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NEXO Provides Floating Entertainment on P&O Cruises Oceana
One of the biggest vessels in P&O's cruising fleet, the superliner Oceana, has undergone a major refit of the audio systems in its luxurious leisure facilities. Design and installation company GHS Special Projects has chosen NEXO's PS Series loudspeakers, powered by Camco amplifiers, a winning combination that had already proved itself on another P&O Cruises ship, the Artemis.
The 77,000-ton Oceana has been at sea for six years, carrying more than 2000 passengers on its 11 decks as it cruises the Norwegian fiords, the Mediterranean Sea and the Iberian peninsula. It is amply equipped with on-board leisure facilities, and three of the most high-profile venues have just received new upgraded sound reinforcement systems.
The Starlights Lounge is a luxuriously-furnished cabaret theatre with an ingenious stage that is lowered after the evening show to reveal a spacious dance floor. The Footlights is a 530-seat auditorium which doubles as a theatre and cinema. For both venues, GHS has deployed a variety of loudspeaker models from NEXO's PS Series, using the larger PS10s and PS15s to form the main front-of-house systems, and the compact PS8s as peripheral speakers, and for infill and delay. In the Footlights cinema, GHS has implemented a 5.1 surround sound design using 16 NEXO PS8 cabinets with PS10s, PS15s and LS1200 subbass; for theatre shows, a complement of PS8s are used for stage monitoring.
In the Winners sports bar, which also features the Monte Carlo Club casino, a small stage is home to a small band. Here another eight NEXO PS8s, together with LS500 subs, are used, supplemented by ceiling infills.
George Bailey of GHS Special Projects explains that his company has been involved with marine installation since 1998, indeed its first client in this field was P&O Cruises. In the last couple of years, GHS has discovered NEXO via UK distributor Fuzion plc. "We just fell in love with the PS Series cabinets, which are awesome, and we're waiting for the opportunity to use some of the larger line-array elements," says Bailey. "Last year, we installed PS Series on several ships in the Ocean Village line, then, in December, we fitted PS10s and PS8s into the main pool deck area of P&O's Artemis, powder-coated white and dipped, so that they met the required weatherproofing for such a location. These speakers sound great, our clients P&O love them, and you can do a lot with them: we just installed a significant number of PS15s and subs into a football stadium."
As the cruising industry tries to attract younger customers, leisure facilities are being updated and given a more contemporary twist. "Loudspeakers have to be in keeping with the style of décor, and NEXO's designs can fit with that; we can hide the enclosures if we have to, or we can powder-coat them to blend in with their surroundings, as we've done in Oceana's Starlights Theatre where all the PS8s are white."
GHS is teaming the NEXO loudspeaker enclosures with Symetrix routing and processing systems, and Vity audio-video controllers. This equipment is also supplied by Fuzion, as are the Camco power amps which drive the show. "To power the NEXO systems, we're using different Camco models, Tecton 22.4 and 38.6 units and the top-of-the-range Vortex 6 amplifiers. We've found them to be very reliable, which is a crucial factor for a client that sails off into the sunset; we can't just go down the road on a service call when the ship might be in Barbados! Also we try and keep equipment weight down to a minimum, and the Camco amps are incredibly lightweight, given their output. And you get a six-year warranty, which makes them a bargain!"
16th May 2008
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