CES 2010: Integration and Core 12-volt Products You Can Use Today

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This year’s International CES in Las Vegas was surprisingly optimistic when you asked both exhibitors and attendees about what’s in store for this year. CES is not only a place to check out new CE products, but it’s also becoming more of an event where professionals can network and connect with colleagues who share a core passion in the business of 12-volt aftermarket electronics.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), which owns and produces International CES, this year’s overall attendance was up about 7 percent from the 2009 CES with over 120,000 verified attendees. There were 330 new exhibitors at this year’s show, about 100 of which were part of a new section in the North Hall called the iLounge Pavilion. The North Hall has traditionally been almost all mobile electronics vendors. With the addition of the iLounge area, the makeup of the hall reflected the changing landscape of what is really considered “mobile” in the consumer electronics world. In fact, retailers like Best Buy have changed their category name to “car electronics” so that the word mobile really now relates to phones and portable devices.

Some time ago CEA also changed the name of the Mobile Electronics Division of the association to the Automotive Electronics Division. These changes in the North Hall’s group of exhibitors can give retailers a good idea what traditional “car audio” companies are doing at CES, if they are doing anything at all.

The iLounge Pavillion
The iLounge Pavilion featured the latest and greatest third-party accessories and software for Apple’s iPod, iPhone, and Macintosh platforms. From electronic plug-ins to fashionable cases, speakers, headphones, and exciting new games and applications, attendees could check out the opportunities created by these new products.

AAMP of America, Alpine, and Scosche Industries all had second exhibits (separate from their car audio booths) in this area. In many ways these companies are shifting their product mixes to cater to the changes occurring in the market. They recognize that the “mobile” customer is not just in their car but will almost certainly appreciate products that help them use their mobile device in a better way while in their car. I don’t mind saying that the aisles of the iLounge Pavilion were packed!

North Hall In-Vehicle Technology Exhibits
The other part of the North Hall was populated with what most of us would call traditional car audio exhibitors and related companies. This segment has diminished considerably. Although some manufacturers are still at CES officially exhibiting in the Hilton next door or in the Central Hall (such as Audiovox, Kicker, JVC and Sony, among others), many that come to the show chose to do something off-site at a hotel conference room or suite. The logistics involved in navigating all of it, even if you could find everything outside of the North Hall area, was not fun. It takes a long time to get around various parts of the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) and having things spread out only makes it more difficult for those attending to make the best use of their time at the show.

At any rate, the North Hall In-Vehicle Technology area was still well populated with hundreds of exhibitors, many of whom were familiar companies. Big booths up front near the entrance from Pioneer, Kenwood and Mitek with many others immediately after or adjacent. The attendance of exhibitors in our industry was better at CES than at the SEMA show in November 2009, which also saw some decline from past years.

One trend that was surprising at CES was to see several car manufacturers or OEM suppliers exhibiting in order to show their latest and greatest OEM electronics. These exhibitors are typically at SEMA or the auto shows (like in Detroit). Kia, OnStar/GM and Bosch Multimedia showed at CES that they too have their ears to the ground, listening to consumer interests, proving that the factory options only mean we have to do better with our aftermarket solutions as well as interfacing products and practices.

Kia showed its new UVO multimedia system powered by Microsoft. Among other OEM entertainment systems on display, such as MyFord Touch from Ford, the UVO system features a really cool haptic steering wheel control. A haptic control is one that’s based on a sense of touch, in this case a small rotary wheel you could operate with your thumbs while driving. Kudos to Kia for getting themselves in the game with this new multimedia system, it’s quite impressive.

What’s New?
Overall the most newsworthy products at CES were in the integration categories. Whether I was looking at new dash kits or electronic integration parts, there were many examples of how we are doing a better job of making our products fit and function in today’s vehicles.

Beyond that, there are a host of new core products in the car audio category including amplifiers, speakers, subwoofers, head units, security systems, remote starters, in-vehicle cameras and route guidance systems. It’s safe to say there was plenty to overwhelm even the most hardcore car audio veteran, which means you have to really look for the unique winners in the crowd.

Integration Products
Perhaps one of the most talked-about integration pieces at the show had to be Metra’s Axxess ASWC self-learning steering wheel control interface. According to Metra, it works with all of the major aftermarket head unit brands and auto detects both the aftermarket head unit and the vehicle to program itself correctly to the factory buttons. There is a manual programming mode for vehicles not covered, and installers can use the USB-CAB to upgrade this module’s firmware. This will be a major time saver when installing aftermarket head units. This was easily one of the cooler things at the show that will make a difference for a lot of installers.

