Mobile Electronics News EXPO Hailed A Success

The recent 12V trade show was a sexy floor full of exhibitors but relatively low footfall of people versus a public show as it was just that – for ICE dealers. Yet the exhibitors were doing dress rehearsals for the mighty Gadget Show Live coming any minute. That said, the people who did come along, the dealers of the stuff we love, all came to do business and look at new products and opportunities. Increasingly, to keep a bricks and mortar shop afloat, these guys are getting involved in OEM integration, ECU engine remapping and parking sensors, as well as adding such things as car detailing and even high tech Robocopters to rack in a corner and intrigue the boyish buyers of car audio.
One really lovely development was that two of the smaller outfits got given a bit of a helping hand to be at the show. For the first time, we had Earthquake Sound UK there with Reece’s R32 Golf occasionally booming the hall to throbularity and a slew of sexy Earthquake kit especially the mad Hollee-S woofers. They alone provide bullets as well as horn-drive compression drivers to the incar market. So you really can equip your ride like being down the front at a rock gig in the reach of the P.A! I made a video with Tej Ajji, brother of the late Joe Ajji, who now runs the company and it all got a bit emotional for a moment when I told him his bro would have been proud of him. Because Tej is for real and the respect for his own way of doing things is growing. You can check out ‘˜Quake stuff and order it, right here: link
And here’s Tej, holding the maddest-top-ed in all UK ice, one bit on either hand. Make NO mistake, those compression drivers for CAR use are like seeing Semtex included in a fireworks selection box


Likewise, to see Dave Wilkins exhibiting at the Mobile Electronics News Expo was a sight for sore eyes. He had the newest and sexiest-looking ever Hybrid Audio Technologies (HAT) speaker drivers there on a table to examine and had some of the DLS stuff that he is now in charge of distributing as well. Although a small outfit, Dave’s Matrix Audio company is now a Talk Audio site associate and we are going to follow the progress of the exotic and absurdly successful-at-sound-off HAT line, starting with an entry level install being done at Bloomz. I gather it’ll be one of those impressive-for-the-cost results that’ll be sought.
Here’s the new stuff from HAT


There were seminars held in the posh meeting rooms from the big players, launching new lines and the guys from professional trade website Ifitstuff ran an Installer Challenge and Parrot drone flying competitions in Hall 2 as well as buzzing around themselves, with two cameramen and filming everybody. Which is really me just warning trade users to beware, they did point the camera at my fat self, so don’t choke on your sandwich if I appear on screen when you weren’t expecting it.

There were some clever new things for the shop owners, from a simple plastic bucket-trivet better designed to keep your sponge out of the grit when you wash your car than ever before, to Daylight Running Lights that are fat LEDs let into your bodywork like parking sensors and indeed to be fitted by the same guys brave enough to drill through your bodywork. This makes for a superbly cool look and there’ll be a ten-lamp version soon. The first person I asked was thinking of having them in a smiling-face shape, but position and spacing options (within limits of practicality and legality) are pretty open-ended.

It also looks like Sony’s 2012 in car offering will be a new step upwards again and they were present, showing off the kit. With a bit of luck, we’ll get them on board Talk Audio, too.
My mate Mick Hughes came down to Expo with his shiny new Audi and the chaps from Ultimate Audio in Bromsgrove, Ian and Carl, were there to look at the car and decide what they want to do with it. For Celsus and FOUR are helping me hook him up, via Ultimate Audio in Bromsgrove. Of course, the slightly-modest initial idea has been chucked for a more potent system design. Watch this space for news of the car when it gets fettled and filled with an Audison Bit 10 or 1 and the JL Audio speakers and amplification. There’ll be nothing to see except some sort of removable bass box in the boot – but I want to be there and film his face when he hears the improvement.
Also on the Celsus Ice stand the guys from Kings Audio in Leicester, who won the trade competition to win the ‘The One’ amplifier from Phoenix Gold, had made the most outrageous pickup truck style install around it in what had been one of the lad’s mum’s cars A Lexus! It was bonkers. I’m saving that, like lobster for a full meal.
Expo was useful for Talk Audio as well, for we made contact with some really cool companies. The most major news was a double-collision of Ice stables to become one. The brands that Bass Junkies had, together with the mad stable that ProPlus Sound had built up, are now under new management and still represented by the Absolute Lifer that is Richard Page. The company is PPA or ProPlus Audio and the brand line up is , Sound Stream, Precision Power, Hifonics, MB Quart, Cerwin-Vega!, Caché, Crunch, Autotek, Diamond Audio, Armageddon, and ProPlus Sound.
But really most excellent of all, Expo is wonderful for just still being run and helping drive the trade that so badly needs this kind of support in a shrinking market.
Power to the Creative Media corporate folks who make this happen every year and well done on their tenth show! Here’s to the next ten years