British rock band Marillion treated fans to a series of immersive shows in April, with theatrical-style lighting controlled using an Avolites Tiger Touch II with Titan interface.
The band worked with its long-serving lighting designer Yenz Nyholm to create a pitch-perfect light show, designed to synchronise with pinpoint accuracy to video content and on-stage action.
“Each song on this tour required lighting that would act as if it were a mini-play, reflecting the stark nature of the music and immersing the audience into the experience,” says Nyholm. “The design was based on beautiful, symmetrical beams of light.”
“Programming with Titan was a godsend – I used the Capture Atlas Suite, which integrates with Titan, allowing me to sync the lighting with the video and performance. Pre-programming using Capture meant that my position palettes were pretty much spot-on when I got to each venue.”
Nyholm began working with Marillion way back in in 2002 as a lighting technician, before taking over the lighting design role in 2005. He has been using Avolites control for even longer, first learning his craft on a Pearl console back in 2001.
“Avolites’ Titan just keeps getting better and better – the new screen design, and the ability to customise all the different views are really great,” he said. “The new enhanced features are a lifesaver. The Set List function, where cue pages follow the show’s running order, was essential at one gig when the band threw in a different song at the last minute! I was able to dial up what I needed in seconds.”
“Everything is programmed in Cue Stacks – the Cue List View, the ability to change timings and update any cue in seconds are all vital and handy. Titan is intuitive and simple to set up and run.”
Marillion’s UK dates took the band to seven venues, including the Brighton Dome, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and Colston Hall in Bristol. The tour supported the band’s extensive back catalogue, as well as more recent albums such as 2017’s F.E.A.R.
In addition to the Avolites Tiger Touch II, Nyholm toured with the compact and lightweight Avolites Titan Mobile as the backup. He ran the show using Avolites’ TitanNet Processor (TNP), which enables any Titan console to be expanded to a total of 64 DMX universes. “TNP is just so fast and reliable,” he says.
All the Avolites kit was supplied to the Marillion tour by Siyan and New Illumination Lighting Design.
Avolites launched Titan v11 at this year’s Prolight + Sound exhibition in Frankfurt, enhancing a host of features including the industry-leading Key Frame Shapes, Zoom Palettes and Pixel Mapping.