Metallica: By Request Tour

      When rock legends Metallica handed down a creative brief to their design team to “start with a clean sheet of paper” for their By Request European festival tour, production designer/show director Dan Braun and lighting designer Rob Koenig needed no second bidding.

 

Both men wanted to use a wide palette of LED fixtures with Braun looking to experiment with a non-discharge strobe for the first time; and so Koenig introduced him to SGM’s new XC-5 low profile RGB strobes and Q-7 multi-purpose RGBW wash / blinder. These fixtures brought drama and punch to the show while at the same time proving easy to truck and place; but most importantly, they were extremely low on their energy requirement.

 

Rob Koenig on the Q-7: “I wanted to experiment further, as I was intrigued by them,” he said. “We were able to cut down on power consumption, and the low profile of the fixture made it easy to place them in any corner and nook. The Q-7 offered the punch and output befitting a Metallica show — even the RGBW version — while we also used them as uplights at the mic positions and drum kit.."

 

These fixtures, he said, were sufficiently compact to fit neatly around the monitor wedges — without interfering with the audio. “They provided a nice [110°] fixed beam spread and I was particularly impressed with the flicker free operation.”

 

Other plus factors, he said, included the quality of the light source. “And for most shows we were also able to cut a generator by using LED strobes, as opposed to discharge fixtures."

 

Summing up his experience with the SGM lights the LD concluded, “Throughout the festivals I never had a problem with any of the SGM fixtures or experienced any flicker whatsoever. I am excited where these and the LED strobe market is going, and will be watching SGM closely to see how these lights evolve.”