Riedel connects the AV equipment used by the Athem of the Seas cruise ship for its shows

An all-in-one solution enables connection, management and distribution of multimedia signals that affect both the IPTV services of this great Royal Caribbean liner and the AV installations located in the spaces dedicated to offering customers spectacular digital experiences.

Anthem of the Seas is the company's latest ship Royal Caribbean International has incorporated into its cruise fleet. Belonging to the Quantum line, It was built by the German shipyard Meyer Werft with a capacity for 1.180 passengers and 2.090 cabins.

It is a transatlantic 167.800 tons built as if it were a large floating luxury resort, whose highest priority is to offer an entertainment and leisure environment to its clients, for which it has numerous restaurants, bares, stores, theaters, a large outdoor pool and different attractions. An entire floating world where technology has been taken into account in its facilities.

The German company Riedel Communications, specialized in the management and distribution of signals and intercom, is successfully emerging in the cruise market with this first experience on Anthem of the Seas, and a second that will be launched on another ship of similar dimensions.

The actors in this important installation are Riedel with its solutions and the Finnish integrator TV Tools, who supervised the project, the installation and development of multimedia systems on board the ship.

The needs that were required in this project were to have a reliable network, fully redundant and secure, which will be in charge of the distribution of multimedia signals, that affect both the internal TV and the AV installations located in the theaters.

Riedel solutions, fiber optic based, They were chosen for their flexibility, lightness, for speed when controlling signals and for safety.

On board Anthem of the Seas, technologies are a key element to provide entertainment, information (There is a digital signage network that serves as a tool to communicate to passengers about events, shows, the time, news, etc.) and telecommunications (it's via satellite, but passengers have Internet locally and can call from their mobile phones).

Guests also have many applications at their disposal to check-in or reserve a place at the cinema or restaurant, and RFID WOWband smart bracelets, that require just a simple touch to move around inside the ship, make purchases on board or open the room.

The solution provided by Riedel affects, above all, to the distribution of IPTV services offered by the cruise, and the management of audio and video signals from AV equipment installed in theaters and entertainment venues, as well as the existing communication between artists and technicians.

Concretely, Their MediorNet fiber optic network has been used in this project., for real-time audio and video distribution, the Artist digital matrix intercom system 128 and the Acrobat wireless portable digital intercom.

IPTV service

The Athem of the Seas has a complete IPTV service with the development of its own productions of the shows performed on board or interviews with passengers. Some content that can be seen on the televisions in the cabins, the screens that are installed on the boat and on the large LED screen of 20 square meters located in the pool.

Assembly and management is done with Avid, with two servers that are separated, and distribution will be carried out through the MedioNet network and with the Media Works control and monitoring software., that allow defining the signal routing, distribution and its destination.

In addition, The equipment is managed with the LSB Video Studio Manager system, responsible for connecting the hardware involved in steering and offering an easy-to-control platform. Operations are facilitated through the Ember+ protocol, the MediorNet standard, which allows you to control the internal network remotely.

The Artist intercom is also a key element in this entire communications infrastructure on board the ship.. This matrix allows inserting up to 128 ports in a chassis and even 128 chassis can be interconnected to a dual fiber optic ring configuring an array of up to 1,024×1.024 intercom ports. This set of systems behaves as a single system, without operational limitations on the number of crossing points within or between the different nodes of the system.

Equipped with the MADI card to achieve maximum decentralization, patch panels can be placed near intercom stations in Anthem's entertainment areas, to reduce wiring and provide links throughout the warehouse.

Digital shows

Inside this ocean liner, two theaters have been created where different musical shows are staged every day in which audiovisual techniques play a leading role..

The first, called Two70º, It appears as a futuristic setting equipped with large windows, that reach slab 1.141 meters long, so that from any angle you can see the sea, and that at night, It is transformed into a space where music predominates and artistic productions are staged with spectacular digital sets..

In this room you will find one of the biggest attractions Vistarama. As night falls, the glass walls transform into a surface where real and imaginary scenes are projected, including the multidimensional theater show Starwater., created with videomapping, special effects and performance of artists.

It is a room equipped with 18 projectors Panasonic that offer 12K resolution and envelop attendees in a spectacular digital experience of more than 30,5 meters wide by 6 tall.

Artificial intelligence also has a place in this same space thanks to RoboShow., a project carried out with six Roboscreens, which measure more than two meters each and create scenes and choreography as they fly and rotate alone or together as a single image. The content displayed on Vistarama and Roboscreens has been created for Royal Caribbean by Moment Factory.

This technological bet on visual entertainment, in which large-format screens are mounted on robots to perform dynamic, moving visual spectacles, It was already launched on the previous ship in the fleet, el Quantum of the Seas, and as already published in Digital AV Magazine has been made by the firm Robotics Arts.

From the point of view of connections, We also find here a connection node with MediorNet and an important technical direction, with the solutions Digico for audio and Wholehog for lighting. The system Cooloux is responsible for managing the video image.

The Riedel Acrobat intercom also plays an important role here, which is responsible for optimizing communication between artists and technical staff..

The stage facilities have nothing to envy those of a true modern theater, with audio LLC, Panasonic motorized lighting and video.

This leisure center has also had the participation of lighting technology from Elation Professional, where different moving heads from this manufacturer have been installed. But this is not the only area that has its solutions, as already we advance to the end of the year, Its LED lighting equipment has been taken into account to implement in different parts of the boat.

The second theater is the Broadway Theater. With capacity for 1.300 seating, It has similar facilities but video takes a leading role. The award-winning Broadway musical 'We Will Rock You' has been performed here, created on the basis of the 24 Queen's greatest hits, and the original production 'The Gift'.

Two high-brightness Panasonic projectors display images on both sides of the audience, arranged in a semicircular auditorium, and in the center a projector has been installed Barco ready to display 3D images.

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