On the dash kit front, there were several examples with integrated electronic heater control panels and displays. This is a step forward from what we’ve seen in previous years as the buttons and screens are better, and some examples had excellent factory-matched wood grain or paint finishes. Scosche showed the industry’s first full-color touch-screen HVAC controls in a 2010 Mustang (FD1441B) kit. According to company president Roger Alves, this will be shipping around April. Scosche also showed its Ford Flex FD1439 kit that debuted at SEMA, and it’s still impressive to see how factory looking it is.

Other important dash kit innovations were on display over at Metra, including new factory wood grain finishes on Ford F-150 kits as well as a number of Ford applications and a 2010 Camaro kit with electronic heater controls that have soft-touch keys and an integrated LCD display. The finishes on the Nissan G35 kits was also very factory-like. Metra has done a nice job on these finishes, particularly with the F-150 kits.

Moving beyond dash kits to other integration devices, NAV-TV, DICE Electronics, Peripheral/PAC, PIE, Scosche, Metra and MoBridge all showed new products that either helps with adding an aftermarket headunit or adding amps/speakers to existing factory headunits. Of course there are continued applications with adding iPod and AUX input devices as well as some consolidation of devices for GM applications that previously required steering wheel control modules, chime retention modules, and data driven discrete output in separate interface devices. All together it’s very nice to see that many interface devices are getting better and more installer friendly.

NAV-TV showed several cool integration pieces, such as the GMVIM-Barracuda, which is a comprehensive video in motion (VIM) adapter offering programmable inputs to the factory DVD navigation screen in Escalade, Denali, Tahoe, and Suburban SUV applications. The company also showed its 3G-VIM for Audi Q5, A5, and S5, which the company said is the world’s first-ever video in motion module over M.O.S.T. that can also add A/V inputs such as rear camera, DVD, etc.

Core Car Audio Products
Of course CES had many exhibitors showing new car audio amplifiers, speakers, subwoofers, head units, and mobile video products. Of interest were the new Rockford Fosgate bd series constant power amplifiers and the head units that stream Pandora radio from Alpine (iDA-305S) and Pioneer (AVIC-X920BT).

On the topic of aftermarket head units, one category interests me greatly: the OEM-style navigation/DVD head units that have a look and fit just like their factory optioned counterparts. These units feature aftermarket “guts” with an OEM button layout and faceplate. Although they are now offered by many manufacturers, at the show versions by Motevo, Myron & Davis, and Concept were on display. Rosen also has units like this.

Coverage varies by manufacturer and I have not yet played with any of them, so I am sure the user interfaces range from good to not-so-good feeling. These are not necessarily plug and play either, considering that some will still require steering wheel control and other interface adapters as any aftermarket unit would. Still, the idea of something factory looking that still has a feature set of iPod interface, AUX A/V input, navigation and a DVD transport means that there might be a great future to sell these to customers who would not spring for OEM navigation because of costs, but would consider aftermarket if it didn’t look and operate like aftermarket head units do with different cosmetics and user interfaces. Something to watch, I think.

Mobile Video
Audiovox formally introduced mobile video systems for FLO TV to compliment the company’s personal handheld FLO TV products. FLO TV is a subscription based service carrying 15 channels that are normally found on cable. While this may be a great option for around town, the coverage still leaves many state to state road trips without coverage in between when considering an in-vehicle system.

On another front there was a lot of buzz around Mobile DTV with the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) and supporting manufacturers developing tiny receiver chips for all kinds of mobile devices. This was really less about mobile video as our industry knows it (overhead, headrest and in-dash monitors), but more along the lines of portable devices, flip-up DVD players (that you normally take on planes or road trips) adding integrated DTV tuners, laptops, phones, etc. Surely some of this will end up in car products, but nothing major was part of this year’s show with those tiny receiver chips. Of course all of this work by the OMVC hinges on Mobile DTV broadcasts which are evidently not the same as over-the-air HDTV channels. Keep your hats on for what happens next.

