Duco Events: Synthony’s Success Story Continues…

GLOBAL PRODUCTION PARTNERS ON SYNTHONY IN THE DOMAIN

Originally the brainchild of Erika Amoore and David Elmsly, Synthony was acquired by Duco Events of sporting promotion fame (think Joe Parker), with the founders staying on as consultants. The Synthony concept of dance party featuring orchestra and anthem covers has since scaled up across New Zealand and offshore. The success of its latest iteration, ‘Synthony in the Domain’ is evidenced by its shortlisting for the New Zealand Events Awards Music Event of the Year, up against both Ed Sheeran concerts and Wellington’s Jim Beam Homegrown, amongst others.

Jason Steel, Creative Director at Global Productions Partners (GPP) has been on board from the start: “I was involved with the original town hall shows, then about three years ago GPP pitched to Erika offering the full concept design including video, lighting, laser and pyro. We were really keen to take the show to the next level.”

Synthony and GPP haven’t looked back, with Jason and his team managing full creative production for the Australian and New Zealand tours, the recent show in Singapore, the upcoming Synthony in the Snow in August, a return to the show’s roots at the Auckland Town Hall in September, and a New Year’s Rhythm and Alps set.

Every Synthony show offers something slightly different, and Duco Events took advantage of the green fields of Auckland Domain to offer a full day summer music festival featuring performances by Dick Johnson, P-Money, Dave Dobbyn, Kimbra and Shapeshifter as well as the debut of Synthony No4 with an all-new set list. For GPP this meant they needed to design a set nimble enough for full band set ups during the day but still deliver the unique Synthony concept in the evening.

“We designed a 14×7 metre deep rolling riser with a tiered platform that moved downstage and had the orchestra set up and ready to go. As the orchestra takes up so much space, we were worried that the stage could look very flat, so we designed an architectural arched LED tunnel to create depth.” They also utilised Notch as live IMAG effects and two huge IMAG screens, one either side, to integrate the orchestra into the dance party’s pulsating patterns and colours, “The whole Synthony brand is built around the powerful collision of the live orchestra with the DJs, instrumentalists and singers so it is always important to capture that visually as well as musically. We utilised Follow-Me rather than follow spots. It gave us the freedom to attach the majority of the rig to the main performer, making it quite top-heavy and suited to the dance party vibe.”

The Synthony set featured the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sarah-Grace Williams, and kicked off with a powerfully moving karakia. Highlights included Savage doing a version of Stop, Drop and Roll and the iconic sax player Lewis McCallum, a Synthony stalwart. Tiki Taane covered three Prodigy tracks, including sure-fire crowd pleaser Firestarter, and Dave Dobbyn returned to the stage to cover The Verve’s Bitter Sweet Symphony. Sandstorm by Darude brought Synthony No4 to a close and made way for Shapeshifter, with Tiki Taane on the sound desk.

Even after producing so many Synthony shows, pushing the orchestra through the DJ’s electronic anthems remains a fine balancing act, “We use close miking techniques and highly experienced audio technicians. At the Domain, the orchestra came in at 11 o’clock on show day, we had one full run through, time for fix ups and then we were straight into the show, so that audio experience really counts. The location, the size of the show and the different orchestras means there are a lot of variables. For Synthony in the Snow, it’s a scratch orchestra so separately contracted musicians which will add to the challenge.”

For all that, GPP specialises in delivering big events and Synthony sits totally within its scope. Even the quick turnaround due to time restrictions that come with utilising the Domain posed no problems, “You just can’t do the big scaffold stage, everything has to be pretty turnkey. So we used a 20 metre stage from Stageset NZ, did full pack in on Day 1, programming and sound checks on Day 2, and then ended up with an extra day when the show shifted from the Saturday to the Sunday, due to the weather.”

In addition to Stageset, suppliers included: College Hill on audio, MJF Lighting on lighting, Monstavision on video, GPP on lasers, LiveFX on pyro and Show Light & Power on staging. Production Manager Robbie Barclay delivered the Domain build. The rest of the production team comprised Mark Corbett as Audio FOH, Heath Clapperton on Audio Monitors, Jason himself on lighting and pyro design, and the GPP team comprised Scott Rowland as Lighting Assist, Andrew Naysmith on video, and Jack Hooper on lasers.

Jason got to enjoy the entire show and was delighted with the cohesion, “That’s what GPP is about, tying all the elements together: the audio, visual, lighting and special effects. Synthony in the Domain was a great example of what we can accomplish. Duco was really pleased with the delivery too. It’s an added bonus that we’ve now reached the finals for the New Zealand Events Awards.”

GPP’s aptitude for full production management and creative design has seen the company expand dramatically over the last four years. It now has ten full-time staff and an increasing amount of overseas work, supported by an office in Singapore. It has just finished the Head in the Clouds season, is currently working on New Zealand Fashion Week, and the team recently arrived back from providing the sound, video and lighting for NIKI’s tour.