Capital Summertime Ball 2024

[Jono]

What worked and what didn't work?

The internet coverage was innovative and daring. I'm afraid for a lot of it in the current state it just didn't work. It has so much potential but didn't deliver in an era when we're so used to on-demand. I think the online team should be proud of what they've delivered but the two-second buffering for a lot of it made it unbearable and it would have made sense to have kept Radio 1 away from the live feeds to avoid confusion.

The text console was good especially for the dressing room chat. Clearly Twitter presence was bang on with the way that it became a trending topic too.

The radio content this year has been better than usual with the likes of Moyles on-air (but still some way to go to keep me tuned in) but I personally feel the red button lacked the in-depth content it once had with various presenters appearing and more screens (BBC selling off Freeview stream killed this IMO).

The BBC3 stuff with Edith and Reggie worked well - a shame it couldn't devote more time to this and I liked that Radio 1 cut down the chart for this weekend.

On a personal level I was manning a Facebook page and the UM stream and felt very much involved and it's great to have had many comments on the forum too.

[Tyler1994]

I agree, The technology was great but it just didn't work. They deffinately need to get it sorted for next year, as for the acts I thought they were all excellent...Really enjoyed dizzee, pendulum and faithless! Bring on next year! Bring Big Weekend To The South!

[-sophie-]

North!

[Hammer]

The webcams took forever to load and kept buffering every few seconds in my experience. Whereas it all ran smoothly during the week with Moyles and Greg at the cottage, I couldn't really use the website to watch any of the Big Weekend.

[Computer]

The idea of the internet streams was a fantastic one, not amazingly well executed though, I agree. I'd also agree that it should be given more BBC3 time.

The event itself, the booking, the atmosphere etc was brilliant though, thanks Radio1!

[John]

Its a shame BBC 3 doesn't start until 7pm. Some live footage throughout the day would go down well!

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

The idea of the internet streams was a fantastic one, not amazingly well executed though, I agree. I'd also agree that it should be given more BBC3 time.

The event itself, the booking, the atmosphere etc was brilliant though, thanks Radio1!

Pretty much agree with that, at least the Red Button was there through the evenings. I hope they can learn lessons from this, they have the best part of a year to plan how to resolve the problems they had.

[Robbie Keane]

They could have ditched a couple of the webcams and upgraded the Main Stage cameras and especially the audio - I had to stop watching Pendulum because they completely removed the bass on it and the sound came off so flat. The buffering was also really bad at times, especially for the Moyles/Westwood soundclash.

And more rock bands, for the love of God.

But other than that, it was a good effort.

[MrDoovdeHaxorz]

The way some of it was going, I would have settled for audio feeds if the video kept buffering etc.

[bigmcgeach]

I think Paramore and You Me At Six absolutely nailed their sets! As did Rhianna and Florence.

[Lucie]

As said, the online coverage was very ambitious, but wasn't as good as it perhaps should have been.

I understand that this is a fairly new concept to do, and the online team seemed to have worked very hard on organising all of the webcams. Yes, the buffering issues and dodgy audio was annoying at times, but it was largely a new thing to try to pull off.

As ever pictures and videos online were brilliant; updated quickly and of a high quality, couldn't be any better.

I can't help thinking that the TV coverage wasnt as much as it should have been. I feel that Radio 1 are underselling the event if I'm honest. The highlights of the sets were on too late and seemed a little hap-hazard. Setting up a little studio onsite would have been brilliant, so you still get all of the news directly as it happens, but not so they presenters are talking outside of a really loud music tent.

BBC should be daring and put more performances on the TV instead of shoving it on repeat on the red button. I'm sure making a highlights show to put on BBC 2 or even 1 would work, maybe showing Saturday's on Sunday night and Sunday's on Monday? Not sure how it would work but the TV coverage didn't wow me as much as I expected. The BBC Three footage was in short supply and not as good as it could have been.

Afterall, the majority of listeners don't go to the event so catering for external viewers should be a priority.

Overall I thought the event was well organised and clearly had very hard work put in from all areas. The online people should be proud, the streams were a huge step forward for digital media and worked on the whole very well.

TV footage could have been better, and apart from on Saturday I saw no adverts for it at all! What's that about?!

[DaNNiP15]

I absolutly loved it, apart from the technical faults and the fact we were crammed in when Paramore played... and people were throwing full cups of beer around in the crowd. It was gross... and the car park was ver disorganised when it came to leaving... It took 3 hours to get out!