Cruise ship entertainment used to be, 'Well, we gotta do a show, let's slap something together,' according to one contractor familiar with the industry. Now entertainment is the true marketing force to get the people on the cruise ships and it has become the number one reason people take cruises. The passengers have become more sophisticated and they have come to expect more in all aspects of the cruise, especially the entertainment. In a land-based entertainment venue, a movie theater or a casino show room, it's not a bonus if you get reasonably good fidelity and intelligibility from a sound system. It's an expectation these days, moreso aboard a cruise ship.

The ships are becoming the destination and the actual geographic destination is becoming secondary. With that in mind, all of the on-board 'hotel' site operations become far more important. The hotel is the food, the accommodations and, of course, the entertainment. The discos are larger, the show productions are larger and secondary lounges are larger. The industry is also moving into larger conference rooms and conference facilities where businesses are being moved out to sea as part of major incentive programs and annual sales, or share holder, meetings.

The budget for entertainment sound systems in a new-build ship project is approximately 1% of the overall cost of the ship. Therefore, when a cruise company is investing half a billion dollars to build a ship, five to six million dollars is invested on the sound in the entertainment venues. The budgets for the sound systems are definitely going up, with some of the cruise lines probably spending as much as 2% of a ship's overall budget on the sound systems. The lines have realized they cannot cut budgets for entertainment, because the 'one-upmanship competition' is what attracts the customers and drives the industry.

In the United States, three of the leading contractors handling, what seems to be, the bulk of the cruise industry entertainment system work, are Miami Audio Video Company (MAVCO) of Miami, Florida, Thomas-Gregor Associates of El Segundo, California, and WaveLength Systems Design, also of El Segundo. Installing entertainment systems aboard cruise ships is unlike any other sound application and requires specialized talents and expertise. Here, these three, well respected contractors talk about the cruise industry and their highly specialized profession.

Thomas-Gregor Associates, founded in 1988, is a full-service contractor, offering complete design/build services to their cruise line customers. Partner and co-founder, Greg Kirkland states, "TGA entered the cruise ship industry through a recommendation from a show producer who was putting a show onto Princess Cruise Lines. Because of the high level of the technical requirements of the performance, the low-tech systems that were on the ships at that time could not meet the performance's demands. At first we were called in as consultants, and then we gravitated into doing all the installation work, as well."

Mr. Kirkland continues, "Right now, the majority of our cruise ship work is in the construction of Princess Cruise Line's new Grand Princess. We have also refitted most of their older ships, designed systems aboard two of their newest ships, as well as the Grand Princess. Forty percent of our overall business is with Princess Cruise Lines, 30% makes up our theme park work, and the balance of our work load is in multi-use and other performing arts facilities."

Established in 1986, WaveLength Systems Design maintains a full-time staff of seventeen full-time employees. "The cruise ship business takes up a fair amount of our time," notes WaveLength founder and president, Mr. Bert Kronfeld. WaveLength has designed and installed audio systems aboard many of the major cruise lines, including, but not limited to, Crystal, Princess, Royal Caribbean, Seaborn, Costa, and Holland America Cruise Lines. Mr. Kronfeld continues, "Generally we can be working on anywhere from ten to twelve ships at a time, and that is usually in various and sundry stages. In the month of September 1997, we were working on a more realistic production schedule of four cruise ship projects. An average month would be half a dozen projects, whether it's the design stage, the final documentation, shopping for, or the staging of, hardware, or the actual installation process. The refit business is the biggest part of our business, compared to the new build projects."

According to WaveLength's Senior Vice President, Greg Dunn, "WaveLength considers itself to be a full service entertainment systems company. I, as well as many of our designers, come from theatrical backgrounds. Therefore, we have the experience to design complete systems involving everything from video, lighting and show control. We also design backstage facilities, and the coordination of behind the scenes tasks such as the movement of equipment and people in between acts, scenery construction, equipment service and maintenance, and broadcast systems for crew and passenger cabins. WaveLength considers and designs for everything, including if an actor can get through a doorway wearing a four foot wide costume as well as other 'attention-to-detail' logistics that are normally overlooked."

MAVCO, founded in the early 1960s, got their start in the cruise ship entertainment business aboard Holland America Cruise Lines. According to MAVCO Project Manager, Rex Stull, "Holland America took a turn many years ago by canceling the then routine, standard cruise ship show when they hired an entertainment director who had a considerable amount of Broadway experience. He contacted MAVCO, wanting to put together a few entertainment systems comparable to what was being utilized in modern Broadway theaters. MAVCO was one of the first AV companies to put a large format, Broadway-style Meyer sound system out to sea. Elaborate systems involving large format clusters, side fills, delay speakers, stereo effects have really stemmed out of that first installation on Holland America's Westerdam, twelve years ago. Looking at the overall business, top notch sound systems of that ilk are the standard fare these days."

