire distribution blocks in the UK. His ICT outfit supply all sorts of fitting solutions and are the distributors in the UK of the Scosche product that includes headphones and a brilliant Bluetooth add on device called Motormouth (can’t think why Ed Unit felt it was so me…) that plugs into your auxiliary input and creates a hands free Bluetooth system in your car using what’s already in there.

Contact: In Car technologies 01420 478053 or www. incartechnology.co.uk

iGRIP Mark Pearce and Scott Bouquet were on the Strax stand, displaying their mobile phone accessories and cases. Described as ‘strategic accessories solutions’ the big story at the show for them was the Xqisit line of made-for Apple, BlackBerry and HTC as well as universal products. Their high end stuff goes under the Element brand and the chaps told MEN that their main focus for being at the show was to exhibit their partnership with iGrip.

These come as simple phone holders, or holders with chargers and finally as phone holders that charge and run Bluetooth with their own internal loudspeaker. Unusually, they are members of not just the iPod and iPhone ‘made for’ schemes but also that for BlackBerry as well.

Contact: www.igrip.eu

MIDBASS One of the largest stands of the show, Midbass had the lovely Tiffany their ‘new R&D manager’ who has been featuring in the recent series of promotional videos, on the stand. As well as some of the superb existing demo cars, they had two new ones in the shape of the Black Air Ford Focus RS and the new Fli Corsa. There’s a new rude-named Flu Underground brand launched at the show (well, the F.U. and singledigit salute logo are kinda edgy) and interest was high. Ryan Hawtin told M.E.N. “We had a great 2010 and are here to kick off 2011 with our new products.” One really cool feature nestling underneath the mad Black Death display coffin-board on their exhibit was the multispeaker demonstrator that you can switch different speakers in and out of to use while playing a driving game on a console with screen, all attached to the one small sit-inside stand.

Contact: Midbass, 0870 7658423 or midbass.co.uk

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EXPO 2011 REVIEW RAM MOUNT It was Ram Mount’s first ever Expo and we learned about some really cool equipment mounting stuff and also that some of their contracts are with customers they are not allowed to talk about which clearly means that their stuff is in either forces or military use to add gosh knows what to far more than mere road cars! Seen here, an up to the moment iPad mounting system.

Based around serious ball and socket joints, the system has been described as ‘Meccano With Balls’. With customers like DHL under their belts, you know they are serious – that was 4,000 units. What ever you may want to mount in a vehicle that has no real place to fit it, Ram Mount have a product that can help.

Contact: RAM Mount at www.ram-mount.co.uk

SCORPION

SMARTRACK SmarTrack’s vehicle tracker and asset location solution is about to be appointed Thatcham CAT 5 with possible CAT 6 grading coming up for other products in the range.

Dealers were impressed by the four minute average period for tracker registration – part of the service in which the company is concentrating on being the best in the industry, allowing dealers to talk to real people on the other end of the line. SmarTrack’s ‘buy one, get one free’ Show offer meant that their stand was kept busy throughout the Show.

Contact: Smartrack 0800 048 3552 or www.smartrack.eu

Scorpion sales supremos Gary Kirby and Richard Andrews were on hand demonstrating their new tracking product to interested dealers who were impressed by the fast registration and infrastructure. Gary said: “We spoke to lots of dealers with a passion for new product, they are hungry for new things to market and move forward with.”

Contact: Scorpion Auto, 01257 249928 or scorpionauto.com

PARROT The big story for Parrot was their tremendously anticipated Asteroid headunit. Their world class Bluetooth technology is used by many OEMs as well as Pioneer, Alpine and Kenwood and Asif Gillani revealed that, “It’s been very good, a great opportunity to talk to dealers. We do road shows but this allows marketing, technical and sales staff to all be in the same place with our customers.” The seminal game-changer headunit has been featured in national press and I gather on Top Gear as well. Since 88% of the whole Bluetooth market belongs to Parrot, it’s no surprise to learn of the cool stuff like the Philippe Starke speakers and Drone iPhoneapp controlled Bluetooth helicopter but the apps yet to be developed by for the Asteroid will be what excites the most.

Contact: Parrot, 0844 472 2360 or parrot.com/uk

STEELMATE AUTOMOTIVE Steelmate’s front and rear parking sensors were popular items on the stand with giveaways attracting plenty of dealers who were interested in the sensor heads which could be angled over six, 10 and 13 degrees and now carry a lifetime warranty.

A big focus of attention was Steelmate’s tyre pressure monitoring system, the TP-01 which displays tyre pressure and temperature. Many dealers weren’t aware of this product and the excellent margins offered.

Contact: Steelmate Automotive, 01582 475677 or www.steel-mate.co.uk

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|2011 IO The iO stand was busy showing dealers products such as the second generation range of iO Play2 and iO Talk2, plus dash brackets and a new range of custom-tooled fascia adaptors. Autoleads products will play a major part with items including iPod interfaces to allow the play, charge and control of an iPod through the OEM head unit; using the OEM head unit controls.

Contact: Armour Auto 0800 7839125 or www.armourauto.com

METASYSTEM The company had on display its high-performance parking sensors, car and motorcycle alarms, locking systems and immobilisers, tracking systems and Bluetooth kits. Metasystem products are specified or approved by many of the world’s leading car manufacturers, and many of them have been approved by the motor insurance industry.

Contact: Metasystem 0208 867 2340 www.vestatec.co.uk

INVISION Audiovox’s INVISION is one of the world’s leading rear seat entertainment providers and the company was at the show supporting their UK distributor, Daltec.

Business Development Manager Damian Trybuszewski was on hand to show dealers the latest monitor designed to fit active headrests. Damian said: “It’s a really simple ‘screw ‘n’ play’ system which only needs about a couple of hours to install.”

Contact: www.dal-tec.com, tel: 0208 515 7820

It was great to see manufacturers and distributors supporting the Industry, it is very important to have this trade event. The venue was great and very well organised.

The party was fantastic a great opportunity to unite dealers and suppliers in a relaxed atmosphere.

Paul Ellis Source sounds

IFITSTUFF ifitstuff were appreciated for their team effort during the Show. iFitStuff also thanks its own members who came along to the Installer Challenge which drew a good crowd outside. Ian Mewse took first place, James Patterson second place, and for third place, the prize was split between Ian Levings, Steve Benham and Jason Fletcher.

Prizes were sponsored by Locks4Vans, Steelmate and Parrot. www.ifitstuff.com/forum

AUTOMONITOR The stand was manned by well-known industry personality Hugh McTernan and Technical Director David Green who was on hand to tell MEN that it was nice to see some of their many customers.

Automonitor has recently started to sell Westfalia tow bars, a high quality brand with a wide range of products. Popular on the stand was the paired universal headrests AM-HR8500 which attracted attention.

These are available in vehicle-specific finishes.

Contact: Automonitor 0116 275 2020 www.automonitor.co.uk

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EXPO DAB FORUM

|2011

DIGITAL BROADCASTING A GIFT TO THE INDUSTRY The DAB forum at this year’s EXPO was a seminar centrepiece introduced and moderated by Chris Bennett, European Sales Manager of Celsus with a core speech from Laurence Harrison, Director, at DRUK – Digital Radio UK. Also heading up the forum was Graham Johnson, Business Development Manager, Connects2, Mike Pearce, Alpine Electronics and Mike Edwards Technical Manager, Kenwood Electronics Over 40 dealers attended the DAB forum with Chris Bennett setting a good confrontational pace with his introduction of members of the forum and opening statement.

He said: “This could be our next generator for driving customers through our doors. The industry has changed massively – I have been part of it for 18 years now and things change quickly.

People tell me about ‘the good old days’ and frankly, those days are gone and we don’t want to be experts of the past – we need to look forward to the future. “Gone are the tapes and CDs – the latter generating tremendous revenue for dealers at its peak, but now, it’s the iPod that is the most significant.

“Their has been a massive uptake of DAB in the home, but does the public generally know that they can listen to their favourite stations in the car? The answer is going to be ‘no’ and you can ask yourself, have we taken full advantage of the iPod market? If we have, why are there so many People driving around with ear buds listening directly to compressed music?

