Question 1

1. Can I use bicycle-power for a movie projector, DJ booth, device recharge station, etc?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Although I call it a "bicycle-powered sound system" it should more accurately be called a "bicycle-powered electrical outlet (that I just happen to enjoy plugging my sound system into)".

A Bicycle-Powered Electrical Outlet is a perfect way to power a movie projector, construction tools, lighting display, or anything else you can dream up.

That said, there are certain activities that are perfectly suited for bicycle-power, because they require a minimum amount of electricity to operate (which translates into fewer pedalers/ less cost for the event organizer), and produce a maximum experiential impact. Namely: sound systems, and LED lighting systems.

For example, even a single pedaler can produce a satisfying thump in a sound system that can get a small dance party going.

On the other hand, an electric kettle requires 20 pedalers, and has no party vibe.

Feel free to contact me to talk about your vision and see if it’s a good fit for bicycle-power.

Question 2

2. How hard is it to pedal one of the generator bikes?

Accepted Answer

The amount of pedaling effort needed to keep the system running smoothly is the same as one would put into a spirited ride to the grocery store. Though it’s no walk in the park, it’s also not a trip to the gym.

Question 3

3. Does a bicycle-powered system sound different than a grid-powered sound system?

Accepted Answer

No. Although our approach to powering events is iconoclastic, our approach to achieving professional sound quality is traditional. We use only trusted brands that professional audio engineers expect to see: microphones by Shure and Sennheiser, powered speakers by JBL, and mixing consoles from Allen & Heath and Yamaha.

When you hire Studio Ecotopia you’ll get the same audio quality and see the same equipment that you’d expect from any professional sound company.

Question 4

4. Does the volume get louder if people pedal harder?

Accepted Answer

No. Whether grid-powered, battery-powered, or bike-powered, the volume of a sound system is controlled by the volume knob on the speaker (and the audio engineer whose fingers are on that volume knob), not by the vastness of how much electrical storage is hiding behind the outlet it's plugged into.

If you'd like to understand this concept more fully, grab a cup of coffee and keep reading:

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To illustrate: let's say you want to have a water fight with your friends using little plastic yogurt containers as your wet-pons of choice. Surrounding you are a lake, a swimming pool, and a 5-gallon bucket.

When the water fight begins, no matter which water source you frantically dip your yogurt containers into, y'all are still only going to be able to throw the amount of water that your puny little yogurt containers can hold. It doesn't matter if you dip the container into the lake — with its seemingly infinite supply of water— or the 5-gallon bucket with its relatively small and precarious supply— you're still throwing a Chobani's-worth of water at any given moment.

As the water fight continues, of course, the 5 gallon bucket is going to start emptying more quickly and is going to need to be regularly refilled. That's why you — cleverly— draped the garden hose over the edge of it and left it turned on halfway! A steady supply of water. Nice thinking.

In this illustration, the 5-gallon bucket is equivalent to a pedal-power system: it requires regular and steady refilling to stay topped-off with enough "juice" to supply the yogurt containers.

The yogurt containers in this illustration are like the loudspeakers. Loudspeakers, by their nature, don't require much volume to get friends activated. Even a little splash gets people's hearts enlivened.

To power loudspeakers, you don't need a huge lake of power (a city's vast electrical grid), or even a swimming pool's worth (a portable lithium battery). A bucket will do (bicycle-power), so long as you keep it refilled.

Just like a yogurt container, a loudspeaker's max volume isn't dictated by the size of the pool it draws from, but by its inherent size and design limitations.

However, the water fight analogy starts to differ from bicycle-power though when it comes to the use of restraint.

In a water fight we all usually want to splash our friends with "max volume" for as long we can. Yogurt containers filled to the brim, spilling off the sides as we go running around squealing. No restraint.

In a concert however, good audio engineers never turn their loudspeakers up to max volume. It actually makes the speakers distort and sound like a mess (like the water spilling over the sides of the yogurt container). A good audio engineer artfully dials-in the most pleasant, appropriate volume they can, making an informed decision about whether to sprinkle the audience with sound— perhaps for a poetry reading— or douse the audience with almost a complete yogurt container's worth (a concert where you want to feel the bass actually thumping you on the chest).

