I "mess around" with weapons, but usually resort to using smaller ships with forward AMCs, because I hate the look that having tons of turrets gives a ship. His suggestion (or mine, I guess) provides an alternative, which would look cool on extremely futuristic ships, as well as for an awesome anti-personnel defense system on a smaller scale. Turrets look good for some things, but they shouldn't be the end-all, be-all of 360-degree weaponry.
...As of balancing, I suggest that, under the actual strips of Beam Emitter Blocks on the outside of the ship, there need to be Beam Reactor/Beam Enhancer blocks linked to the computer, which would work approximately like weapon grouping bonuses now... the more of 'em you have, the higher damage you have, but the more power the system munches through per pulse.