“So, when it comes to DAB, ask yourself whether you can afford to ignore the digital switch-over? We need to get into the game right now. We need you to get out there and advertise through local radio stations and through the local press and in your stores and really give it a high profile. As a retailer you have to be there for the public to be seen as the DAB specialist. All the companies at Expo who are involved in DAB are working really hard to help you with marketing including special stands and PoS material in general.

Kenwood had over a third of its Expo stand devoted to DAB and many of the other manufacturer stands are focussing on DAB. “When it comes to selling the hardware, one

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of the things I believe in, is to offer ‘Best, Better, Good’ There will be plenty of people willing to stick a tuner on their windscreen but make sure you offer them a range of better alternatives that will integrate with their system without suckers and wires. Start high and let the customer decide – they often end up somewhere in the middle which is a better position than the cheapest.

“Selling accessories is more relevant to DAB than most because it’s only as good as its weakest link and the weakest link is the aerial. Emphasise the fact that top antennas cost more but are worth it and will add to customer satisfaction.

Chris emphasised that dealers will make sales by making DAB conversions easy to understand and humbly leading a customer through what can be done to their car. This point was underlined by playing the famous video clip of Rowan Atkinson as a hi-fi dealer behind the counter facing Mel Smith who wanted to buy a ‘gramophone’. For anyone who hasn’t seen it, it was a merciless humiliation of the customer for not being familiar with the product he was trying to buy. He also reminded dealers of the importance of a proper demonstration of digital radio and the benefits of a demo car to convince the customer.

Laurence Harrison, Director, at DRUK – Digital Radio UK Chris introduced Laurence Harrison who explained the function of Digital Radio UK and how it is set up to accelerate the market and consumer transition to digital radio and achieve

digital listening and how it is responsible for technology and equipment and market preparation. He said: “FM is now creaking at the seams and, despite media coverage talking about the internet linking of cars, there will be too much data to transmit to make internet radio possible on a large scale - DAB is the future.

“Retailers were absolutely crucial in the digital TV changeover and the same goes for DAB.” Chris posed the question to Laurence: “Will there be a digital radio ‘tick’ branding and will there be accreditation for dealers?”

Laurence replied: “We are currently working on this and there will be plenty of notice about accreditation, an on-line form is a possibility.”

There was a lively question and answer session which kicked off with a dealer question concerning a mid 90s DAB head unit brought into his shop which apparently wasn’t working very well. Could he get it repaired or should he recommend a new set? At least one member of the audience shouted “sell ‘im a new one!”

Tony Green of CEL TRADE asked about solutions to fully-integrated audio systems in cars which was answered by Connects2’s Graham Johnson.

He said: “Anyone who has seen the demo car on the Connects2 stand will see that there is a solution in the form of a hideaway tuner which is fully displayed and controllable with the existing panel and original controls. We’ll have that to market towards the end of the year.”

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DAB FACTS FOCUS

DAB

|2011

Will mobile electronics independent dealers throughout the UK be sporting this sign anytime soon? Or will red tape and inertia, plus an invasion of chains and franchised garages spoil it for all?

WHEN, WHAT AND HOW? Dealers attended the DAB forum at EXPO with high hopes but there’s more to the digital switchover than you might think with questions arising as to when it will happen, what will it entail and how do the DAB formats differ?

What is DAB+?

There is a growing determination within Government circles to see a change over to digital radio in 2015 as outlined by Ed Vaizey MP, with the rather long title of Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, who’s most notable quote as far as dealers are concerned, is as follows: “Retailers are likely to have an important role in the move towards a radio switchover as they are a trusted source of information to consumers.

Retail involvement in the Digital Radio Action Plan will be vital as we seek to resolve a range of other issues – not least of which the many analogue radios that will need to be replaced and recycled as a result of a digital radio switchover.”

What is DMR?

our industry was that DRUK is looking at the producing advertising aimed at the mobile aftermarket and possibly some point of sale material for dealers. He also thinks that the aftermarket will need robust solutions and that pricing (as always!) needs to be right.

New generation tuners and aerials have resulted in products which can be relied upon by dealers to hopefully fit and forget. This will be aided by digital radio transmission coverage (currently at about 89%) promised to be building out to 92% by the end of this year. By 2013, there’s a hope for 99% coverage of the UK. Possibly the most important point about dates is that a 2015 switchover is by no means set in stone, the Government is committed to Digital Radio Switchover policy but before a date is set, two criteria need to be met: National digital coverage has to be equivalent to FM (98%) and local digital coverage has to be equivalent to 90%. The other non-negotiable criteria is that 50% of the public has to be listening to digital platforms.

Retailers are likely to have an important role in the move towards a radio switchover as they are a trusted source of information to consumers Part of the strategic Government plan for DAB included the formation of DRUK – Digital Radio UK last year, headed up by Laurence Harrison who spoke at the EXPO forum.

Vehicle manufacturers in the UK are committed to fitting digital radio as standard to all new models from 2013 which, for the aftermarket, should create an increased awareness and desire from owners of older vehicles.

Laurence’s most important comment to

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The massive commercial opportunity is based on projected retrofit market of over 25 million vehicles. At the moment, it is estimated that fewer than one percent of cars are fitted with digital radios.

With that amount of vehicles being the potential market, dealers can sit back and just take the easy pickings? Maybe not. Laurence Harrison’s parting shot was: “We are looking into the possibility of consumers getting a digital upgrade to their vehicles when they have a service or an MOT.”

This upgraded version of DAB was released in February 2007. DAB is not forward-compatible with DAB+, which means that DAB-only receivers will not be able to receive DAB+ broadcasts.

DAB+ is approximately twice as efficient as DAB due to the adoption of the AAC+ audio codec, and DAB+ can provide high quality audio with as low as 64kbit/s. Reception quality will also be more robust on DAB+ than on DAB due to the addition of Reed-Solomon error correction coding. DAB+ is widely available in Europe.

Digital Radio Mondiale (hence also being called DRM) is a set of digital audio broadcasting technologies designed to work over the bands currently used for AM broadcasting, particularly shortwave. DMR can fit more channels than AM, at higher quality, into a given amount of bandwidth, using various MPEG-4 codecs.

What is DMB? It stands for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting and is a digital radio transmission technology developed in South Korea as part of the national IT project for sending multimedia such as TV, radio and datacasting to mobile devices such as mobile phones. The world’s first official mobile TV service started in South Korea in May 2005. It can operate via satellite (S-DMB) or terrestrial (T-DMB) transmission. DMB has also some similarities with the main competing mobile TV standard, DVB-H.

DAB Futuretech?

A possible development for the future is an EPG – Electronic Programme Guide display feed for hardware with a suitably-sized screen. This could be linked with recording programmes and stored in an addressable library in the same manner as a digital television tuner/recorder.

All three formats are able to operate on the same multiplex which creates an interesting scenario for future developments.

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PRODUCT FOCUS

DAB’LL DO! There has been a splurge of new digital radio products coming onto the market offering better performance both from inbuilt new technology and better transmission coverage Manufacturers and specialist distributors are gearing up for the digital radio revolution which, after an early false start and rumours that it wouldn’t happen in God’s lifetime, is finally on the runway ready for take-off.

CONNECTS2 Without doubt the most significant entry into the market is the Connects2 hideaway DAB tuner designed to interface with OE and aftermarket head units alike. This product is aimed squarely at the install market and Kenwood make sure that DAB reception should provide a solution for customers is good by supplying a stick-on windlooking for a simplified DAB conversion screen aerial (unsuitable for metallic and using their existing equipment which needs heated element glass) (Below) Kenwood DAB no boxes or wiring on show and it is fully compatible with all DAB standards including The new KAC-DAB4551U entry-level, sub £200 CD DAB tuner uses future-proof DAB+ and DMB DAB+ and DMR-R. technology. Just as important, Kenwood make sure that optimum DAB reception is assured by Connects2’s patent-pending tuner boxes are supplying a tried and tested stick-on windscreen aerial with each unit (unsuitable for metallic and currently at the introductory stage and there heated element glass) will be a rolling launch of products during It will auto switch from DAB to FM and back if the DAB signal is lost. It also has an easy ABC 2011. The tuner is small enough to be hidden station search and one-push auto tune. Other features include front panel sockets for USB and away inside the dash of any conventional iPod Direct, Bluetooth ready and OEM wired remote facility. vehicle with little evidence of any changes Kenwood Electronics 01923 816444 www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk to the system apart from being able to receive digital radio stations. Connects2 will be offering a range of antennas to complement the product.