So what if you flipped the original question:
Does the volume fade if the system starts losing power? 
In other words, as the 5-gallon bucket starts to run empty, wouldn't the volume of the last scoops you made with your yogurt containers fade along with it?

In a water fight, yes.
But with electrical devices, no.

If a loudspeaker doesn't get the power it needs, it doesn't fade out, it just abruptly turns off.

Question 5

5. Will the sound system turn off if people don't pedal hard enough?

Accepted Answer

Yes. If the pedaling effort droops for an extended time, an outage can occur.

The good news is that outages are almost always preventable if there is a charismatic "Pedal Power Coach" on hand to:

Facilitate the recruitment of Pedalers, and rotate people out,
Show new Pedalers how it works,
Cheerlead Pedalers (as needed).

Studio Ecotopia is happy to provide our own Pedal Power Coach, or to take 5 minutes, in the days or hours leading up to the event, to train one of your crew members to act as one.

At all-ages events, Pedal Power Coaches also perform the important task of making sure there are enough adults on the bikes to keep the system charged. This matters because although young kids LOVE to pedal, and will pedal for days, their power output is a small fraction of a bigger person's. Until we build an Enthusiasm-Powered Sound System, this is an important consideration.

What about the energy droop caused when one Pedaler gets off the bike and another one is climbing on? We account for this inevitability with a special built-in circuit called an "ultra capacitor" that acts like a temporary battery/buffer/flywheel. This means that if all the pedaling stops, the system still has a good 30-60 seconds of power stored up to keep the system running.

If you'd like to read micro essays about why the precarity of a bicycle-powered show makes it "a mechanism for collective euphoria", the definition of "good theater", and an example of "democracy at its healthiest", read on:

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A MECHANISM FOR COLLECTIVE EUPHORIA:

The possibility of an outage and the immediate “energy feedback loop” that the Bicycle-Powered Sound System creates, is part of the magic and vitality of a bicycle-powered show. People can feel the difference of a show where all the power has been placed in their hands, and an outage makes this power concrete. After all, if people don't have the power to turn the system off—only to keep it on, what kind of power is that?

After almost two decades of producing bicycle-powered concerts, I've found that when there isn't a Pedal Power Coach, and an outage has occurred, it consistently has the effect of spontaneously galvanizing and super-charging the audience. People erupt into cheers for the volunteer pedalers, and the pedalers feel the energy of the crowd pouring into their legs, which suddenly seem able to pedal twice as hard—as if by some kind of wireless transmission of enthusiasm. Then just as quickly as it all went dark, the power leaps back to life, and audience, pedalers, and performers burst into a triumphant celebration.  Almost like fans cheering their team on in a stadium. There’s a playful and almost euphoric sense of “We won! We did it!”

PRECARITY = GOOD THEATER.
It's been said the definition of bad theater is "predictable theater." Bicycle power on the other hand, is a magic antidote for even the dryest of events. It creates a very real and refreshing amount of uncertainty and instability; a challenge for the audience to come together around or else have no functional sound system for the event they're attending. Unfailingly, when the reins of power are placed in their hands, we see people organically self-organize around the challenge, and consequently feel a sincere affection for, and ownership over the event that they just co-powered into existence. In a very real way, they become a co-producer, in the company of co-producers.

DEMOCRACY AT ITS HEALTHIEST
One of my favorite lines is that bicycle-power is a metaphor for: "democracy at its healthiest."

Consider this: 
At a bicycle-powered concert, the one with the power (the person onstage with the mic) is entirely dependent on direct public support in order to "have power" and "maintain power". Even "the people who really run the show" (aka the organizers)—who both hand-selected the person who's "in power" at any given moment— and who fund the mechanisms of power (they rented the bike-powered sound system) are at the mercy of the public's willingness to engage with the machinery and make it run. In all cases, the power ultimately rests in the hands (or feet) of The People. If The People choose to walk away from the machinery and withdraw their support (like in a general strike or non-violent revolution), the event topples until something changes.

Pedal to the people!

