Lighting designer Francis Clegg of London-based design house MIRRAD turned to
control technology by British manufacturer Avolites to drive his atmospheric lighting
for electronic retro-rockers Public Service Broadcasting’s (PSB) ‘The Race for Space’
album tour.

The band’s unique sound features samples of vocals from old public information
films and propaganda material with a goal to “teach lessons of the past through the
music of the future”. This is reflected in the live show’s black and white archive
video content by Gerrad Blyth, which Clegg cleverly juxtaposed with vibrant colours
and dazzling aerial effects in a design that won him a Knight of Illumination Award
2016.

Clegg opted to use the highly tourable yet sophisticated Avolites Quartz running
Titan version 10 to programme his winning design: “The Quartz fit the bill perfectly
as I run everything in cuelists and only need a compact work space – ten faders is
plenty! Not to mention it’s fast, runs as many universes as I ever need and has all
the required input/outputs.”

Clegg’s rig, supplied by Colour Sound Experiment, was based around the Claypaky
A.leda B-EYE K20. The versatile effects light was supported by Robe Pointes, Robe
600 Washes and Prolights Diamond 7s, as well as a selection of tungsten side and
backlights. With the video screens being square and of a fixed ratio, Clegg
positioned the lighting fixtures as creatively as possible to lend further depth and
perspective to the overall look of the show.

A long-term fan, Clegg has been using Avolites consoles for the past five years
when creating designs for artists such as Slaves, Snarky Puppy, Kano, Lethal Bizzle,
Krept and Konan ft. Giggs.

“Avolites consistently introduces new tools to meet the requirements of the
programmer,” he says. “I like the flexibility of the Titan software; it’s great for
getting together a quick busking show but also features powerful cuelist show tools
such as the updated patch view from version 9 and the intensity output tracking
view in version 10. I use this a lot, filtering by groups of selected fixtures, to
ensure my cuelist programming is as robust and conservative as possible! I’m also
a fan of version 10’s updated effects tracking options – super helpful and another
great step forward in the software.”

Public Service Broadcasting played a special show at Islington Assembly Hall on the
23 November as part of a Bowel Cancer UK charity fundraiser.