The integration of Connects2 Dabonwheels DAB is seamless and the Dabonwheels, as they state on their website, is the World’s only digital radio dedicated in-car DAB shop. It has an e-commerce site which is full of functions are products and advice for surfers looking for DAB solutions. It’s insight controllable Connects2 is known for its discrete DAB into products and their performance with a suitable aerials is a mine tuners but is launching into an interesting through OE of information with the accent on the importance of being able to area of hidden tuners to upgrade OE and switching, if aftermarket systems pick up a signal, meaning that however good the tuner may be, it will fitted, such never operate properly with an underas steering performing antenna. wheel Dabonwheels has opened an on-line buttons. DAB station names are transmitted trade counter with a massive range using RDS text and are tune-able either by of aerials and accessories – definitely name or genre. An added safety feature worth signing up to for any dealers available from the tuner box is a voicethinking of becoming DAB gurus in their prompted menu system. area.

Connects2 0845 2575588 Dabonwheels Sales@dabonwheels. www.connects2.com co.uk www.dabonwheels.co.uk

34

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

|2011 CELSUS Pure Highway The Highway is an adaptor solution for the car that allows the user to listen to digital radio on the car’s existing FM audio system. It is also possible to connect an iPod or MP3 player and listen to favourite tracks through the car stereo.

Highway is powered from the cigarette lighter socket and attached to the windscreen with a supplied flexible mount. In use, the Highway sends DAB audio to the car’s radio on an FM frequency which is picked up as a stereo radio station.

The packaging forms a good point of sale material with unit and installation images on the box.

Pure 0845 1489002 www.pure.com

Customers will see a massive improvement in reception quality if used with a top quality external antenna

ARMOUR Autoleads Answer Autoleads in conjunction with CTi, an antenna manufacturer owned by Armour Auto, have teamed up to produce a series of solutions to offer a variety of location fitments for aftermarket DAB antennas. Whether screen-mount, body, hideaway, or replacement whip fitting, this enhanced range addresses the need for improved reception when fitting a replacement DAB head unit or separate tuner. Other products in the range include signal boosters and aerial feed splitters.

Ongoing, Armour has committed itself to a programme of developments in the DAB arena that will surface over the coming months.

Armour Auto 01420 487110 www.armourauto.com

JVC

JVC’s KD-DB52 digital radio CD player also has a remote control

Two new DABs from JVC Shipping soon are two new head units from JVC with leading edge DAB reception technology.

Unlike the Kenwood package offering an aerial, JVC believes it will offer a huge opportunity for dealers with the skills to sell and install good antenna solutions.

JVC’s entry-level CD DAB receiver, the KD-DB42 should have an estimated market value of £179.99. The manufacturers claim it’s easy to use with a large and clear display. It is Bluetooth-ready (needs KS-BTA100 Bluetooth adaptor) and a front panel-mounted USB port and 3.5mm Aux in to connect to any other portable analogue or digital music player.

Other highlights include 4x50W MOSFET power, rear aux input, 24-bit DAC, three band parametric EQ, 2.5V line and subwoofer pre-out (Rear/ Subwoofer Switchable), subwoofer control, high-pass filter, steering wheel remote ready.

The higher spec KD-DB52 CD DAB receiver has an estimated market value of £229.99 and is upgraded with a separate variable colour display which allows the display and illumination to be set to different colours for better visibility. The main specification is the same as the model 42 but gains two-way control for iPod and iPhone.

JVC 020 8208 7623 www.jvcmobile.co.uk

New from Celsus Latest DAB products from Celsus include the new DAB Integration interface and Caliber RCD267DBT. The New DAB Integration interface PAS700700 is designed to provide true OE integration by utilising the existing vehicle display and steering controls (when fitted).

The interface works with any OEM radio and provides DAB and DAB+ data on the OEM display providing it has RDS capability. The DAB interface package includes a remote control, ideal for cars without steering wheel controls, plus a hideaway box which results in no visible cables after it has been installed.

The Caliber RCD267DBT is a CD tuner with FM and AM as well as DAB and DAB+ and has a 4x75W output. It has Bluetooth and USB/SD memory playback and will read up to 4GB on an SDHC/MMC card and has MP3 ID3 display capability. It also has a 3.5mm auxiliary jack socket and an external microphone, dual phono outputs and a magnetic mount digital aerial plus a remote control supplied. Both are expected to be available during the summer.

Best performer from Celsus is the ANC767732EA Roof Mount aerial Celsus believe the DAB switch-over will be as important to our industry for generating new business as other technological milestones such as CD, DVD and Bluetooth . A DAB receiver, radio or interface requires a high quality signal to deliver the performance as specified by the factory. The choice of antenna is critical for good performance.

Celsus offer solutions for roof mount, internal mount, external glass mount plus magnetic mount. We always highly recommend an external antenna for optimum performance and Celsus have excellent solutions available. Celsus Director Mark Baker said: “Be first to market with a fully integrated DAB product and gain the benefits as to why our unique solution is guaranteed to drive customers through your door.”

Celsus 01202 664 390 www.celsusice.co.uk

C-KO INTERNATIONAL Stop-press news from C-KO a DAB radio Integration box model DAB-600 is on its way.

It has an AV output for station information and an optional 3.5 in display.

Trade price is thought to be sub £80 excluding antenna.

C-KO 020 8863 8333 www.c-ko.co.uk

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

35

EVENT FOCUS

|2011

MAKE 2011 AN R A E Y L U F T N EVE Despite the decline in modified magazine readership, car shows remain very popular and attendances last year suggested that if anything, they have grown in popularity.

Car shows offer a unique opportunity for dealers, manufacturers and distributors to get close to the general public.

Many companies have enjoyed huge growth in popularity due to show activity and some dealers have managed to turn interest in to sales at shows.

Below are listed some of the most popular national events for 2011 but it is by no means exhaustive. Checking on line for local shows and enthusiast single marque shows. Attending a show is relatively cheap and is never a waste of time if you are able to cover the 3 E’s and engage, educate and entertain. Any event which attracts large numbers of modified clubs will offer a willing audience for your wares.

We would strongly suggest you visit www. emma-uk.net and find out where sound-off competitions are being held this year – these give important context to what you are showing and EMMA competitors are a vital source of demo cars for all kinds of audio systems at all price points.

Japfest – Europe’s biggest Japanese performance car show. Castle Combe, Wiltshire, 14th May. This show is extremely busy as the on track opportunity is much enjoyed by this enthusiastic audience. Attendees are generally all owners of Japanese cars and extremely

36

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

knowledgeable – Not a lot of point turning up with a non-Japanese show car though. www.japfest.co.uk Modified Nationals – Peterborough Show Ground. 27th-29th May 2011.

Another well established show, Modified Nationals has grown massively since finding a permanent home at Peterborough Show ground. The organiser is very welcoming of all things ICE and the lack of track action probably positively affects the trade opportunity. www.modifiednationals.co.uk The Performance Vauxhall Show – The no.

1 performance Vauxhall show. Santa Pod, Northamptonshire, 10th – 12th June.

With a wide cross section of audience, this show has a vibrant family feel about it – Anything Vauxhall goes and the event has proven successful in the past for some In Car Entertainment companies. www.pvshow.co.uk Japfest 2: The Evolution – The ultimate high performance experience. Donington Park, Derby, 10th July. This event was new in 2010 and proved to be very successful. The original Japfest is rammed on both days usually and it is expected that Japfest 2 will prove to be very popular also once established. www.japfest2.co.uk Total Vauxhall Live – The high-octane performance Vauxhall circuit event. Castle Combe, Wiltshire, 30th July.

Also new last year, this show offers track time opportunity to Vauxhall owners which can take some of the interest away from the trade area however, drivers have plenty of time to wait for the chance to drive around the circuit and there are plenty of car clubs in attendance. http://live.totalvauxhall.co.uk ULTIMATE STREET CAR 2011 - Santa Pod 5th to 7th August.

