ROBE Lighting
Princess Cruises, a leader in worldwide cruising, has taken a major step toward sustainability and delivering outstanding live performances by upgrading the lighting rig in their 1000-seat Princess Theatre on the Crown, Emerald, and Ruby Princess ships. In a project completed in 2023, Princess Cruises Fleet Lighting Supervisor Matt DeJong and the Princess Entertainment Technical team selected Robe Lighting TE (TRANSFERABLE ENGINE) fixtures, ushering in a new era of LED lighting technology to enhance the cruise line's entertainment offerings.
Key Highlights:
Eco-Friendly Lighting: The Crown Class lighting revitalization project included 69 ESPRITE Profile, 87 Spiider, 78 PAINTE Profile, 98 LEDBeam 150, and 48 ParFect 150 wash luminaires, which has reduced the Crown Class’ overall electrical consumption by an impressive 50%. This not only benefits the environment but also leads to reduced HVAC draw and overall fuel costs. Additionally, it significantly reduces operational and maintenance expenses. Princess Entertainment continues to invest in engaging and eco-conscious technologies to enhance guest offerings and sustainability goals.
Robe TE Technology: Robe's revolutionary Transferable LED Engine technology allows for easy replacement of light engines, extending the fixture's lifetime and avoiding costly and time-consuming full light engine replacements. This technology provides the flexibility to choose engines, including HP (High Performance), HCF (High Colour Fidelity), TGW (Tungsten White), or the MSL-TE™ (Multi-Spectral) engine. This ensures optimal color rendition for every performance.
Spectacular Performances: The new lighting system enhances Princess Cruises' award-winning in-house entertainment offerings, including major original productions created in partnership with Stephen Schwartz, an Oscar, Tony, and Grammy award-winning composer.
Project Details:
The lighting rig upgrade for Crown, Emerald, and Ruby Princess was a significant undertaking in 2023. Robe Lighting delivered all fixtures on time for immediate installation, leading to reduced power consumption and maintenance, making the rigs more efficient for use. Working with EMF Lighting, the lighting design team was impressed with the innovative features and impressive output of the small form-factor, feature-rich fixtures. The enhanced color rendering across the TE Engines and Osram engines of the Spiider and LEDBeam fixtures has revitalized the shows, providing vibrant and saturated visuals. Onboard lighting technicians have praised the new lighting rig for its ease of use, ease of service, and its ability to enhance their designs and operational needs. Notably, the new Robe lighting system has reduced the operating noise by 53db, improving audio fidelity for guests and on-stage monitoring systems.
Matt DeJong, Fleet Lighting Supervisor for the Princess Entertainment Project team, chose Robe Lighting due to the impressive range of fixtures and Robe's global support system, ensuring on-demand assistance no matter where in the world any Princess cruise ship might be. Princess is always grateful for the quality engineering and QA provided by Robe as all equipment worked straight out of the box, which allowed the project team to complete these time sensitive, in-service installs, with minimal disruption to onboard operations.
In addition to the all-Robe automated lighting rig, the Crown Class lighting setup was complemented with additional conventional fixtures, strobes, and UV effect units.
About Princess Cruises:
Princess Cruises, established in 1965, is renowned for its innovative ships, exceptional customer service, and worldwide cruising. With 15 modern vessels and more than 170 different itineraries, Princess Cruises offers travelers the opportunity to explore destinations across seven continents. Part of Carnival Corporation, Princess Cruises is dedicated to creating lasting memories and authentic connections for guests, crew, and local destination experts.
About Crown, Emerald, and Ruby Princess:
Crown, Emerald, and Ruby Princess are grand-class cruise ships accommodating 3,114 guests and 1,200 crew members. They are the largest of the seven grand-class vessels in the Princess worldwide fleet.
All eyes were on the new Avolites Diamond 7 (D7) lighting console at the recent Prolight+Sound expo in Frankfurt – a powerful, flexible, and highly portable control solution for lighting at shows, concerts, and live events.
The much-anticipated D7 was shown publicly for the first time with two variants on the stand – the D7-215 and the D7-330 – both running on Avolites latest Titan v17 software.
This initial product launch has enabled the Avolites team to gauge reactions and glean valuable feedback ahead of the full launch, planned for later in the summer.
The reactions were “overwhelmingly positive,” stated Avolites MD Paul Wong, delighted with the comments and enthusiasm he’d received from Avo users who rocked up from all over Europe as well as further afield like Asia, Australia, South Africa, and Latin America.
Avolites benefitted from additional footfall of people visiting the Robe stand, especially to catch the live “Power of Imagination” performance show which was also programmed and run from an AVO D9-215 console.
“The customers were genuinely amazed by the D7 range, they loved the portability, flexibility and touch and feel of the interface, especially the integrated illumination of the rear connection panel!
