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ALEXANDRA PAYNE
N obody understands using an impressive career that has been sky- rocketing through the media landscape, she now heads up creative at Outernet London, an innovative entertainment, arts and culture district located in the West End. Dubbed by The Times as ‘London’s most visited tourist attraction’, it is the largest digital exhibition space in Europe – boasting one of the world’s largest LED screens, and pushing the boundaries of creative expression. technology for creative storytelling better than Alexandra Payne. With
building something from scratch – when you’re working on something that is unlike anything else in the world. What is Outernet London? Outernet London is an entire district on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross Road in the heart of central London. The district spans its three landmark immersive screen spaces. The Now building stands tall as a landmark with its four-storey-high, 360° screen space. Adjacent to that is Trending, a smaller yet more immersive and experiential space. Finally, the Now Arcade is a 21m-long digital walkway connecting Denmark Street to this new district. Part of the development also spans offices, high-end apartments, bars and music venues. We are also building a pro-bono recording studio. Outernet is combining traditional entertainment venues and spaces with advanced technology. We like to say that it’s the world’s most advanced public building, as well as the largest digital experience in all of Europe. It’s part immersive entertainment, but also two highly important music venues. There’s Here, which is a 200-capacity live events music venue. Then there’s The Lower Third, another music venue. In the Now Building itself, we have more than 2000 sq m of 8K and 360° floor-to-ceiling LED screens. Those screens were provided and built by AOTO Electronics, and display all our immersive and cultural experiences. We also have fully spatialised audio systems in the space. Like the talented and multidisciplinary creatives and technologists who worked on creating Outernet, we made sure to source something similar when it came to our providers for the district. We brought the very best-in-class suppliers – from AOTO and Solotech to Ventuz. In turn, they brought in the very best people to work alongside, adding to this incredible patchwork of specialised people that are able to do it all. Thanks to all of these elements in
Tell us about yourself and how you landed in the creative AV space. I’m from Sydney and my career began in traditional broadcast, in the promotions department for one of Australia’s largest free-to-air broadcasters – the Nine Network. It was a really hands-on role and exposed me to all the fundamentals of storytelling. When you are in a promo department, you’re dealing with editing, storytelling, graphics, talent – and then condensing all of that into short-form storytelling, which is a pivotal tool when starting out. I’ve always considered myself to be a multidisciplinary creative; I’m not just a producer or creative director. All the roles I have taken on to date demonstrate an accumulation of those skills. After that, I went freelance for a bit as a producer, and then I ended up at MTV Australia, where I worked on the triple-A programming across content, live events, commercial and branded content experiences. I was also on the team that produced the first MTV Unplugged in Australia. That gave me experience in live music broadcasts, programming and all
the content surrounding that. It was an incredible experience to bring such an iconic show to Australia. We did MTV Cribs , a version of Teen Mom Australia, Geordie Shore Down Under and plenty of other big-ticket programming. I then went to work across the entire book of Viacom Australia portfolios, so MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, etc. That involved their live action shoots, events, promos and branded content. That was everything – from EP-ing to writing and directing on some projects as well. After that, I decided to up sticks and move to London with my partner, who is English. It was just pre-pandemic and an ex-creative director of mine at MTV called me up and said: ‘Do you want to work with me on this new project?’ I turned it down a few times – I didn’t want to work on this start-up I’d never even heard of before – but he was very persistent and kept on calling. I’m so glad that he did because it’s been an incredible three-and-a-half years at Outernet London, with many highs and lows. That’s part and parcel when you’re
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