This is an extremely popular show for the younger enthusiast with weekend camping and comedy shows and dancing as important as the cars as is, unfortunately, drinking. The sheer numbers attending mean there is still business to be had here. www.ultimatestreetcar.co.uk Ford Fair – Europe’s biggest and best Ford Festival. Silverstone, Oxfordshire, 7th August.

Well established on the show circuit now.

Despite clashing with USC this show attracts 1000’s of Ford owners. Demographic is slightly younger than fro Jap Fest and Performance Vauxhall but no less enthusiastic and plenty of car clubs to get to know! www.fordfair.co.uk TRAX – The ultimate performance car event.

Silverstone, Oxfordshire, 4th September.

Many see this as the finale show of the year although later shows exist. The show attracts a huge spread of enthusiasts and family day outers. The track action is extremely popular and the trade and car club areas are usually very busy provided the weather stays dry. www.traxshows.co.uk As mentioned up top, this is not an exhaustive list and we haven’t touched on the real enthusiast shows which are all worth some attention. Do your business a favour and attend a couple of shows this year – It could generate fame and fortune for you.

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

37

PRODUCT TRACKERFOCUS

|2011

ON THE RIGHT

TRACK

Tracking products compete heavily with each other mostly with similar pricing for hardware and subscriptions but there are some exceptions as our selection reveals. Each one selected here has some unique selling points which are worth looking at and some have add-ons and methods of working which make them more than just a tracker and more than just a means to detect when a vehicle is being tampered with or stolen.

No pictures of hardware are shown in order to maintain security. There are however, some big differences in size of units which should be of interest to installers.

The item which attracts more interest than any other is how long it takes to initialise and register a new installation. If a tracking company isn’t boasting how quick and pain-free theirs is, it’s worth checking to find the reason why.

Hopefully they were just being modest!

SmaRTRaCk There is a SmarTrack product for all types of vehicles, trailers, recreational items, industrial and fleet.

SmarTrack devices operate using GPS, GPRS and GSM technology. They are to Thatcham’s TQA standard. Having an inbuilt battery back-up the device has the ability work if the vehicle power supply is cut. The device has internal aerials and motion sensor, the tracker will know if the vehicle ignition is switched on.

A subscription for the popular Protector Pro £139 per annum and the fee for the duration of vehicle ownership is £389 both

38

“Smartrack Fleet product offers the latest in fleet management monitoring and on the website the user can configure Multi Geo-Fence, an unlimited geo-fence option.”

CObRaTRak

including VAT.

The CobraTrak range has four offerings: CobraTrak First, CobraTrak First Mobile,

The same

CobraTrak ADR and CobraTrak 5. All have a roaming SIM card giving coverage

fees apply to

across more than 180 countries. All have a Thatcham rating with TQA level for the

SmarTrack’s

first three and Cat 5, as the branding indicates, for the top model which gains

Trident product which allows the user to see their vehicle via a

remote immobilisation and Level 1 police response over the rest.

computer or smartphone.

Both the CobraTrak5 and the ADR models have an Automatic Driver Recognition

Once the Subscription is purchased the device is then fully

card which alerts Cobra immediately if the vehicle is stolen, even if the thief has

monitored by Global Telemetrics Secure Control Centre and

taken the keys. Apart from these points all models have similar specification.

the customer is called by them if an alert comes through. If it’s

CobraTrak First Mobile is unique in the range offering access to vehicle position

a vehicle, this will be an illegal move or disconnected battery.

mapping delivered directly to the user’s mobile or PDA. The popular CobraTrak

A text message will warn of low battery voltage.

First product has a subscription price of £138.00 a year or duration of car

Like most tracking units the fully transferable within SmarTrack’s

ownership subscription is £395.

terms and conditions and there is a three year warranty which

Cobra is the only approved tracking supplier to Audi, Bentley, Ferrari, Infiniti,

is extendable to 12 years.

Lamborghini, Maserati, Nissan, Porsche,Renault and Tesla. It is also Sold Secure

Smartrack Fleet product offers the latest in fleet management

Approved which is relevant to the motor home market. CobraTrak products have

monitoring and on the website the user can configure Multi

competitive subscription rates and are covered with a full three year warranty.

Geo-Fence, an unlimited geo-fence option.

Cobra 01932 772 400 www.cobravehiclesecurity.co.uk

SmarTrack 0845 833 6971 www.smartrack.eu

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

TRaCkeR A company so well established with a proven track (tracking?) record that it has the generic name and the latest news concerning Tracker is that Armour Automotive has been appointed as an authorised distributor.

This new position with a market-leading brand is seen by Armour to be the perfect addition to the company’s prestige security range of Clifford, Viper, Hornet and Avital.

•

armour will be focusing on the two key products; Tracker monitor and Tracker Locate.

•

armour is actively seeking dealer stockists/

“This new position with a market-leading brand is seen by Armour to be the perfect addition to the company’s prestige security range of Clifford, Viper, Hornet and Avital.”

installers and welcomes enquires.

Tracker Monitor is the traditional VHF product whereas Locate has the advantage of incorporating GSM, GPS and VHF technology in one unit providing three means of location and two means of communication. Jamming counter measures are a key feature of the product, this means it will not only detect if the VHF/GSM communication channels or GPS signal are being jammed by thieves, but will use an alternative communication channel to that being jammed to continue providing location information of the stolen vehicle. It also has pan-European coverage.

All prices to be confirmed www.tracker.co.uk. armour auto 01420 487110 www.armourauto.com

TRaCkiTnOw SCORPiOn TRaCk

Trackitnow is an interesting proposition for dealers with a specially-tailored product and

Scorpion Track is the latest tracking product to

service which puts control both into the hands of the dealer and the customer and offers

come to market and is competitive straight out

what looks to be a good on-going commercial deal for the seller. It’s a well-researched

of the blocks with suggested retail pricing of

product with live tracking updated every 15 seconds and is particularly suited to fleets both

£299 including VAT for the unit plus installation

small and large, managed using their clever ERA software package.

cost and a subscription charge – which is

There’s an assurance that they don’t use any external leasing companies as they finance

not included in the price of the new unit. This

internally and offer a full contract term parts and labour warranty and a comprehensive

is £130 per year, or £350 for the duration of

Trackitnow Service Guarantee which includes assurances that the plug won’t be pulled on

existing customer ownership. The subscription

the service – sadly a common scenario.

includes European coverage and unlimited

The service includes a free to use two-way SMS mailbox, true engine idling reporting, full

on-demand position requests. Scorpion Track

historical reporting, comprehensive geo-fence (zone) management, including email and

is manufactured in the UK at the company’s

SMS alerting, multiple access and instant reporting. All vehicles can be viewed on clear

headquarters in Chorley, Lancs., and is

comprehensive mapping.

manufactured to extremely high OE standards

Trackitnow offers two units, the Motion at £299 and the Advance which has extra monitoring

alongside other security products supplied to a

features including CAN Bus plus suitability for plant and machinery, at £399. Both have

“Some of the extra features available on the Scorpion Track unit include a fuel level alert warning for static and mobile plant and optional text-messaging giving a low battery level alert.”

multiple input/outputs and battery backup.

leading vehicle manufacturer.

exclusive approval by Jaguar, Land Rover, Range Rover and BMW and is endorsed by

Some of the extra features available on the

all Police Authorities. It meets the British Insurance Industry’s Quality Accreditation and

Scorpion Track unit include a fuel level alert

meets Thatcham TQA standards. The Trackstar unit has a retail list price of £407.48 including

warning for static and mobile plant and

installation and a subscription charge of £147.50 a year. A lifetime duration sub is £407.50.

optional text-messaging giving a low battery

Trackstar is unique in having some special upgrades to take advantage of its Trafficmaster

level alert. Another Scorpion feature which will

and Smartnav infrastructure. These include navigation with Smartnav, a personal journey

be popular with installers is registration of the

management system which includes traffic jam avoidance and monitoring of hold-ups

unit after it has been fitted. A personal web

which may appear on the user’s route. There is Breakdown Call which can be used in the

account is provided which works in conjunction

event of a breakdown. The driver presses the Breakdown Call button to be connected to a

with text logging. Once the simple procedure is

National Response Centre operator, who will be instantly aware of the exact location of the

complete, an install certificate pops up on the

vehicle. An added service is Emergency Call available to the driver if an accident occurs. The

web site. During recent demonstrations, dealers

Smartnav Emergency Call button will connect them to the emergency services, who will be

who have been impressed with how fast it works.

notified of the vehicle’s location. A further upgrade to the Trackstar package is Safe Speed.

