Metallica “72 seasons“ tour 2023 in Hamburg – Deep insights in lighting, sound and stage design

More news, reports and 19“ here: Content: 0:30 # The sound of the show: Greg Price and Chris Rushin 13:14 Creative Director / Production Design | Dan Braun 15:28 # Lighting Designer Rob Koenig 18:50 # V – Robospot Tech 19:24 # Gene Mc Auliffe about the video screen setup The scene could have come from a thriller: Deep inside the Volksparkstadion Hamburg, some moped riders stand in front of screens in near darkness. It’s almost impossible to see anything else. A figure emerges from the darkness, holding a book. An actual book! The young lady is V, responsible for the Robospots robe. And with a 360-degree stage including a Snakepit, it is by no means a routine task – after all, the musicians can disappear in any of the four directions at any time. But such challenges don’t faze Rob, V, and the rest of the crew. For Rob Koenig, most of the work is already done: He will run the concert by firing cues that he meticulously prepared during pre-production. Some effects, strobes, and such are controlled by faders. The rest of the show consists of cues precisely tailored to the band, allowing the stadium to shrink or explode at the touch of a button. That doesn’t mean he can relax during the shows: He constantly keeps an eye on the four musicians. Eight columns for the rigging points Production Designer Dan Braun also exudes the relaxed calm of success. And this design can already be counted as a success: The eight columns are packed with lighting, sound, and audio equipment. Nevertheless, they elegantly blend into the stadium’s architecture. Elegant and stable: The steel cables stretched between them provide the rigging points for the inner ring of Meyer Sound’s impressive sound system. The columns themselves are equipped with two hangs of Panther modules each, as well as six 1100-LFC Low-Frequency Control Elements and six VLFC Very Low-Frequency Control Elements inside. “I worry every time about whether all our new ideas will work on a large scale,“ admits Braun, “but we have great partners like Meyer Sound whom we can rely on.“ Braun discussed his ideas for the stereo sound directly with company founders John and Helen Meyer, who embraced his vision and entrusted Bob McCarthy, Director of System Optimization at Meyer Sound, with the audio design for the tour. The columns are indeed impressive. Their biggest advantage is undoubtedly the seamless integration of live show material, which is usually presented relatively carelessly as a backdrop or on video screens to the left and right of the stage in proscenium stages, in order to reduce the visual distance from the stage action. The round video surfaces are framed at the top and bottom by nine Vari-Lite VL3600 Profiles each. Each VL3600 is accompanied by a Chauvet Professional Color STRIKE M. Between the round LED screens, seven Robe BMFLs are positioned in a vertical line, but here too, the number nine is not far away. Because underneath the seven BMFLs, two BMFL Washbeams hang, which are controlled via the aforementioned Robospot system. That covers the fixtures in the columns. On stage, a total of 48 Sharpy Aqua Plus fixtures are positioned, along with 24 SGM Q7 fixtures to illuminate Metallica from below. These are complemented by around 40 Solaris Mozart One fixtures from TMB. The stage edges and steps are accentuated with SGM Touring VPL fixtures. Last but not least, nine Proteus Excalibur fixtures are positioned at eight locations. Crew Creative Director / Production Design | Dan Braun Production Manager | John “Lug“ Zajonc Production Coordinator | Vicki Huxel Stage Management | Gino Cardelli, Dewey Evans, Eddie Rocha Lighting Designer | Rob Koenig Lighting Programmers | Joe Cabrera, Cat West Flash and Trash Works, Inc Vendor | Premier Global Production Account Rep | James Vollhoffer Project Manager | Anthony Kordyjaka LX Crew Chief | Mat Gass Video Director | Gene McAuliffe Video Programmer | Hayden Katz Video Project Manager | David Hunkins Video Support | 4Wall Content Creation | Andrea Cuius | Nocte and Dan Potter Creative Works London FOH engineer | Greg Price Monitor Engineer | Robert Cowan, Michael Bollella Audio Crew Chief | Emmett Tubritt Audio Support | Clair Global Head Rigger | Chad Koehler Head Carp | Michael Pettit Head Electrician | Arturo “Tudy“ Martinez Pyro Project Manager | Reid Derne Pyrotech Pyro Shooter | Tristan Ford Staging | Stageco Belgium # TAIT Towers --------- Follow us on - LinkedIn: - Instagram: - Facebook: - Twitter: - Pinterest: #veranstaltungstechnik #mothergrid #frontofhouse #stagetechnology #metallica #metallicalive © mothergrid 2022 / @ Opening picture: Ralph Larmann mothergrid video: Schnitt: Kristof Schlößer, Klanggebilde Mix: Nils Steinkamp, Klanggebilde