Question 6

6. What about mechanical failures? Is there some kind of back up to keep the show going?

Accepted Answer

Redundancy and reliability are important to us, especially when dealing with a custom-built, vanguard technology like bicycle power. As musicians and performers ourselves, we intrinsically understand the importance of the old adage: “the show must go on!” And to ensure that it does, in the unlikely event of a mechanical failure, we always travel with a battery power generator that has enough juice to provide electricity for your entire event twice over.
 
Switching between bicycle power and battery power sources only takes about three seconds, and in almost two decades of producing bicycle-powered events, I've only had to do it once: at an event back in 2015, when a fuse blew in the “Pedal Power Utility Box” (the main power hub for the system). After we identified the problem and the fuse was replaced, we seamlessly switched back from battery power to bicycle power during a moment of applause - about twenty minutes after the original mishap. We’re committed to making sure there are zero reasons why you should sweat at your event, unless of course, you want to jump on a bike and pedal.
 
On a personal level, it’s also important to us that we present bicycle power, and ecotopian culture in general, in a positive and reliable light when we unfurl it out in society. For all of these reasons, we come to every event prepared with the tools we need to make sure that the “show goes on” no matter what.

Question 7

7. Who else has used Studio Ecotopia's bicycle-powered sound system?

Accepted Answer

Over the years, we've had the opportunity to provide pedal powered sound to a wide range of organizations.
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Community Celebrations:
Example: For their 30th anniversary, Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito, CA) planned a day-long celebration outdoors on their great lawn, centered around an epic mainstage built entirely out of driftwood. For the full lineup of bands they'd booked, they wanted a sound system that would match the organic character of their stage. HCA hired Studio Ecotopia to provide our 7-bike pedal powered sound system, as well as all the equipment that bands typically need (mics, monitors, mixing boards, DI's, snake, etc), in addition to an audio engineer to run the sound board. All equipment was transported to and from the event site by a crew of Studio Ecotopia roadies outfitted with bicycle trailers.
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Private Parties:
Example: The in-house event planner at San Francisco tech company Autodesk hired Studio Ecotopia to provide a pedal-powered DJ booth on two different occasions. Since Autodesk is most well known for creating the software that designers use to create 3D models of rocket ships, bridges, and other precision machines, the planner made an effort to bring in vendors that had a technologically sophisticated, but creative element to what they did. Surrounded by 3D models of Teslas, and skyscrapers, Studio Ecotopia-owner Gabe Dominguez DJ'd sets that drew people to the dance floor - so that even in suits and high-heels, people were stoked to jump on the bikes and go for it.
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Activism:
Example: Expecting a crowd of 1000 people, the organizers of The March Against Monsanto in Oakland, CA were excited to use pedal power to amplify their message. As a community advocating for transparency in food labeling, organic food, and democratic people power, they knew that a pedal power sound system would have an inherent resonance with the content it was ampliying, helping the messages spoken at the microphone resound at a deeper level. To maximize clarity and coverage, Studio Ecotopia provided a 6-point surround sound system to encompass the audience. Anywhere a person stood in the crowd, they wouldn't be far from a source-point of sound, allowing us to keep the volume levels at a comfortable level, while maintaining presence. Pedalers of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds enjoyed not only "speaking truth to power," but speaking in a form of power that was harmonious with their values.

Question 8

8. How big of a crowd can I reach with a bicycle-powered sound system?

Accepted Answer

Using up to 10 bikes, Studio Ecotopia can produce enough power to reach up to 750 people for music events, and 3000 people for speech events. On the other end of the spectrum, a single bike powering a single speaker works great for concerts of 100 people, and speaking events of 300.
 
If you have a larger event that you’d like to power with audience leg power (Coachella? Possible!), give us a holler for a custom quote. With enough advance notice, and budget, it’s possible to bike-power an event of any size.

For geeks: 
A normal adult can comfortably produce 50-60W, with athletes able to produce up to 300W or more. There's a lot of x-factor here, but 50W per pedaler is a good rule of thumb. Children, as you might guess, produce significantly less than adults (15W or so).

bicycle power faq