Scorpion 01257 249 928

This will alert drivers to zones monitored by fixed safety cameras.

www.scorpiontrack.com

Space doesn’t allow us to mention all the features and clever management tricks here but anyone interested in providing a fleet solution should check out the website.

Trackitnow 0845 4670 846 www.trackitnow.co.uk TRaCkSTaR Trackstar is one of the longer-established companies and uses the latest GPS stolen vehicle tracking technology for fast location and tracking of vehicles including police liaison and recovery. Trackstar’s shortest recovery time is a record eight minutes.

Trackstar is a pan-European tracking product approved by 20 car manufacturers with

Trackstar 01234 759000 www.trafficmaster.co.uk

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

39

|2011

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS

HOW TO GET NEW CUSTOMERS Last month we looked at communication.

We spoke about the importance of messaging to the highest common denominator and speaking the language of benefits as opposed to jargon. Now you have your marketing proposition, where do you place it to the greatest effect?

During the 90’s and first half of the ‘noughties’

For our intrepid specialist dealer, more parochial

store ask them what made them come to your

we were awash with marketing opportunity.

opportunities can be pursued. These could

store in the first place (we all do this anyway

These were the days when Max Power

range from taking an ad in a local paper to

don’t we? No? Come on!) and for their email

supposedly sold 350K copies per month and

some road side opportunities (Bus Shelters etc.)

address –You may be surprised at how many

Fast Car 160K. Our industry was high profile

local radio ads or on line activity. All of these

will willingly give it.

enough to feature in general car mags such as

are suitable provided there is a match between

Editorial in local journals can be very effective

Car, Auto Express, What Car? And marketing

your products or services and the consumers of

but make sure you have something relevant

seemed easy – Particularly if you had the odd

your chosen media. Recently, exploiting online

and important to say. Journalists will delete any

half a million pounds to spend. These days are

opportunities has been a popular way to go.

unsolicited press releases unless they have real

gone as are the readers with Max Power finally

Nearly all dealers now have a website of their

pertinence to what is going on in the community

closing the doors after consecutive disastrous

own most of which do a reasonable job of

they serve. A sales promotion disguised as a

monthly sales (suggested to be well under

advertising products and services provided they

press release (Local Audio Installer slashes prices)

10K copies). Fast Car does something like 35K

are found but optimising your website so that it sits

will always be taken out and shot however,

and still shows relatively strong support to our

in the magical three top spots in a Google search

‘Audio Installer helps old lady across busy

industry although comparative tests have

is a very specialist area and some cost needs to

road near accident black spot’ may bizarrely,

For our intrepid specialist dealer, more parochial opportunities can be pursued...from taking an ad in a local paper to some road side opportunities, local radio ads or online activity

40

be incurred in order to do this consistently.

provoke a response. If advertising in the local

The reward however, can be a shop full

press or on radio, make sure your message will

of customers ready to buy but this is by no

be received by your target market. Drive time

means a free route to market.

slots for radio are good although if you are

A lot has been made of ‘opportunities’

served by many independent stations choosing

via social network websites and for the

the right one can be a nightmare. We are

dealer operating in a niche area a lot

fortunate in the modern world in as far as URL’s

of ‘friends’ can be gained. I would warn

are far easier to remember than phone numbers

against relying too heavily on this route

– Even jauntily sung 0800 numbers – But keep

however as the majority of content is

your focus on getting consumers to respond.

gossip and people are quite cynical and

Always include a call to action and stay away

disappeared in favour of 100 words and a

suspicious of overly gushing endorsement of

from complex messages or anything that is

picture! Editorial however, still remains a most

products or companies in these ‘communities’.

humorous for humour’s sake.

convincing form of publicity and if you have

Having said this, there is absolutely nothing

If you have any doubt as to which media will

the expertise and time to approach them and

wrong with keeping in touch with your local car

be most effective consult an expert – Again this

similar magazines directly then you can win

club this way if you have time to engage.

will add to the cost of your campaign but could

fame if not necessarily fortune by following

Email campaigns can also be quite effective

also help you to avoid wasting vast amounts

this route. Promoting customer’s installations

provided you can generate a keen and willing

trying things out. Although much of the above

to magazines can buy you kudos however, it is

database of potential customers. The most

can make marketing sound scary, the only real

difficult to control the editorial content – With

responsive will be those you have spoken to

mistake you can make in marketing is not doing

broadcast media it is virtually impossible.

before so before you let anyone out of your

any at all.

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

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NEX DAY T DELIV ERY

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu 41 All prices exclude VAT at current rate and are subject to availability/change without notification. Trade prices are available to CAS Account holders only. E&OE

INDUSTRY PERSONALITY

|2011

unique dealer opportunity MEN talks to Kenwood Car Audio’s head man Adam Handley on a real business opportunity for our specialist dealer channel and their fitting expertise Adam Handley has been the General Manager of Kenwood’s Car Audio Division for the last three years and has worked at various levels, including National Accounts Manager in the Division for a total of 15years.

Adam’s background is in the specialist domestic hifi industry having worked for Sevenoaks Hi-Fi as a retailer and as a sales representative for both TDL speakers and Musical Fidelity.

With so much experience in the industry, Adam has witnessed like us all, the direction of our market place. He said: “The car electronics business has changed massively, but Kenwood has constantly kept in step with these changes. We remain one of the largest multi-award-winning, car audio companies with a strong support team behind us within the UK. Our greatest strength is our OE involvement with Mitsubishi, Hyundai and VW which in turn, allows us to plough more resources into supporting our dealers.”

Kenwood has certainly maintained a healthier profile in a difficult market compared to most head unit manufacturers which raises the question about maintaining this position?

“One of the most important areas of development,” said Adam “Is the potential of the DAB market.

“Kenwood has been involved in digital radio for about 14 years and was the first brand to introduce a DAB tuner (KRC358DAB) within the UK, This model was sold to the BBC as their original test equipment! so the expertise and heritage is there.

“Future developments have now come from the collaboration with JVC (J&K Holdings) in the development of a new high performance

42

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multi-platformed board which will work with DAB/DAB+ and DRM formats which reinforces its future-proof credentials.

“The mobile DAB audio market still has enormous potential. Currently there are about 12 million digital radio users in the domestic market but with a car park of about 30 million vehicles in the UK, there is currently only around a 1% uptake of DAB tuners in cars.

“Interested parties in the digital radio market include companies such as Halfords and the car manufacturers. It’s a big market and independent mobile electronics dealers need to embrace DAB.” Many dealers have sold DAB head units during the first rush of enthusiasm for the sets as long ago as the mid-90s. At this time there was a greater range of head units with digital radio tuners than there is now but they all suffered from the same limitations such as broadcast coverage, tuner sensitivity and aerial technology.

Dealers who ventured into the DAB market in those days, spread tales of poor performance and disappointed customers but now the transmission coverage, tuner technology and Aerial technology are vastly improved.

One of the most important areas of development is the DAB market “Stations dropping out are a thing of the past with the new Kenwood head units,” said Adam.

Packaged with each head unit is a newly developed small high-performance internal windscreen aerial which is matched at the factory end for optimum reception quality.”

With this new dawn of tuner quality, Kenwood is offering all its Premier Centre dealers the chance to tap into a potentially huge DAB market. People who listen at home to long list of cultural stations and the many sport and specialist music channels can listen to high quality broadcasts in their cars. The customer can see and hear the DAB sets in a separate unit fitted with a dedicated aerial designed to optimise performance.

Kenwood will be supporting their Premier Centres with a marketing plan which will

Adam Handley, General Manager of the Car Audio Division

include costsharing on local radio advertising, free promotional DAB head units to be used as competition items on local radio, and we will also have a DAB demo stand and demo Smart car that dealers can use to draw in potential customers.