For the past nine years, MAVCO has been the exclusive reviewing agency for the Carnival Corporation, which includes Carnival and Holland America cruise lines. This responsibility involves all of the new build ships, including design conception, testing and commissioning. Mr. Stull states, "We are not necessarily the contractor, but we are retained as the consultant." In this capacity, MAVCO handles the responsibilities of the design specification work, including coordinating with the shipyard and Carnival's new build team. Acting as Carnival's agent, with Carnival's input, MAVCO reviews and approves all changes, additions and subtractions for all of Carnival's entertainment systems.

Mr. Stull continues, "With Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, we have recently become much more involved, not on an exclusive basis, but we are working with them along the same lines as Carnival. With Holland America, we provide supervision for systems installations, supply and service, maintenance, as well as in-warranty and out-of-warranty service for all equipment and systems."

When Greg Dunn of WaveLength Systems Design is asked what he looks for in his technical staff, he humorously replies, "Someone who does not mind working 24 hours per day for very little pay." Describing a new build ship project, Mr. Dunn states, "The ship is very active 24 hours per day, from the scraping of the hull to constant, ubiquitous noise from jack hammers on metal surfaces. The situation is very stressful. It calls for a lot of close coordination, because you wind up working with multiple contractors, all of whom are very specialized, from welders who cut penetrations through decks and walls, to specialized electricians who run power supply lines. There is also a lot of hurry up and wait, and often times it's the audio contractors who are coming in last because it does not make any sense to hang a speaker if you don't have the cable routed, rigging points welded into place, or floor, wall or ceiling treatments installed. You may not get the approval to hang a speaker until 12 hours before passengers are supposed to start boarding. Some of the most stressful work is when the newly built ship is coming across the Atlantic from the yards in Finland or Italy. This is most likely the stage when the balance of the sound system is being installed. The problem here is, you're dealing with a ship that is in forward motion, sometimes going into rough seas. If you get a bad day at sea, work stops because it becomes dangerous to install anything. One bad day at sea, can set you back two."

Mr. Dunn continues, "When you are working on a ship that is still in the yard, you're in an environment where they are erratically shutting down power, air conditioning, and water. You can't even flush the toilet in your cabin for several days. Even if you wanted to sleep in your cabin you can't, because of the 120 degree heat, the stench and the noise." Mr. Dunn states, "At least when the ship is under sail, you are going to get opportunities to rest, because certain tasks, such as grinding and other metal work, are usually completed. Here is where you look forward to a leisurely18 work hour day."

TGA and WaveLength are both based, and conduct much of their business, in California, a major earthquake area. Both companies are used to over-engineering rigging and rigging equipment for speakers and arrays. These practices carry over into cruise ships, where the safety factor is above and beyond any other spec an audio contractor might come across in a land based installation. "Let's face it," states Mr. Kirkland, "priority number one on a cruise ship is life safety, everything else is subordinate. For example, every audio amplifier has to have an emergency mute page bus built into it. Emergency pages have to be able to break into every audio system, everywhere on the ship."

MAVCO's Mr. Stull agrees, stating, "The SOLAS code, Safety of Life at Sea, is far more rigorous then anything we have to go through for any land-based system. Everything involving wiring has to meet certain fire, heat and shielding requirements. There are a whole host of requirements you have to address, too many to list, when dealing cabling and power and electrical penetrations through firewalls."

Regarding the issue of sound system design, TGA's Mr. Kirkland states, "There is no one set philosophy to how the sound system is designed. One would think in order to eliminate sound travel through the ship's structure, greater emphasis would be given to distributed sound systems in where the sound is brought closer to the audience as opposed to using larger front of house systems. It really all depends upon the design of the ship, the room itself, and the wants and needs of the cruise line."

Different cruise lines definitely have different requirements. Carnival has a decibel rating for their live shows in where they want every seat in their theaters to achieve close to 110 dB. They want the horse power and the headroom in their systems to accommodate any show, performer or program material. Usually, some of Carnival's system designs are large distributed systems that, to some seasoned sound professionals, even seem 'well over the top', especially in a metal structure that can radiate sound all directions and through multiple decks.

