Metallica’s M72 Tour Tackles RF Issues Worldwide

Los Angeles, CA (August 14, 2024)—Tours the world over have faced increasingly smaller and varied RF landscapes in recent years, having to do more with less. For the exceedingly complex Metallica M72 World Tour, live sound monitor engineers and technicians Mike “Mic” Bollella and Robert “Bob” Cowan conferred with RF Tech Stacey Handley and ultimately selected Wisycom MTK982 dual wideband transmitters for the stadium production.

“We needed to expand on the RF spectrum that we could use, and we also needed a solid RF-over-fiber system,” said Bollella, explaining the choice. “First and foremost, the jump in spectrum that we can use, not only in the U.S., but worldwide, is incredible,” says Bollella. “It is really beneficial to not have to rent additional gear for shows in markets with troublesome RF. Secondly, the technology behind the Wisycom combiners is powerful and advanced. It allows us to space the transmitters closer together when needed without worrying about certain intermod artifacts.”

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As one of two monitor engineers on tour with the band, Bollella mixes for Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo, in addition to handling the monitor tech portion of the system, while Cowan has mixed for Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield for more than 15 years. In conjunction with the Wisycom system, Bollella and Cowan mix on two gain-sharing Avid S6L desks with E6L-192 engines, along with 36 Meyer Sound MJF210 and eight MJF212 wedges on stage.

While the stadium shows are presented in-the-round, the engineers’ mix positions are usually located far from the action. “Most of the time, we are upwards of 500 feet away, so we need solid coverage wherever we end up,” said Bollella. “Wisycom was the only manufacturer that we spoke with that was up for that challenge, and it succeeded in every way.”