As a sister-ship to Quantum of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas boasts the same lighting and video package template. "The ships mirror each other as far as entertainment lighting," says Christopher Vlassopulos, superintendent SLVR & architectural lighting for Royal Caribbean International, who coordinated the design and specification for all the entertainment equipment in the ship's public spaces, including the ship's entertainment lighting systems. "There was actually one exception and that was in Two70 where we took out some non-Elation ground row and ceiling row lighting fixtures and replaced them with Elation ELAR Quad Bars, which are brighter than the previous fixtures, much better and were less expensive."
Christopher specified and designed lighting for the entertainment spaces on Anthem of the Seas together with Benjamin Couling of Tristwell Solutions, the company responsible for installation and commissioning. Built at Germany's Meyer Werft shipyard, media and entertainment system integration for many of the public areas was provided by Amptown System Company (ASC), including system engineering, supply, installation and commissioning.
Like Quantum of the Seas, Anthem of the Seas is an environmentally friendly smartship that sets new standards in terms of energy-efficient entertainment lighting systems onboard.
"By switching from incandescent to LED, Royal Caribbean will realize millions of dollars in savings over the lifetime of Royal Caribbean ships. The fact alone that there are no lamp changes to make is a big savings. In fact, if we still had the old system on Quantum of the Seas there would already have been two lamp changes by now," says Christopher, who recently visited Quantum of the Seas and reports that the Elation systems are holding up well with no problems. As the second ship in the class, Anthem of the Seas was more straight-forward, Christopher says, and everything is as it should be. "That is important as now we can move our attention to Ovation of the Seas to make sure that it also gets off to a smooth start."
Royal Caribbean International is the first cruise line to feature fully licensed, Tony Award-winning Broadway productions, and Anthem of the Seas hosts a production of the Queen-themed West End musical We Will Rock You in the state-of-the-art 1,300-seat Royal Theatre. The adapted production features a professional rig of LED-based Elation Platinum Wash ZFX Pro and Satura Spot LED Pro moving heads, Platinum Beam 5R Extreme and Platinum Spot 35R Pro moving heads, Design Brick 70 II RGBWA color battens, and ELED QA Strips.
The Royal Theatre also uses three 20mm pixel pitch Elation EPV20 LED screens for displaying a variety of on-screen graphics, one large 5.8 by 11.5 meter screen positioned upstage as a dynamic backdrop with smaller 5.8 x 1.9 meter screens positioned at each side. The Elation rig is also used on a cabaret show as well as an original production for Royal Caribbean called The Gift.
Anthem of the Seas is sailing her inaugural spring and summer season from a homeport in Southampton, UK, and will make New York her permanent home from the fall. The third Quantum-class cruise ship, Ovation of the Seas, planned for 2016, will also feature an Elation lighting and video package.
(Jim Evans)