Commenting on the marketing programme, Adam said: “We have a vinyl-wrapped Smart car which is an eye-catching demo for the dealer to display and advertise prior to its arrival and show consumers how well it works within a vehicle.

We will also use our social network blogs and Facebook to publicise the arrival of the car at the dealers shop and to also demonstrate how well it works in areas surrounding Premier Dealers.”

The DAB prime directive for Kenwood is focussing on answering dealer questions about the introduction of digital radio such as the advent of the changeover from FM to DAB. With this in mind, Kenwood is working in partnership with DRUK - Digital Radio UK. One of its useful activities at EXPO was to have Samuel Bonham, Technical and Market Development Executive at Digital Radio UK, in attendance to answer any questions on the future of DAB radio.

Kenwood’s consumer launch of DAB will be at the Gadget show. This will offer potentially over 100,000 new consumers the opportunity to see high performance DAB working in the car.

In conclusion, Adam said: “DAB is a huge opportunity within our business and they don’t come around into an untapped market very often - if ever! So I would ask dealers to please embrace these advancements in DAB technology. It is key to our long term business future.”

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43

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RAYNER RUMINATES

|2011

RAYNER RANTS Adam Rayner muses upon mortality and why we should Seize The Day, every day….

You know, being involved in an industry is not just the products and the range. It’s the people, the politics and the Craic. It’s chuckling when a wimpy male car HiFi dealer is cancelled by your militantly gay boss, for being of crap creditworthiness and partly for being a bloke. (She was much nicer to the women she dealt with and always lovely to me…) It’s the socials after shows and at exhibitions. It’s the sharing woes of sore feet when working at a bloody racetrack and walking ironic amounts of mileage at a place that worships petrol.

46

And it’s about the stories of what certain folks get

all of it here, there were some parts that you just had

hear him thrash the ivories but because he wanted

up to at such moments of hair-down relaxation.

to know. First that he and Jim and Dudley Moore

to sing and Jim knew every song from his repertoire.

Some even acquire legendary status for their ability

were all talented lads from Dagenham.

They entertained in Japan, America, Hawaii, Spain

to party like a friggin’ beast, sleep three hours like

Then, a little background:

and sometimes in the most unlikely places. Once

they were dead and then still be at breakfast for

“Trevor was born in July 1936 the fourth child of

with Jim and a few other dealers on a subway train

the next leg of the press/dealer trip. (Hello ED – dare

a family living in a modest terraced house in

in Tokyo, Trevor marshalled together a group of

ya to leave that bit in….)

Dagenham. Born in the same street a year earlier

slightly tipsy local businessmen, on their way home

And sooner or later, preferably much later, we lose

was Dudley Moore, whose home was destroyed

after taking too much warm Sake and taught

some of those we have had such a laugh with in

by a bomb in 1940 forcing his family to move, so

them to sing, ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’. A life

their company and feel that breath of our own

it wasn’t until Trevor was a teenager that he and

long West Ham United fan, he couldn’t resist the

mortality. For the young as well as the old.

Dudley met when becoming members of the same

opportunity to perform their theme song and the

Talk Audio lost their most able tech at the tragically

community centre. By then Trevor was competing

result was a wonderful bringing together of people

young age of 29 recently, yet my mum was

and winning Eisteddfods and music festivals as an

from totally different cultures in something that

not quite eighty. I had harboured hopes of her

accomplished singer. Dudley was to accompany

unites all races and creeds; that of music.”

becoming a bonkers shouty nonagenarian,

Trevor on a couple of occasions, although Trevor

The whole point being that more of us should be like

threatening to cut us all out of her will as she had

complained that when singing with Dudley at

Celsus’ Chris Bennett and dare to use the ‘F’ word.

told us she might but it was not to be…

the piano he was afraid to pause in case Dudley

By which I mean effing FUN! Yes, go to Expo but

Jim Johnson was boss of Electrosystems when

played a solo. In the late 1950s Trevor entered the

for those of you who came to the ICE Heroes night

Armour bought them to acquire Radiomobile and

first television reality show to find the best singer in

(this being written just beforehand, so I don’t really

the UK distribution of Kicker and was my MD. I was

the UK. He won the contest and was offered a prize

know for a fact but….) then I apologise for getting

a rep. Jim was brought in as a ‘known effective

of £50 and the opportunity to cut a record…

my Best Moobs Award, as I am sure this will have put

successful business man’ in the correct field of

…In 1963 Trevor joined his friend Jim to start up a

some of you off the free curry and beer and I hope

endeavour to take the helm of the then Armour Trust

company supplying and fitting safety belts. They

you had a Burlesque Blast.

PLC. That first career was forged with an old mate of

borrowed £100 from Trevor’s father and set up

And here’s to brilliant people who make us laugh

his called Trevor Mollett who at time of writing has just

an office in Trevor’s house. Trevor had married his

and do business and life with equal passion. Here’s

died. Sadly, I never got to socialise with Trevor.

teenage sweetheart, Shirley, in1960 and it was her

to doing stuff you enjoy for a living.

I say ‘sadly’ not just to be maudlin but because he

role to supply endless cups of tea whilst the partners

Dum Vivimus Vivamus!

sounded like he was even more fun than me own

foraged for business.

While we live, let us LIVE!

Ed Unit. And enormously more talented…

Stories of Trevor’s exploits when on dealer trips are

Jim wrote a deeply moving obituary for his old mate

many and varied. The one thing in common is that

Trevor, which is published in full on the trade forum on

whenever there was a piano in the room he would

Take care, now and avoid the old BOOMPH tinkle …

www.talkaudio.co.uk . Without being able to publish

encourage Jim to play. Not because he wanted to

Trevor Mollett July 1936 - March 2011

www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

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47

VCE GUIDE

|INSTANT EXPERT

PEUGEOT 3008 PHONE KIT FITMENT

Is the Peugeot 3008 a car, or an MPV? Love or hate the looks of this vehicle, it has scored a hit with most of the motoring press who have given it the thumb’s up for its roominess and drive-ability plus direct-injection petrol engines and a wide range of diesel offerings – both power plants include models with five and six speed gearboxes and a six speed automatic option.

This month at VCE the new Peugeot 3008 has been on the installation roster for a phone kit and here’s how it was done: Start by removing the top part of the dash complete with vents and switch bank (1). This is simply held in with clips, so use a Bojo tool or similar implement to release.

There’s plenty of cable behind the panel which allows it to conveniently rest on the top of the dash once removed (2). Next is the removal of a couple of Torx 20 screws that hold the facia panel in position (3). Then remove the radio with standard ISO removal pins to gain access to the two lower screws that also hold the facia in position (4/5). The radio has a standard Peugeot Quadlock connector which does have an ignition supply.

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

The interior light is a standard Peugeot jobbie but there isn’t any need to remove anything as you can slide the microphone and cable into position and then run to nearside (6/7).

The A pillar trim just simply unclips to allow for cable run (8).

Remove the Torx 20 screw that secures the centre console panel (9) in the passenger footwell and remove. This will allow easier access for the cables as shown (10).

The Pug was fitted with a Parrot CK3100 and charging cradle so a decision was made to take the cradle cable in alongside the Dashmount bracket while the facia was being pulled forward (11).

10

Overall, the 3008 is easy enough to work on, particularly as there is plenty of room below and behind the glove box for the junction box. The install should take approx 1hr start to finish.

Parts List: Dashmount – part number 711353. Brodit brackets – 654345 (angled mount), 654344 (centre mount), 604346 (right mount). Autoleads adaptor leads – SOT-040, 06-041B (telemute)

11

Installed and compiled by Kevin Deguara Covering: Newport and parts of Gwent and Carmarthenshire www.v-c-e.co.uk

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Alpine Electronics of UK Ltd Contact: Keith Holness T: +44 (0) 2476 719623 E: keith.holness@alpine-electronics.co.uk W: www.alpine-electronics.co.uk Brands: Alpine Armour Automotive Limited Contact: Sales T: 01420 487110 E: sales@armourauto.com W: www.armourauto.com Brands: Autoleads, CTi, iO, Mutant, Radiomobile, Veba, VI, Avital, Clifford, Focal, Hornet, Kicker, Orion, Viper Anglia Fleet Services T: 01493 888017 M: 07760196088 W: www.angliafleetservices.co.uk E: james@angliafleetservices.co.uk Brands: Anglia Fleet Services Ltd offer a One stop shop. Vehicle Conversions Specialists. Customer operations and national vehicle installation services of the highest quality including a wide range of accessories such as Racking, Roof Racks, Tow Bars, Graphics, Van Vaults, Bulkheads, Light Bars, Beacons, Hands Free kits, Tracker, Sat Navs.

