Truespeed Connects Valley Fest
Covering everything from the connectivity problems Valley Fest had been struggling with for years, to how Truespeed overcame the hurdles in getting the site connected and the results of hooking up one of the South West’s hardest-to-reach festivals to reliable 10Gbps broadband, here’s everything there is to know about Truespeed connecting Valley Fest 2022.
Project Background
Truespeed is a full-fibre broadband provider that specialises in connecting hard to reach areas to ultrafast, gigabit capable broadband. Valley Fest, a 10,000 person festival in the heart of the Chew Valley, has always struggled with poor connectivity, so approached Truespeed to connect the festival to reliable broadband in order to improve the online experience at the festival.
Valley Fest showcases the best of the South West and offers a family friendly festival where people of all ages can enjoy live music, great food and even better entertainment. The festival is a ‘cashless’ event so every single payment is made online, so reliable connectivity is vital in every single aspect of the festival.
Project Goals
The aim of the project was to connect Valley Fest to fast, reliable broadband for the first time in the festival’s history. Improving the event for vendors and festival goers, the pioneering engineering project aimed to reduce queues by improving vendor transaction times, provide access to the online payment system to top up cashless credit and deliver an exceptional overall online experience to encourage repeat sales for the 2023 festival.
Allowing people to share their experiences in real time on social media was a hugely important requirement for Valley Fest, so having a connection that allowed instant sharing was a big part in providing an all round exceptional festival experience.
Project Strategy
Utilise Truespeed’s pioneering engineering techniques to build a brand new full-fibre infrastructure into the remote Chew Valley location. Configure specialist routers to stream Wi-Fi across a 150m radius from the main Truespeed ‘tech hub’ tent that provides festival goers with an online and technological haven.
Pulling in a plethora of engineering resources and techniques, Truespeed gained land access permissions from the surrounding area in order to dig through neighbouring fields and lay fibre cables underground in order to minimise any temporary disruption to locals.
The tech hub was designed to create an environment where people could experience the full force of Truespeed’s connection. Through interactive online games, phone charging stations, live Nintendo streaming and even live radio broadcasting, the tech hub was an immersive experience for festival goers to use and enjoy at their leisure.
Project Results
When it comes to results, numbers speak for themselves. So, to demonstrate just how much of an impact Truespeed’s broadband had on Valley Fest we’ve pulled together the key stats in a visual format below.
But it’s not just the numbers that sum up the success of the project, discover what festival goers had to say about Truespeed’s broadband.
“The Business Exchange magazine were delighted to attend Valleyfest that is set in the stunning location of Chew Valley. As the only B2B publication both in print and online covering Bath & Somerset it was wonderful to see so many local suppliers and performers at the festival and the fantastic positivity about the county.
“The connectivity provided by Truespeed throughout the weekend worked seamlessly, especially enabling transactions in the food and drink stands as well as allowing me to check emails and keep our 24/7 newsfeed and social media channels topped up with news from the festival.
Well done Valley Fest and Truespeed for organising such a great event….time to start planning for next year!”
Sian Swift, Business Development Manager, The Business Exchange Magazine
“We had the most amazing time at Valley Fest this year, it was our first experience of a family festival together and it didn’t disappoint. It has such a positive, sunny, relaxed vibe, that every member of the family could enjoy. The girls made an instant beeline for The Alchemist Playground, which completely captured their imagination.
Being able to escape into the cool shade of the Truespeed tent, was a welcome break from the sun, where we regroup and recharge (in just about every sense!). Our little ‘movie makers’ loved being able to sit down and edit their films in real time and share with their friends. It was all about capturing the moment, without taking away from the joy of the day. Being able to log on to Truespeed’s WiFi made the whole online experience seamless and my girls could create video content perfectly. It’s incredible to have such great connectivity in such a remote location with so many people all using it at the same time.
As a busy ‘freelance mum’ connectivity is really important on so many levels. Having complete confidence knowing you can work remotely/check the odd email/reply to the odd message, when you’re out and about, is vital. It’s not just about ‘switching off the business’ for 6 weeks, when the children are off, but knowing you can still stay in touch with clients and keep things ticking over, while enjoying life at a different pace.”
Faye Dicker, Owner, Freelance Mum
“People may well have seen a plane landed via broadband. As the leading local radio station across North East Somerset, broadband connectivity is equally as important for us at Somer Valley FM.
We were fortunate enough in receiving an invite from Truespeed to attend Valleyfest. With their cabling and connectivity established only a few days before the event start, plans were set for a live show. Broadband connectivity was hugely important. We pre-recorded interviews, posted content onto socials, and even went live from Valleyfest whilst our special show was broadcasting. If the broadband connectivity had failed, our show would not have worked, and our poor presenter would have been left with huge content gaps in our show.
In a field, recently connected, the broadband was brilliant. Quicker than being at home! Once Truespeed has completed connecting over our three valleys, their sales will fly even higher.
We were able to live stream from Valley Fest thanks to the incredible connectivity, so make sure to check out our special ‘Live From Valleyfest’ show to get the full lowdown on how the festival played out.”
Richard Burgess, Station Manager, Somer Valley FM
Supporting Businesses
Valley Fest is a vibrant, colourful festival designed to provide an incredible family friendly festival experience deep in the heart of the Chew Valley. Not only does it provide a local experience for families and friends, it’s a huge opportunity for local businesses to generate revenue and get their brand in front of thousands of people.
Discover how being connected to 10Gbps broadband at the festival helped an array of local businesses.
Project Conclusion
Overall, connectivity is without a doubt essential at festivals and Truespeed is proud to have helped deliver an exceptional online experience at Valley Fest 2022 by connecting it to 10Gbps broadband.
Truespeed are rolling out our full-fibre broadband network across the South West faster than ever before. If you have an event you would like to see if Truespeed can help provide connectivity for, just get in touch with our team via the contact us page.