Technical Alliance deliver Magnet House

Whether you knew it as Capitol, Globe or Pinocchio’s, 393 Murray Street was set to re-open in March as Magnet House. Following three months of feverish construction to have it ready for a big opening party, the restrictions on gatherings were announced the same weekend.

Magnet House lay dormant for three months, whilst the venue’s retro online persona: Maggie, kept everyone up to date with social media posts, and DJ sets were live streamed from the stage, with camera angles chosen to keep the highly technical fit up shrouded in mystery.

The venue is home to Australia’s first-ever Pixel Kinetic Ceiling which transforms right in front of your eyes thanks to a multi-million-dollar production and lighting install.

Technical Alliance is the design and production house charged with realising the owner’s simple brief: “To create the most unique atmospheric nightlife experience in Australia.”

To achieve this audacious goal, the team’s lead designer Sean Lenihan worked closely with Perth Interior Designer Brian Ho (BHO Interiors) to ensure that no aspect of the facelift was overlooked, and every detail contributed towards the multi-sensory experience.

A large team consisting of fabricators, carpenters, electronic technicians, engineers, project managers, lighting designers and a massive amount of coffee worked closely with BHO and Northerly (builder) to produce something very special. The close bonds formed within the team on-site were instrumental in getting the job done on time and to the high standard enjoyed by the throngs of punters flocking to the club.

The result is a revolutionary new take on Australian nightlife – Maggie’s LED display is the first of its kind in the country. The multi-dimensional, kinetic lighting rig boasts a 54-piece floating triangle rig hoisted by 162 individually controlled motors that literally dance in front of your eyes. Paired with these are 240000 addressable LED pixels and 34 square meters of LED. Think tessellating triangles that can be choreographed, the entire ceiling transformed into a wave of light, a dome that forms and shatters before you… the kaleidoscopic possibilities are endless.

The atmosphere is translated around every inch of the club, with pixel-mapped stairs, bars, mirrors, artistic shapes and channels that follow building contours linked and controlled as one organic beast controlled live by the in-house VJ.

Even the awning outside the club to host the huge lines waiting to get in has been treated with pixel strip, transporting the guests into Maggie’s vibe even before they walk through the door.

Magnet House is representative of many venues within Australia and the world that haven’t been able to trade for extensive periods.

The fabrication and installation teams from Technical Alliance had just finished their final run of pixel strip when Australia got locked down and the live entertainment industry collapsed – literally overnight. Magnet House closed and locked its doors – a brand new nightclub forced into hibernation, and all the venues, along with the production teams woke up to an uncertain future.

The innovative company is always thinking up new solutions – so one of the first things they did was to create a live stream broadcast TV studio in their warehouse and offered live streaming services to their venue and artist clients to maintain a connection with their audiences. From drag shows to album launches, they sponsored the entire spectrum of live performance, often pulling better live stream audiences than the groups were used to performing to live. One of the amazing performances they streamed was even shared by Lady Gaga’s team.

They spent the rest of their time away from venue operations performance maintenance for clients at no-charge and pretty much anything they could think of to help out an industry in shock.

Since then, Technical Alliance has refocussed its position in the industry and community, and the team has some exciting new projects ready to unleash on us all.

Fast-forward to the Phase 4 Easing of Restrictions opening party of June 27^th, and Technical Alliance posted a simple phone-shot walkthrough of the venue online. Within a few days, the Facebook post alone had reached 100k views, and the club has had lines going all the way around the block three nights a week – often until 4:00am. Every room and booth in the club is Instagrammable, and the team behind it is enjoying massive attention through the socials.

Magnet House represents a new, more sophisticated direction for nightlife venues, complementing the revolution in bespoke small bars. The focus on guest-experience and comfort is interesting, and the club’s use of high-tech design mixed with live circus performance and acts to complement the DJ sets is a welcome evolution in this space.

www.technicalalliance.com.au