Furthermore, they think it’s great value and that we are hitting the right price point!”
In addition to all the interest and excellent feedback, the Avo sales team took multiple pre-orders on the stand which was “mind-blowing and completely exceeded our expectations!” stated Paul, such was the buzz and excitement generated by the product.
The D7 is designed and priced as a workhorse console that will unlock more creativity for designers, programmers, and operators. It sits above the Avolites Classic Range – the Tiger Touch II, Arena, Sapphire Touch & Quartz – and offers many of the larger D9’s most popular time-saving and handy features.
The compact D7-215 has two touch-sensitive screens, 15 motorised playback faders and 15 encoders. It is super-portable, fitting into a standard Peli Air 1650 case and coming within the checked baggage weight allowance of most airlines.
The slightly larger D7-330 features 3 x 14-inch screens and 30 motorised playback faders / 30 playback encoders, offering more control for even larger shows whilst maintaining portability.
The motorised faders have an RGB LED indicator along each one, and there is a single level RGB halo indicator for each encoder. There is in-built LED light at the top of the screen panel and along the rear of the console.
Rear ports include a 4-port network switch, 4 x DMX, LTC Input & loop, MIDI ports, 2 and 1 x external monitors for the D7-215 & D7-330 respectively, 1 x Secondary Ethernet, Trigger in, GP IO and both variants are showfile compatible with all Titan Avo consoles. The USB port is conveniently concealed from plain sight in the right-hand side handle recess!
Visitors at Frankfurt loved the cool clamshell screen panel / locking mechanism, and the general ergonomics that offer premium styling but are keenly priced so the D7 will be a rental company volume product and a favourite for concerts, music shows, touring productions, live events, and festivals.
“We believe D7 is an excellent investment, that will be an everyday go-to product appearing regularly on touring specs,” underlines Paul.
The latest processors and components give peak performance with inbuilt longevity. “Being future-ready was fundamental to the whole R ‘n’ D philosophy,” noted Paul. “We’ve made it powerful, quick to programme and easy to use which has always been an Avolites USP.
Anyone already able to operate an Avolites product will be able to run a D7 which currently runs on the just released Titan v17 software.”
All the vital programming tools are to hand via a touch screen for speed and efficiency, an enhanced back-lit keyboard located in a retractable drawer is optimised for assisting programming in dim or dark environments. The On / Off button is concealed under the keyboard drawer to reduce the chance of accidental activation!
Motorised faders were another big hit with visitors in Frankfurt, and these have also been well received on the D9.
The D7-215 can control up to 32 DMX universes out-of-the-box with expandable networking via TNPs (Titan Net Processors).
The reception and interest in Frankfurt has “reinforced our belief that D7 is the right product at the right time and that it will be a high-volume hit,” enthused Paul, advising anyone interested to “contact their Avolites distributor, get a demo and place an order!”
Avolites, proudly manufactured in the UK, is also buoyed by new energy generated with its recent acquisition by Czech moving light and LED manufacturer Robe s.r.o. in September last year.
Paul further reveals that several D7s will be in action over the summer on a selection of key and high-profile festivals and events … so watch the Avolites channels for more details!
Robe Lighting s.r.o. has acquired LSC Control Systems PTY in Australia, a move that sees the Czech Republic lighting manufacturer further consolidate its portfolio of leading lighting and control brands.
Having LSC’s power distribution (PD) systems as a core element of the ‘Robe Business’ Team made perfect sense following the purchase of console manufacturer Avolites in September last year, explained Robe’s CEO Josef Valchar.
“We’re delighted that this opportunity arose – it is hugely exciting, and we look forward to a long and positive collaboration. It will allow us to offer the best complete lighting and control turnkey solutions to our customers and their clients and projects across all sectors.”
As well as diversification, it also gives Robe a manufacturing base in Australia in addition to its facilities in central Europe and the UK.
LSC’s founder and managing director Gary Pritchard is equally enthused, “LSC will gain access to greater investment and resources, and working through Robe’s renowned worldwide distribution network we can reach more global and diverse markets in turn stimulating greater opportunities for creativity, expertise, business and action for all of our team!”
LSC’s operation, which started over 40 years ago in Melbourne and has grown into a trusted and respected specialist brand well-known for inventive technology, will continue functioning exactly as it is now.
Gary sees the move as an affirmation of the company’s value. “An organisation of Robe’s stature wanting LSC onboard is a sign of confidence that also tells the world that LSC will continue doing what we do best … both now and well into the future!”
The plan underlines Robe’s commitment to being an industry leader in all areas of lighting technology, further empowering the imagination and choice of lighting professionals and offering an exceptional set of tools to assist in the production of shows, events, and memorable performance experiences for all to enjoy.
