Movies Under the Stars

What could be nicer than sitting under the stars and watching a late-night movie on a big, outdoor screen? How about sitting under the stars, watching a movie while cruising the Caribbean?

Global cruise and tour company Princess Cruises has become the world’s first cruise line to outfit a ship, the Caribbean Princess, with large-format, electronic digital signage (EDS). Additionally, a multi-network plasma screen has been deployed on several other Princess liners. The cruise company has tapped into digital-display amenities to entertain onboard passengers.

Brian Paiva, Thomas Gregor Associates’ (TGA) vice president of business development, said the plasma and LED screens serve as audiovisual additions to the Caribbean Princess, a 3,100-passenger cruise liner (900 cabins with balconies) and one of the latest additions to the Princess Cruises fleet.

El Segundo, CA-based TGA designed and installed the audiovisual systems that accompany the LED and plasma screens. The audiovisual systems integrator’s clients include such public-entertainment venues as theme parks, malls, casinos and cruise ships.

Princesses of the Caribbean

Recent EDS advances prompted Princess Cruises to realize plasma and LED screens’ potential. Paiva said plasma screens were more economical than LCD screens. Additionally, the project required 37-, 42- and 50-in. screens, which, at the time, weren’t available in an LCD format.

The screens’ landscape format and installation locations determined screen size. The 37-in. screens fit smaller spaces, and the largest allow distant viewing. Approximately 35 Panasonic plasma screens were deployed in groups; isolated networks were placed within the ship’s lounges.

Once the display screens’ locations were determined,” Paiva said, “a big challenge was installing the electrical infrastructure of each display network within the confines of a ship under construction. On land, if you drill into a wall or floor surface, and you make a mistake, you patch it, correct the error and redrill. On a ship, everything has to be correct the first time, inspected and signed off.”

Paiva also noted that the screen cabling involved careful preparation. “The ship [crew] worked with our design and instructions,” Paiva said, “and, when the wiring was installed, they threaded the network connections throughout the lounges, where the plasma screens are now. When the ship’s crews were finished, the tail-ends of the cables protruded through the floor. We completed the cabling and installed the plasma screens into their final locations.”

An environmental concern determined the screens’ ultimate location — briny ocean air quickly deteriorates plasma screens. Thus, the plasma displays sit indoors, protected by a heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) system.

Currently, the screens display a series of pre-recorded announcements, trailers, schedules and travel promotions. Each lounge’s theme defines its content. For example, the Sky Walker disco lounge presents MTV-styled videos; Club Fusion, the aft lounge, emphasizes daily ship activities.

Princess Cruises has installed similar networks on at least three other recently built ships. Paiva said the company is considering sign-scheduling software, which would offer more direct control of the screen’s content.

Nights to remember

When the cruise line was examining onboard entertainment options, TGA Chief Technical Officer Christian Hugener said the open-deck swimming pool’s lounge, which had been generally unused at night, would be a perfect site for a nocturnal social event.

TGA and Princess Cruises quickly decided that a 131/2 x 24-ft., large-format, LED videoscreen would transform the pool lounge area into an outdoor cinema and provide other video entertainment nightly. Thus, formerly empty space evolved into “Movies Under the Stars,” a 200-seat outdoor movie theater.

The multi-phase implementation of the LED viewing system began with the selection of a Panasonic Astrovision 16mm LED videoscreen. Hugener said Panasonic previously had supplied the cruise line with other video-system components.

Protection from the salty air and overbearing sun required extensive planning. Thus, TGA designed an aluminum cabinet and an HVAC control to cool the screen. TGA also designed a 3-D computer-graphics model to show how the videoscreen would appear behind the swimming pool and, as well, provide sight-line studies to ensure clear viewpoints from the entire lounge area.

Hugener said, “From studies in our computer model, we determined a 15° tilt of the EDS screen towards the audience would maximize its brightness to its viewing audience.”

TGA then faced the next challenge: how to protect the EDS screen from outdoor exposure. The Panasonic LED display was rated at IP 67, an extremely positive rating that ensures weather and water resistance. Hugener said various protective measures were considered, but “we inevitably decided to trust the IP-67 rating to protect the interior-screen electronics from the elements.” The screen is washed every week to eliminate dirt or salt accumulation.

The back of the EDS screen was sealed with the aluminum cabinet to create an HVAC-controlled environment, which maintained specified screen-temperature limits. Built by Atlantic Refrigeration, a British company, the stainless-steel HVAC system has withstood the elements. Hugener said the system “had a redundancy built into it, so if one heat exchanger failed, there was enough tooling capacity to still keep the screen cooled.”

A concert-level, 69,000-watt sound system provides clean audio even when the ship steams into a headwind. Manufactured by Meyer Sound Laboratory (Berkeley, CA), the sound system, placed on each side of the screen, comprises six, Meyer Milo line-array loudspeakers and two, M3D (a line-array system that features broadband technology) subwoofers, which are frequently used in major outdoor concerts.

When construction of the Caribbean Princess was nearly completed, TGA faced a three-week window to install the display system. A crane lifted the aluminum cabinet aboard the vessel; the EDS videoscreen modules were installed, and the sound system was installed next to the screen. The screen was fine-tuned and tweaked during a shake-down cruise.

Asea, an onboard, electronic-maintenance team solves any technical problems that arise. The team can swap video modules with a cache of spare parts. If serious repairs arise, a Panasonic technician will meet the ship at its next port.

Ship-shape displays

Since its unveiling, the Caribbean Princess Movies Under the Stars has created new shipboard entertainment. In the future, first-run feature films may be augmented by such events as the Super Bowl and Academy Awards. Passengers can also enjoy “live coverage” of social activities from other parts of the ship.

Viewers encounter a grand, theatrical experience that even surpasses their local movie theater, Paiva said. “What makes it such a success is the scale and presence of a high-resolution image on a large, LED videoscreen,” he continued.

Passengers rated the screen as a first-class entertainment experience. And because Princess Cruises was so impressed with their reaction, within a month of the first installation, it will install additional screens on all of its seven-day Caribbean vessels. Also, other cruise liners have inquired about installation opportunities.

Paiva foresees that “what we started on the Caribbean Princess as a full-display system can easily be brought to other similar hospitality venues, such as theme parks and shopping malls.”