But, as Mr. Kirkland is quick to point out, "If that what the customer wants, you give it to them. Princess, on the other hand, does not require an 'in your face' theater sound system that is geared for higher SPL output. Yes, they want quality, intelligible, high-fidelity sound in every seat, obviously. Princess prefers a more legitimate theater reinforcement PA for their shows, which is what TGA gives them."

"The size of the systems have exploded over the past five years," states MAVCO's Mr. Stull. "Until five years ago, the largest ship afloat was only 75,000 gross tons. Now there are ships afloat that are over 100,000 gross tons, with new ships in the books for 140,000 gross tons. It has been a tremendous increase in ship size and with the increase in the size of the ships, comes the increase in the size of the entertainment venues and the sound systems."

Mr. Dunn states, "The late night and disco venues on a ship always seem to be sandwiched between, above or below, the most expensive cabins on the ship. To try and contain the sound, especially the sub signals, to the entertainment venue, especially after the sound system is installed, sometimes seems impossible. So, you're left with a very complex system design process to prevent sound from radiating and bleeding through out the vessel."

Mr. Kirkland adds, "Installers mainly get around sub-resonance problems in two ways; Flown and 'ground mounted' isolators. These isolators are made up of a series of very heavy-duty spring clamps, combined with huge rubber washers. They are designed to de-couple sound, especially sub bass, from actually resonating the decks and the steel structure of the ship. Mr. Kirkland continues, "The isolators do not hurt the low end signal of the sub bass performance. They are designed to isolate the subwoofer from the structure it is sitting in and they work quite well."

Mr. Kirkland's other method to reduce sub bass transmission is to use a finely tuned Parametric equalizer and remove the unwanted frequency that is resonating through the decks. "Or sometimes two decks below the speaker," notes Mr. Kirkland. "We have performed this procedure in every installation to eliminate or greatly reduce, sub bass resonance."

In most, if not all, cruise ships there is little or no acoustic treatment added to the entertainment venue. Sometimes, up until the last minute, the contractor does not even know what the room's wall, floor or ceiling treatments are going to be. "It may sound like things are a little out of control in the design process, but they really aren't," states Mr. Kirkland, "A lot of the job is just keeping the sound off of the surfaces and focusing it onto the seating areas."

Mr. Dunn discusses wiring the elaborate systems, and states, "Marine electrical wiring is an exacting science. If you make a mistake by not connecting or running an important cable, then you have some serious time and monetary problems with pulling down major parts of ceilings, walls, floors, etc., in order to correct the problem. These are not plug-and-play systems where you just flop down the snake and it's showtime. All cabling is measured off perfectly, a 90 degree angle has to be a 90 degree angle, and so on. You are often not working in the most ideal conditions either, especially in a refit situation. In a new construction project, you can impart normal or standard marine wiring practices, in terms of isolating AC lines from low level and speaker lines and you can obtain your desired results. But, in a refit situation, you are forced to deal with existing wiring, and cable trays where you might have to strap your speaker cables to main power supply lines. Then you're going to have to be prepared to deal with getting around situations that are going to throw you RF noise, ground loops and other anomalies."

The salt atmosphere that surrounds a cruise ship really does not have a major effect on 'internal' sound system. It's rare doors will be left open for any length of time, and everything is very well air-conditioned. By and large, internal audio gear breaks down from dirt, dust, normal wear-and-tear, mis-operation, and vibration. Mr. Stull points out, of all the adverse effects on the equipment, the indoor systems really suffer from vibration and the movement of the ship. "There is no such thing as a dead hang of speakers on a ship, comparable to that of a similar land-based system. Equipment simply deteriorates from almost all angles." Mr. Dunn also notes many cruise lines maintain back-up units of much of their equipment, and there is usually some kind of redundancy built into each system.

TGA's equipment preferences for the Princess theaters and lounges, is primarily Apogee Sound, and some Electro-Voice. For the outdoor, high-powered foreground systems, Mr. Kirkland notes, "We are having great luck with the Technomad WeatherTech loudspeakers. Thomas-Gregor Associates was one of the first contractors to permanently install Technomad loudspeakers aboard Princess Cruise Lines." Technomad Berlin model loudspeakers, aboard the Crown Princess and the Regal Princess, provide complete and thorough high-fidelity sound coverage for the each ship's main pool deck area.

While the two ships cruise the Alaskan waterways in the summer, and the pool decks are not utilized, the Berlin loudspeakers are securely sealed with their installation-version, water-tight, gasketed lids. In the winter months, when the ships cruise the Caribbean, the lids are secured to the back of the Berlin loudspeaker cabinets when the speakers are active. "During evening hours, when the decks and walls are hosed and cleaned down, the lids of the speakers are replaced to protect the drivers. There are no other loudspeakers, from any manufacturer, that can do this," notes Mr. Kirkland. "The Technomads are the ideal choice for any high-powered deck installation." Mr. Kirkland continues, "In the past, there have been many projects that required specially prepared, weatherized loudspeakers. We wished we had a line of loudspeakers like Technomad for past projects, just from the economy aspect of the job."