Audiovox Incaar Systems GmbH Contact: Ian Rosevear T: 01483 722531 E: ian.r@audiovoxincaarsystems.com W: www.audiovoxincaarsystems.com Brands: AIS, Incaar, Invision Audio Wave LTD Contact: Grant Hanan T: +44 (0) 1702 589722 E: grant@audiowaveltd.com W: www.audiowaveltd.com Brands: Audio Wave - Handcrafted bespoke amplifiers Audiopipe Contact: Pav / REJJY T: 01604 601500 / +44 (0) 7810652661 E: pavkapoor@hotmailcom W: www.caraudiosupplies.com Brands: Audiopipe, Earthquake & Mobile Spec Automonitor Mobile Multimedia Ltd Contact: Hugh J McTernan T: +44 (0) 116 275 2020 E: hugh@automonitor.co.uk W: www.automonitor.co.uk Brands: Automonitor, SAVV, Necvox, Baton, Rosen, Visteon, Britax and Westfalia

B

Clarion (GB) Limited Contact: Sales at Clarion T: +44 (0) 1793 870400 F: +44 (0) 1793 875881 E: info@clarion.co.uk W: www.clarion.co.uk Brands: Clarion

Bravox Audio (Hexen A.D) Contact: Ajay Maisuria T: +44 (0) 20 8904 7099 E: sales@bravox.co.uk W: www.bravoxaudio.com, www.bsaaudio.com Brands: Bravox & BSA Speaker Systems

20:20 Mobile Contact: Marc James T: 01270 411838 E: marc.james@2020mobile.com W: www.2020mobile.com Brands: Nokia, IO, BlackBerry, Sony Ericcson, Jabra, Motorola, LG

C

Car Audio Security Contact: Reno or Allan T: 08707 220011 E: support@caraudiosecurity.com W: www.caraudiosecurity.com / www.jblcaraudio.co.uk Brands: UK Wholesaler for JBL, Infinity & Harman Kardon.

Authorised Dealers for: Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer, Sony, JVC, Vibe, Fli, Boss Audio, Orion, Clifford, Snooper, Hertz, Rainbow, Fusion

Cobra UK Contact: Cobra Sales T: 01932 772 400 E: salesuk@cobra-at.com W: www.cobravehiclesecurity.co.uk Brands: Cobra offers a complete range of vehicle security, safety and electronic systems: CobraTrak stolen vehicle tracking systems, Cobra alarms and immobilisers, Cobra ParkMaster parking sensors, Rosen retro fit in-car DVD systems, NSV Bluetooth handsfree systems, E-Cruise aftermarket cruise control and speed limiters, and Coyote live speed camera alert systems.

Canm8 Ltd Contact: Colin Palmer T: 08452266283 E: SALES@CANM8.COM Brands: Canm8 range of can bus interfaces can bus custom design

Commercial Electronics Contact: Salim Ali T: +44 (0)208 404 7105 F: +44 (0) 208 404 7104 E: sales@hawkcaralarm.com W: www.hawkcaralarm.com www.demonalarm.com Brands: Designed & engineered in UK. Est. over 25 years.

OEM service available. Hawk Car Alarm, Hawk Reversing Angel, Hawk Motorcycle Alarm, Hawk GPS, Demon Alarm, Demon iReversing , Demon Motorcycle Alarm, Demon Tracking.

CSS Aftermarket Group Contact: Mick Barber T: 01773 746 591 F: 01773 743 251 E: sales@CSSAftermarket.co.uk W: www.carsoundsupplies.com Brands: PARKSAFE REVERSING SENSORS - CAMERAS - IVANHOE TRUNKLINER - ACCOUSTIC TEXTILES IVANHOE SUB BOXES - RHINOMAT SOUND DEADENING - PARCEL SHELVES - AERIALS ELECTRIC AERIALS - ONYX AUDIO ELITE CONSUMABLES AND ACCCESSORIES - MARINE MOTORHOME - COMMERCIAL - AUTOMOTIVE

Connects2 Contact: Andrew Simner T: 0845 257 5588 F: 0121 522 5589 E: sales@connects2.com W: www.connects2.com Brands: Connects2 – Interface solutions for O.E.M and aftermarket systems, Including interfaces for iPod, USB, MP3, Aux, Steering wheel controls inc CAN-Bus, Stalk & Display, Telemute, Parrot, and MOST fibre optic iPod & Bluetooth hands free interfaces.

BEAT, Ground Zero, Tsunami, Shuriken, Balistic, Raptor, Zenec, Metra, LG, MAC Audio

Cellular Trade Accessories (CTA) Contact: Sales T: 01296 425831 E: sales@tradeaccessories.com W: www.tradeaccessories.com Brands: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Parrot, Motorola, Autoleads, Scorpion, Jabra Celsus UK Limited Contact: Sales T: +44 (0)1202 664 390 E: sales@celsusice.co.uk W: www.celsusice.co.uk Brands: Celsus Accessories, Calearo, CANBus, Dynamat Europe, iPod Integration, Jehnert, JL Audio, MTX Audio, Stinger Electronics, PAC Audio, Stinger DSI CEL Trade Contact: Andrew Marsden T: 01162 449846 E: sales@celtrade.com W: www.celtrade.com Brands: Garmin, Road Angel, Snooper, Sony, TomTom Parrot, Fusion, Mio, Pioneer, Alpine and Kenwood

Autosound Limited Contact: Lee Fergus T: 01274 688990 E: lee.fergus@autosound.co.uk W: www.autosound.co.uk Brands: Blaupunkt, Bosch car multimedia, Tetrax, Funkwerk, Funtoro

Chameleon Codewing Ltd Contact: Kent Stabler T: 01206 500 848 M: 07702 565100 E: sales@thechameleongroup.co.uk W: www.chameleondirect.com Brands: Authorised Distributor for THB Bury, Parrot, Motorola, Kram Radio Mutes, Scorpion, Dashmount, Brodit, Steelmate, Alpine, Kenwood, Snooper & Nokia.

Plus Trade & Corporate Nationwide installation.

Bazooka (Flagship Products) Contact: Greg Morris T: +44 (0) 20 8838 8844 E: sales@flagship-products.co.uk W: www.bazooka.com Brands: Bazooka, Morel

C-KO International Contact: Mark Scarff T: 020 8863 8333 E:enquiries@c-ko.co.uk W: www.c-ko.co.uk Brands: C-KO , Eurologics, Necvox, Nesa/ VST, Rosen

D

Daltec AI Ltd Contact: Matt Tombs T: 0208 515 7820 E: sales@dal-tec.com W: www.dal-tec.com Brands: Distributors for Dice Ipod, Dension, Fiscon, Steelmate, Bluetooth Car kits including Novero, THB Bury and Nokia, Brodit, Tow-Trust and much more….

Dashmount Contact: Steve Taylor T: +44 (0) 208 391 1911 E: steve.taylor@dashmount.co.uk W: www.dashmount.co.uk Brands: Dashmount Digicat Media LTD Contact: Select Products T: 01233 623236 E: matt@selectproducts.co.uk W: www.selectproducts.co.uk Brands: installer accessories Directed Electronics Contact: Armour Automotive T: 01420 476 767 E: Customerservices@directed-uk.com W: www.directed.com Brands: Clifford, Viper, Hornet, Avital, West Coast Customs, Directed Audio, Orion, Directed Video, Directed Mobile Media

For less than £17 per month, you can list your company details here. For more information, contact 01268 754 897 or e-mail admin@creativemedialtd.co.uk www.mobileelectronicsnews.eu

49

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E

DMC Business Machines PLC Contact – Steve McLean T: 0844 736 1144 E: steve.mclean@dmcplc.co.uk W: www.dmcplc.co.uk/auto Brands: Handsfree Car Kits – Nokia, THB Bury, Parrot, Motorola Parking Sensors – Steelmate, Veba Reverse Camera Kits – Veba GPS Camera Detection – Novus Event Recording Systems – Novus Vehicle Lighting – Haztec, Ring Installation Accessories – Autoleads, Hirschmann, Bloomice, Wallen & More!

