Former AVP volleyball player Jeff Murrell likes to party.
And he’s found a way to do it green.
On last Fourth of July, the Manhattan Beach resident drew curious stares when beach-goers noticed a 6-foot-2 volleyball player blasting Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” from an eight-foot-tall mobile DJ booth being towed down The Strand by a bike.
The booth was complete with turntables, speakers and blaring music, and soon puzzled stares turned to bobbing heads.
But most partiers had no idea that the set-up was powered entirely by the sun.
“I never have to plug into a wall,” Murrell said.
A flat, white solar panel sitting atop Murrell’s “green DJ booth” charges the batteries on which the booth runs, making blasting music at the beach — where nary an electric outlet is to be found — possible and environmentally sustainable.
Energy efficient LED club lights also flash from the booth. A latch that hooks onto a bike for transportation makes the carbon footprint of the entire set-up virtually non-existent. And on a sunny day, it can charge while in use.
The green DJ booth is one of the latest additions to Murrell’s environmentally-conscious event planning company, Focus Entertainment, and one of several green event products Murrell has developed and is in the process of patenting.
He said it is the first in the world of its kind.
“The idea came from needing sound on the beach.” said Murrell, who for years has worked as a DJ for clubs and private events. “I was already looking for a way to make my business greener. It started out with a solar powered [DJ] wagon and it just went from there.”
Two turn tables and a…solar panel
Before joining the former Association of Volleyball Professionals Tour in 2006, Murrell, a San Diego native, started playing in the Six-Man Volleyball Tournament a year after he moved to Manhattan Beach in 1997.
He joined Team Magnum, a well-known local team best known for a steady stream of competitive invectives often offered through a loud bullhorn. Years later Murrell, 37, started his own team called “More Cowbell” — inspired by a Saturday Night Live Skit starring Will Ferrell — and a friendly rivalry erupted between the two teams over who had the loudest sound system.
In More Cowbell’s first year, Murrell strung together some car batteries and an inverter, hooked them up to a 15-inch speaker connected to an iPod and slapped the whole contraption onto a wagon which he toted to the beach and pumped music from.
The following year, Magnum tried to outdo Murrell’s “boombox on steroids” by showing up with a larger speaker.
More Cowbell brought two.
Things just got louder.
Murrell ultimately concocted an “ultra wagon,” a custom-made traveling sound system with an 18-inch subwoofer and two 15-inch speakers. But lugging to the beach the two 75-pound batteries required to run it often proved to be cumbersome, not to mention energetically inefficient.
“I realized how much power I was using to have fun,” Murrell said.
So he special ordered a solar charger and engineered it to the wagon system.
To his surprise, he got double life out of the batteries. And a fully sustainable, solar-powered sound system that can run at the beach or in the middle of nowhere, for that matter.
“He can pull power any place,” said Lisa May, owner of Pur Luxe, a Manhattan Beach-based eco-friendly event planning company with which Murrell often partners. “It’s so innovative, so cutting -edge. He’s mobile. He can be on The Strand or at an event. All with solar-powered batteries. And it works just as efficiently.”
More than a DJ
This past summer, Murrell took the concept of the wagon sound system, went bigger and greener with it and ended up with the green DJ booth, of which he now has two that he rents out to clients from San Diego to Santa Barbara — with or without a DJ.
But the booth is a small component of his overall operation.
“He’s a well-known DJ,” May said. “But really his passion is for doing entire green events.”
In July, Murrell was hired to handle the event management for Smackfest, the largest co-ed four-person volleyball tournament in the county.
“One of the main reasons I hired him is because of his solar panel DJ set-up, which worked perfectly with what we’re trying to do, which is be green and reduce our carbon footprint,” said tournament organizer Bill Sigler.
Sigler noted that Murrell’s green system powered the event — attended by 800 people — from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Murrell also created a green power box full of solar chargers that acts as a generator, which lighting, music and other equipment can be plugged into. He said that a box can power 65 stage lights and be controlled by a computer placed inside of it.
On New Year’s Eve, Murrell managed four events, each powered by a box. From the touch of his iPad, he was able to change the lighting and music at each event.
Last month, Murrell received a call from the managers of Patrick Molloy’s restaurant when an electric power outage left them without lights.
“I brought lighting and powered everything for them with one of the boxes, so they could close down [the store],” Murrell recalled. “Then Sharkeez called and asked if I could do the same for them. So I ran an extension cord over there.”
Murrell has also managed events such as professional beach volleyball player Eric Fonoimoana’s Champions Dinner at Raleigh Studios, the JAYO Foundation Eco Festival in Long Beach and Napster’s holiday party.
Murrell said clients are often surprised to find that large-scale events can be powered entirely on solar.
“Some people have asked, ‘What happens if the sun goes down?’” he said. “But I engineered it so it has more than enough energy.”
A battery that has charged in the sun all day can run for 10 hours, Murrell said.
Last year, Murrell bought a diesel truck that runs on vegetable oil, which he outfitted with a solar-panel covered shell and an accompanying trailer that carries equipment and solar-powered batteries with the capacity to power large events.
With the ability to provide power, lighting, music, screens, projections, stages, performers, furniture, and service staff, Murrell hopes to do more “full turnkey green events,” in addition to smaller gigs.
He aspires one day to handle event management for an event such as Coachella, an annual music festival that draws thousands.
“I have a long way to go to get to that point,” Murrell said. “But that’s the goal. To do a fully sustainable, large-scale event.”
For more information, visit entfocus.com ER