Security and Convenience
This category continues to be developing rapidly with innovative solutions. DEI, AutoPage, ADS/iDataLink, Crimestopper and others. One area that’s really helping installers is computer-based or web-based configuration tools. The interface is more visual, and with programs such as iDataLink protocol Weblink Updater 5.0, the devices can be fully programmed in an easy-to-understand fashion even before the part hits the install bay. This can save all kinds of time from the old way of programming by pressing buttons or cycling the ignition key. The latest version of Weblink Updater has all kinds of improvements over previous versions, such as a toggling feature for quick remote start programming.

Directed Electronics showed its Smart Start application that was already popular for iPhone and now includes Blackberry phones as well. The new app, Smart Start 1.5, should be available in the first quarter of 2010. Although Directed made a great showing of the Smart Start application at CES, they were also doing double duty with a booth at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit immediately following CES and getting great coverage from the automotive press and mainstream media like CNBC. Whether you know it or not, mainstream media coverage at a show like CES and NAIAS also benefits (and to some degree validates) aftermarket innovations alongside what’s available in the vehicles from the factory. It reminds consumers we still have things to provide them and lends visibility to us as a category.

Of course there was lots of new hardware in the way of security systems, remote starters, devices for data bus integration, and transponder bypasss products on display at CES 2010. There were many more improved solutions that consolidate multiple modules into single products and there’s a continued effort for flexibility of programming inputs and outputs to function more like the electrical systems in today’s vehicles.

Most of all, there is a clear trend leaning toward less time spent installing, trading additional product cost and programming or configuration time for a specific application. Long ago we discussed the day when “installers” would also become “programmers” and, though it’s not here just yet, there is a significant amount of programming and configuration flexibility in today’s security and remote starter products that extend far beyond just connecting wires to the car.

Just for Installers
Who doesn’t like tools and equipment? At CES there were also a few items that any shop doing fabrication or serious system building couldn’t live without. Mobile Solutions showed its all-new, turnkey router tables with frames made from steel. It’s a turnkey package that includes everything you need to unpack it and start fabricating with a router table. Rolling casters and an OSHA-compliant safety switch make it easy to move around and use in just about any shop.

Accele Electronics had a very cool Flexible Video Scope which has a 24-inch flexible color camera head with a 2.5-inch color monitor at the handle to show what’s behind the scenes. Great for seeing into places that may otherwise require extensive panel removal even to see what space is available for a subwoofer enclosure or amplifier placement, not to mention the ease of finding grommeted pass-through points in a modern firewall.

Scosche, Metra, AAMP of America also each had their installation tools on display at the show, each of which is a popular supplier to most industry retailers already.

Focusing on Better Business Practices and Business Relationships Although many exhibitors were at the show with new products, many also had an overwhelming message of encouragement to retailers. They said in 2010 it’s time to get your business back on track with the things you CAN do. Audio Control had a fantastic wall in their booth of photos and examples of retailers doing various kinds of promotions that bring customers in. According to Chris Kane of Audio Control, “We are focusing on putting retailers in the spotlight who are creatively marketing themselves and offering those success stories to other retailers through dealer programs and our newsletter communications.” Between tune-up clinics, consumer sound-offs and leveraging social networking, the guys at Audio Control had many examples of how some retailers are keeping themselves first in the customer’s mind.

Another company very aggressively focusing on retailers was InstallerNet, which continued to share its InstallCard programs and software packages with retailers seeking greater efficiency and diversification of their normal walk-in customer base.

InstallerNet’s Pro Team members also had the Connected Car (a project of the AECC joint Task Force with SEMA and CEA) on display in the North Hall. The 2009 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon demonstrates the power of multiple organizations and people in complementing industries working together to provide solutions to consumers who want the latest technology in their vehicle. The purpose at CES was to show how to integrate aftermarket electronics products, performance upgrades, and mobile handheld devices into the vehicle while maintaining reliability, functionality, and the safety of the OEM systems and networks. It goes fast and climbs rocks too, after all it is a Jeep!

Perhaps the most omnipresent focus at the show with regard to business was the refreshing optimism among retailers and installers. Many made it out to the show and took time to meet up with other retailers, installers and industry colleagues to converse and share ideas. Although this has always been an aspect of CES, it’s now one of the key reasons to attend as there is just no substitute for face-to-face meetings, conversations with like-minded colleagues, all of which can inspire and spark new ideas to bring in business. At CES, we are always still very much excited about the year to come, and International CES 2010 was proof again that excitement in our business is still out there. Reigniting your excitement may just be one of the reasons you mark for attending next year’s CES. You’ve got the rest of the year to plan!

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