S1XTEEN
An unofficial concept site for S1XTEEN, the Perth crew behind The S1XTEEN Show, in their own black and white, where any episode can be watched or just listened to on the page.
Overview
S1XTEEN is the Perth crew behind The S1XTEEN Show, and their cameras have been at the city’s big nights since 2022. They had no working website, so C4 built this unofficial concept to show them one. The notice at the top of every page says it isn’t made with or for S1XTEEN, and that nothing on it is for sale. The site is in their own black and white. Their name breaks up every second or two over a cut of their own sessions and concert reels, and colour shows only on a broken frame. The Show is one quiet list across both of their series. Any episode can be watched in a player on the page, and where there’s audio it can be played from their own podcast feed as a voice-memo waveform. Each of their nights gets its own page, with their photos credited to whoever their posts name. The booking form is styled like the rest of the site and sends nothing. Every fact traces to the crew’s own posts and channels, and anything unknown shows as a visible placeholder. The concept is hidden from search. Available to license or commission.
Screenshots
The photos and footage on the concept are S1XTEEN's own, credited on the site to whoever their posts name.
What I Delivered
- A one-page home, and a page for each of eight nights
- A 21-second black-and-white hero film, cut from the crew’s own sessions and concert reels
- An episode list across both series, with a player on the page and a listen-only mode
- A booking form in the site’s own style that sends nothing
- A 404 page that reads Not on the list
- The concept notice at the top of every page, linking to the real S1XTEEN on Instagram
Key Features
- The name centred and breaking up every second or two, split into red, green and blue only while it’s broken
- A smoke haze, drawn live in WebGL
- Watch opens a player that grows out of the episode’s thumbnail and closes back into it
- Just listen streams the episode from the crew’s podcast feed and draws it as a voice-memo waveform while it plays
- Night pages where the title glitches in once over smoke, with the date and venue set large
- A full-width lead photo on each night that drifts as you scroll, with the crew’s own words in white caption boxes
- Escape closes the player even after a click inside the video, and focus goes back to where it was
- A Pause control, and reduced motion leaves the name still
Stack & Tooling
- Next.js 16.4 (App Router)
- React 19.3
- TypeScript
- Mona Sans, self-hosted
- Canvas for the breaking name and WebGL for the smoke
- The Web Audio API for the waveform
- YouTube’s no-cookie player, driven over its IFrame API messages
- Vercel hosting
Integrations & Backend
- Episodes play in YouTube’s no-cookie player inside the page
- Audio from the crew’s public podcast feed
- Links out to their YouTube, Spotify, Instagram and TikTok
- No form service and no analytics: the booking form sends nothing
Performance / SEO / Accessibility
- A content security policy that allows frames only from YouTube’s no-cookie player and audio only from the podcast host
- Every page sends noindex in a header and in the page
- No sideways scroll at 375, 768 or 1280 px
- The hero film screened for flashing: at most two flashes a second
Challenges & Constraints
- Making sure nobody could take it for the real thing: a notice on every page, and the site kept out of search
- Keeping every fact traceable to the crew’s own posts and channels, with anything unknown shown as a visible placeholder
- Building for a nightlife crowd while keeping the film’s flashing under the safe limit
- The YouTube player kept the Escape key after a click inside it. Focus is now handed back, so Escape closes it
What I'd Improve Next
- Upcoming nights, which show as a placeholder until they’re known
- Episodes published since 26 October 2026