Car Sound Business in Jamaica

AS the dearth of formal employment opportunities continue to force Jamaicans to engineer creative ways of earning a living, St Thomas resident Wayne 'Beaky' Brown has come out of the box with a mobile sound system business which provides an income for himself and nine others.

Over a period of I0 years, Brown has converted a car into a multi-function sound system providing music for parties, public address services for formal functions and town crier functions for promoting various events. The car has been retrofitted to transport the speaker boxes, its own power supply and the music console while accommodating the driver and one other person.

"Government has forced the people to come up with creative ways of making a living because you have to survive and that is exactly what I have done," Brown told the Jamaica Observer North East in his Trinityville community, recently.

Brown, a self-taught technician, said he personally designed the mobile sound system -- Splash International -- which can operate either with electricity or battery.

"I bought this car for $60,000 and fix it up," Brown said of the station wagon which travels to towns as far away as Montego Bay at times.

Brown said he started out with a Toyota Starlet motor car, long before several big companies caught on to the now popular concept of mobile sound systems. It would take him nearly a decade to upgrade to the more sturdy station wagon which now accommodates a system large enough to compete with some traditional sound systems.

He explained that demand for mobile sound systems like his has grown because of the many advantages they offer. Unlike other sound systems, Brown said he does not have to hire a truck to transport huge speaker boxes or extra hands to lug around equipment.

"One man can operate this system because everything is in place," he told the Observer North East.

This makes the price more affordable to those wishing to hire his services.

The idea to establish a mobile unit, according to Brown, came about because people were opting for smaller systems so as to prevent music at their events from being turned off early under the Noise Abatement Act. He sprung into action and almost immediately people started requesting his service.

"We started going everywhere and people were amazed at the sound coming from this small car," he said.

"I play for the church, schools and even at the police station," he explained.

As the demand grows, Brown said he is constantly improving on the quality of his system and continues to "hussle" to buy more equipment.

"We are improving because we have more demand for this type of system even more now than before,".

Now, the system can operate even in some of the most remote areas of Jamaica where there is no electricity.

"It plays like eight hours straight without electricity," Brown explained.

When the Observer North East caught up with him, he was installing a new power supply equipment which, he said, took him six months to save for.

Fortunately, Brown has been able to do most of the work himself having worked as an electrician for years. This saves him significant sums.

According to Brown, he has been doing electrical work since he was five years old and started with pulling down small gadgets like radios and putting them back together again.

"I always wanted to be either a pilot or an electrician but my parents couldn't afford for me to be a pilot so I decided to be an electrician," he said, adding that all he knows is self-taught having never been to school for this skill.

With hundreds of thousands of dollars pumped into equipping the car, Brown said he has put extra measures in place to secure his investment.

"It has all the security features on it so nobody can't steal it," he told the newspaper.

One thing that sets Brown and Splash Intenational apart is its established reputation for not entertaining rowdy behaviour.

"I make sure we keep the discipline and so no fight don't happen around this sound system because from we get to a venue we start to preach this," he said.

CAPTION

(fixing up)

Wayne Brown installs equipment on his mobile sound system.

(splash and pose)

This mobile sound system provides employment for several young men in the rural community of Trinityville in St Thomas.

(selector)

Not only does Wayne Brown perform all the electrical work on his mobile sound system but he is also versed as a music selector.