BOGOTA , COLOMBIA

CAR AUDIO - WORLD FINALS

Wow! What a place! I had little time to gather information before the event I just came back from. What I thought was going to be similar to a “mini CES”, turned out to be so much more. There was a section of the show that was like a trade show, but the show also was the home for the Car Audio Finals. There were IASCA competition arenas for Sound Quality, SPL & Open Show (I'll get into this later). In addition to this, the DJ finals were also there. And Reggaeton and Rock music competitions... And a full blown car show… And an off-road demonstration… A gang of guys building a vehicle like “Pimp My Ride” within 4 days… And even a tattoo artist just in case you got the itch. (I did, but I had too much to do…)

Saturday was non-stop action with about 15,000 people in attendance at the Convention Center. That was nothing compared to the constant 140dB ambient noise on Sunday where over 30,000 people stormed through the show! I'm tellin' ya, this show was off the hook and by far the biggest show I have ever been to.

SOUNDSTREAM was an official sponsor of the event and it was money well spent by our distributors out of Panama , Global Mundi. Ricky and Ricardo, father and son (not from “I Love Lucy”) picked me up at the airport. The guys are the nicest guys you could ever meet and took great care of me.

There were a few things that I must tell you about Colombia . First of all, the creativity of installers over there is very good. Some of their best vehicles could rival some of ours. Their SQ vehicles were well built and according to Will Adcock, former USA world champion (who was there to judge the show), there were some very impressive vehicles. Unfortunately, I did not get to hear them for myself. The guys in the SPL arena were slightly behind us in the states, but please understand that they are extremely limited to vehicle choices. I would not be surprised if 75% of the cars were Hyundais (1/2 the size of ours), 15% were Chevys that we do not have, and the remaining 10% was Daewoos, and an occasional other brand.

Now, let's talk about the Open Show competition… This si the coolest thing I have ever seen. Actually, this is the way they compete in Malaysia and Panama as well, but I got to experience these vehicles first hand. As a sponsor, I had a VIP pass to get past the thousands of people and right to the front blocked-of area of every event. Anyway, the rules are very simple… There really aren't any except that you have to compete with the hatch or truck lid open! That's right, these cars have 90% of their system in the rear hatch. Unlike our typical systems, they have batteries and amps in the rear seat area at times and manage to massage tons of speakers into the rear end of the vehicle. One of my favorites had (6) 12” subs and (8) 6” x 9” in the rear hatch. It was amazingly clear! They are all like rolling dance clubs. There were old truck that had boxes the 8' length of the bed, hanging over the bed sides and 6' -8' high, housing tons of equipment. You see a pics in a minute that show vehicles with anywhere from 12 to nearly 100 speakers. Some of these vehicles were capable of 140dB levels OUTSIDE!!! It was almost nauseating, but badass!!

Overall, the show was a massive success. From what Moe of IASCA, Director of Domestic Operations told me, it has been like this for the last several years. Will Adcock agreed. If invited, I WILL BE BACK next year!

Since pictures say a thousand words, I'll just show you what I experienced…