Radio 1's Big Weekend: Visual, Open and Mobile
Big Weekend kicks off on the 9th of May in Swindon and historically we've always used the event to showcase innovation around technology. This year feels slightly different, we are still keen to play with new things, test out lots of ideas - but we've focused on 3 things that will be important to us over the coming 12 -18 months: Open, Visual and Mobile.
The topic of 'openness' has been much talked about in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ by such monster blogtastic brains as Jem Stone, Steve Bowbrick, Hugh Garry - and things are finally starting to stick. I want to see behave online like the friend it is on air. A friend that welcomes contribution, pokes fun, is honest, shares experiences, excites you about music. Big Weekend is a great place to start.
During the autumn, we found a strong visual mechanic that opens up our station and lets us have FUN. It came in the form of ScottCam - live (silent) video feeds from Scott Mill's flat. We had a feeling ScottCam would be a winner due to the slightly perverse voyeuristic experience of being able to peer into someone's life, but there was the glimpse of something exciting in the live audience feedback around the streams.
Increasingly, this mix of video, interaction and data gets more exciting. I appeared briefly on BeckyCam and watched emails pour in... warm, friendly emails - full of humour - mainly about my bald(ing) head - but still.... this begged the question, how can I show them to everyone else? How can we share that conversation on and let it spread across the web using status updates like and . The megaphone of Radio is a a powerful call to action, a unique kick start to online conversations - enhanced by live data and video. So check out the live streams coming out of Big Weekend in Swindon. Talented radio producers are set to have fun... and we hope an audience is poised to watch what goes on. We'll do our best to reflect back the comments the live stream brings - maybe even chat. I feel like we have a long way to go in being more open but Big Weekend is a good start...
So that has done Visual and Open, but we are also learning a thing or two about mobile - how people use their devices and how we can get content to them to share. We are building a mobile site optimised for those high end devices (see pic) - but the real fun is in the 'Bluetooth Loo' where we will Bluetooth you great stuff for your mobile while you relieve yourself - we'll tinker with QR codes again too on site, gauging where our audience is at with these things... Hopefully we'll continue to learn in this space and find great ways to connect with young people.
As ever you can watch all live performances, DJ video, check out photos and follow the festival at
Lots more to come .
Ben Chapman is Interactive Editor, Audio and Music Interactive.
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