GRAPEVINE, TEXAS — Car electronics retailers and manufacturers gathered last week for the annual KnowledgeFest trade show, held here at the Gaylord Texan Hotel & Convention Center.
The show, which had more than 50 exhibitors, is put on by the Mobile Electronics Retailers Association. Although finalized attendance figures were not available at press time, a steady stream of announcements rolled out during the show. Attendees gathered to see new product demos, attend training seminars and, of course, network with one another.
Here is a roundup of some of the news that emerged from the show. See TWICE.com for more.
Lightning Audio launched its new LO series of subwoofers during the show. The line includes the 150-watt (RMS) L0-S410 10-inch and L0-S412 12-inch, subwoofers, as well as single 12-inch and double 12-inch loaded enclosures.
Features include a stamped steel basket with spider venting, designed to reduce voice coil former temperature and increase power handling. A spokesman for the company said they are designed to work with its LA- 400M, LA-2100 and LA-4100 amplifiers.
The line is scheduled to ship later this year.
Pacific Accessory Corporation (PAC) and its parent company, Aamp of America, debuted a series of output converters known as the LOC Pro.
Features for the two- and four-channel converters include ultra-compact housings; single-dial, precision-matched stereo level gain adjustment; and signal-sensing circuit for amplifier remote turn-on.
Scosche Industries introduced four “value-priced” stereo replacement interfaces with features that are geared toward single-DIN and A/V units where limited outputs are required to adapt these types of radios.
All four interfaces — GMSR29, GMSRCL2, GMSR11 and CRSR01 — will retail for less than $100.
Sony showed its latest MirrorLink-equipped in-dash A/V head unit, which also features the company’s App Remote technology and accepts an outboard GPS navigation module.
The XAV-602BT receiver and XA-NV300T navigation module will be available in October and retail for about $549 and $249, respectively.
The navigation module features TomTom’s user interface and mapping technologies, including TomTom’s IQ Routes. The module connects via USB and includes an SD card that contains TomTom’s maps.
Using industry-standard MirrorLink technology, the head unit’s 6.1-inch touchscreen streams content from MirrorLink-compatible Android smartphones and displays a driver-friendly onscreen user interface. The onscreen interface of each brand of MirrorLink smartphone looks the same on any MirrorLink-compatible aftermarket or OEM head unit. — Additional reporting by Joseph Palenchar
