‘Spectrum of the Seas’, the first of Royal Caribbean International’s ‘Quantum Ultra’ class features the first LED installation on a cruise ship supplied by tennagels Medientechnik GmbH.
Her main dining room, which extends over three levels and can accommodate up to 1,844 guests, features a virtual colonnade, each 16 m long on two levels, which is adapted to themes and moods by various video animations.
This special effect is created by LED walls specially made for the corridors. Both concave and convex curved LED screens with a pixel pitch of 1.9 mm and a luminance of 700 Nits provide high resolution for the changing video content developed by Peter Millard and Partners Ltd of London.
On each deck, the LED wall consists of a 4.75 m long straight section and 11.5 m curved section, both with a height of more than two meters. Identical sections are installed on the port and starboard side of the entry corridor. The straight section offers a resolution of 2,432 x 1,088 pixels, while the curved section has a resolution of 5,888 x 1,088 pixels. All modules are mounted on a single, custom-made frame.
Inside the main dining room, two additional identical curved LED walls in the lounge corners at the opposite end of the room with screens with a length of eight meters, a height of one meter and a resolution of 4,096 x 512 pixels.
The four walls LED surface of 155 sq m in the entrance areas and the two walls in the lounge corners are specially coated and washable.
“This product took some research and our partner tennagels have proven once again that they can find a solution to our many creative wishes,” explained Christopher Vlassopulos, Royal Caribbean’s Manager New Building Entertainment Robotics, Sound & Light.
“In this highly frequented area, the specially developed LED technology must be particularly well protected and, with more than 1,800 guests a day, washable after accidentally spilling liquids. In addition, in this very demanding environment, the installation must run reliably in 24/7 operation and have very low heat emission. This LED signage solution with a special design fulfills all these criteria and is a true game changer,” he said.
Spectrum of the Seas Ultimate Family Suite also boasts another creative feature. tennagels Medientechnik has equipped the staircase with virtual piano keys. The steps become an interactive musical instrument that either react like real piano keys or play pre-programmed songs. The LED lighting of the steps reacts to each footfall and lights up in white or varying colour.
“For tennagels it was a great honour and an even greater challenge to develop and install a completely new product in such a short time. It only took five months from the initial idea to the finished installation,” said Leif Witte, Managing Partner at tennagels and the project leader. “Our special thanks for the trust placed in us go to Royal Caribbean. We could not have achieved such a technically complex project on so short a timetable without the full co-operation and mutual support from each of the project’s partners, tennagels, vision tools, Unilumin, as well as Royal Caribbean.
The many years of combined experience between the partners in the field of LED and special solutions have resulted in a novel installation, which happens to be the only one of its kind in the world to date,” he claimed.