I

Drivesync - Tracking Contact: Andrew Marsden T: 01162 449846 E: sales@celtrade.com W: www.celtrade.com Brands: Drivesync - Tracking.

K

F

fit4caraudio Contact: Billy Maan T: 0161 282 1891 M: 07894513408 E: enquiries@fit4caraudio.co.uk W: www.fit4caraudio.co.uk Brands: Suppliers of Single DIN Navigation Stereos.

Sole distributor in the UK for Kramer Automotive

L

Fusion Electronics UK Ltd Contact: Matthew Forbes T: +44 (0) 845 299 7586 F: +44 (0) 845 280 7585 E: matthewf@fusionelectronics.com W: www.fusionelectronics.com

G

Gemini Security Direct UK Ltd Contact: Neil Hayes T: +44 (0) 1354 695 946 E: ukinfo@gemini-alarm.com W: www.gemini-alarm.com Brands: Manufacture of Car Alarms, Can-bus, Wireless Sensors, Parking Sensors.

Kenwood Electronics UK Limited T: +44 (0) 1923 816444 E: enquiries@kenwood-electronics.co.uk W: www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk Brands: Kenwood Locks4Vans Ltd Contact: Sales T: +44 (0) 1474 560077 F: +44 (0) 1474 561112 E: sales@locks4vans.co.uk W: www.locks4vans.co.uk Brands: L4V, Diablock, Bodyguard, Containerlock, Deadlocks, Slamlocks, Defender

Parrot UK Limited T: 0844 472 2360 E: sales.uk@parrot.com W: www.parrot.com Brands: Parrot

s

Contact: Kevin O’Byrne T: 0118 9701612 E: admin@mmsa.org.uk W: www.mmsa.org.uk Brands: The trade association of independent specialist retailers

N

O

P

Sailes Marketing Ltd Contact: Matthew Sailes T: +44 (0) 1386 554210 E: info@sailesmarketing.com W: www.sailesmarketing.com Brands: Manufacturer and Distributor of CAN Bus interfaces, Electronic Interfaces, Automotive Transducers, Data Logging Systems and SpeedWatch

Morel (Flagship Products) Contact: Greg Morris T: +44 (0) 20 8838 8844 E: sales@flagship-products.co.uk W: www.morelhifi.com Brands: Morel, Bazooka

Scorpion Automotive Ltd Contact: Petra T: 01257 249928 E: info@scorpionauto.com W: www.scorpionauto.com Brands: Scorpion Security, Scorpion Parking Systems, Scorpion Stolen Vehicle Recovery Systems, Scorpion Cellular Accessories, Scorpion Multi Media, Scorpion Reversing Cameras

Navigon AG Contact - Anthony Mills T: 01189 635 965 F: +49 40 370 88 480 E: Anthony.mills@navigon.com W: www.navigon.com

Select Products Contact: Matt T: 01233 62 32 36 E: matt@selectproducts.co.uk W: www.selectproducts.co.uk Brands: Select Products SmarTrack Ltd - Global Telemetrics Contact: Andrew Newman T: 0845 833 6971 – 07787 106493 E: andy.n@smartrack.uk.net w: www.smartrack.eu Brands: SmarTrack – MotoTrak – TOADTRAK - uTrack

Navman Contact: Andrew Marsden T: 01162 449846 E: sales@celtrade.com W: www.celtrade.com Brands: Navman

Focal See Armour for contact details

Frequency Telecom Ltd Contact: Stephen Donovan T: 020 8397 2222 E: s.donovan@frequencytelecom.co.uk W: www.frequencytelecom.co.uk Brands: Jelly Communications, CleverKit.com, UK Car Kits.co.uk

Parksafe UK Contact: Mick Barber T: 01773 746 591 F: 01773 743 251 E: Sales@Park-safe.co.uk w: www.Park-safe.co.uk Brands: Parking and Rear View camera systems

M Mobile Media Specialist Association Ltd

Fli Audio T: 0870 765 8423 E: dealers@midbass.co.uk W: www.fliaudio.co.uk Brands: Fli

Four Contact: Brian Parton T: 0845 450 1594 E: info@fourcars.co.uk W: www.fourcars.co.uk Brands: Audison, Audiocontrol, Audison Connection, CDT, Hertz, Massive, Rainbow, Skinz

Paragon Auto Electrics Contact: Paul Culling T: 0845 33 00 600 E: Paul@paragoncaraudio.com W: Paragoncaraudio.com Brands: Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer, JVC, Clarion, Sony, Rockford, Connects2, Autoleads,TR Speed Detectors,Hirschmann

iGRIP® / Herbert Richter GmbH Contact: Scott Bouquet Email: s.b@igrip.eu T: +44 (0) 2081447413 E: www.igrip.eu Brands: iGRIP, Herbet Richter. Exclusively Available at Strax (UK) LTD

Earthquake Contact: Pav / REJJY T: 01604801500 / +44 (0) 7810652661 E: pavkapoor@hotmail.com W: www.caraudiosupplies.com Brands: Earthquake, Audiopipe & Mobile Spec Electronics Worldwide Ltd Contact: Chris Williams T: +44 (0) 800 083 1893 +44 (0) 1928 759239 E: chris@electronics-worldwide.com W: www.electronics-worldwide.com Brands: Falcon Alarms Systems, DE Multimedia

In-CarPC Ltd Contact: David Hitchings T: 0117 972 1775 E: sales@in-carpc.co.uk W: www.in-carpc.co.uk Brands: In-CarPC, Mini Intel Atom Automotive PC, Mini Intel Core 2 Duo Automotive PC, Mini Via C7 Automotive PC, Pico Automotive PC

Origin Technologies Ltd Contact: Steve Doyle T: 0203 010 1000 E: steve@pogogps.com W: www.pogogps.com Brands: Pogo and Origin Pama & Co Ltd Contact: Pama Sales Office T: 0161 494 4210 E: uksales@pama.co.uk W: www.pama.com Brands: Pama, Authorised UK distributor for Parrot, Plantronics, Krusell, Cobra, Scala, Ring, Dexim, Lexar Panorama Antennas Ltd Contact: John Thomson T: +44 (0) 20 8877 4444 E: sales@panorama-antennas.com W: www.panorama-antennas.com Brands: Manufacturer of antennas for DAB, Mobile Radio, Tetra, 3G Broadband and other wireless technologies.

Steelmate Automotive (UK) Ltd Contact: Kevin Kay T: 01582 475677 E: sales@steel-mate.co.uk W: www.steel-mate.co.uk Brands: Steelmate Parking sensors, TPMS, HID

T

Twd LTD Contact Name: Smudge T: 07980 594 579 F: 01902 863 999 W: www.twdlimited.co.uk Brands: Crunch, Hifonics, MB Quart, Toxic, Audiobahn

V

Vestatec Contact Name: Jon Rossiter T: +44 (0) 208 867 2347 E: jon.rossiter@vestatec.co.uk W: www.metasystem.co.uk Brands: Meta, Gentex Vibe Audio T: 0870 765 8423 E: dealers@midbass.co.uk W: www.vibeaudio.co.uk Brands: Vibe

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CB8-R Multi output interface Speed, RPM, Lights, Reverse, Hand Brake & Ignition supply

CB2PK Speed Switch output for de-activating front parking sensors above 6 MPH & Reverse signal for rear sensors at Low price

SCPTRAN2 Speed signal & RPM for Ford Transit 2003 – 2006.

PARKING SENSORS… Complete range of front, rear and commercial sensors now in stock

CB-6 NEW Low cost multi output interface. Same size as CB-1 Speed, RPM, Lights, Reverse, Hand Brake & Ignition

• TEL 01386 554210 • FAX 01386 552461 • • sales@sailesmarketing.com • www.sailesmarketing.com •

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