Power amplifiers are Apogee Sound, QSC and Crest. Mr. Kirkland adds, "We have found the QSCs to be pretty bullet-proof and if they ever go down, they have great factory service. We have great success with Samson's wireless systems, and their UHF systems hold up very well aboard ship. We have also installed a fair number of Ramsa consoles, and most of the video equipment comes from the major Japanese manufacturers. Most of the heavy hardware, speakers, amps, etc., is all American made, because it's the best stuff out there."

"MAVCO does not push any one major line of speakers or amps, based upon it's popularity," notes Mr. Stull, discussing MAVCO's ability to meet every customer demand and budget. "We look at the customer's application, weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the equipment based upon the budget, and then suggest the equipment that best fits the application."

"MAVCO sells everything from Meyer, EAW, JBL, EV, Clair Brothers to Technomad. We have a wide range of products that can be appropriate for whatever the application. Our customers have certain preferences and we give them what they want.," states Mr. Stull.

"For instance, Mr. Stull continues, "the Technomads fit a nice niche in outdoor applications and they have found a home with us." MAVCO's first permanent Technomad installation was aboard the American Hawaiian liner, Independence. The Technomads are installed on the aft superstructure that towers over the aft pool deck and the speakers are facing directly into the wind.

Mr. Stull recollects, "When they flipped on those two Technomad Berlins on, it was the first time I heard them installed outdoors, aside from testing them in our warehouse. I have to say, they were very impressive. The Technomads really sang in that environment. The horn on the Berlin has a great throw distance on it, and normally on a ship's open deck you normally get a muffled, wishy-washy sound. But the Berlins were clear, they cut, they were not harsh, great low-end response, and they had plenty of head room. We did not have to push them at all to get the power that we needed. We should have turned those two little Berlins around and faced them off the stern to propel the vessel. The customer, as well as our entire technical staff, was very surprised, shocked and thrilled by the performance the Technomads. The Technomads are smaller and shallower in comparison to similarly configured loudspeakers, so it's really shocking to hear that amount of sound coming out of those cabinets. Technomad loudspeakers go into almost all of the on-deck mobile audio and Karaoke systems on almost all of Royal Caribbean Cruise Line ships, as well. There is a real future for the Technomads since they have expanded their line by adding several smaller weather-proof loudspeaker models."

WaveLength's Mr. Dunn states, "We use a lot of EAW, because they have one of the most comprehensive product lines on the market. We have never had to go to them and say, 'What have you got that's close to what we need?' Of course they can customize anything that we might need, but they have virtually everything, from systems that go into three level main show lounges to small cabarets, where space restrictions are a major concern."

Continuing, Mr. Dunn states, "We find EAW equipment to be almost bullet-proof, but we still continue to use products from JBL, Renkus-Heinz, and Apogee Sound. Sometimes it just depends on the customer's budget. But, overall we have developed a relationship with EAW where we find them to be a 'one-stop systems shopping' company." Mr. Dunn adds, "As we have the need for other equipment that EAW does not cover, like Technomad loudspeakers for on-deck systems, we have moved in the direction of that new and unique technology and the cruise lines have embraced it. The Technomads go into some of the harshest and abusive environments on a ship and no one ever complains about them. We normally hear about every piece of equipment, but we normally have to ask, 'How are the Technomads holding up?,' and the answer is always, 'they are working great.' The comfort level with Technomad is definitely there."

"WaveLength has become real big fans of Crest amplifiers." Mr. Dunn notes, "Many of the manufacturers have really gotten smart and have begun producing 220 volt products for US based cruise ship installers, since many of the older cruise ships are all 220 power. Crest was one of the first amp companies to say, '220 volt is not a problem, you need it, you'll get it.' We find them to be highly reliable, an extremely comprehensive line of product to fit any budget."

New technology and increasingly larger venues and systems are becoming more automated, and even the smaller systems are designed to be very 'turn key' as well. Some of these systems have to be run by people like cruise staff members, bartenders or whoever might be around.

Mr. Kirkland states, "Long gone are the times when kitchen help was pulled from into the theater two hours per night to run follow-spots or the mixing console. Once Princess realized they were getting systems that could rival Broadway and Las Vegas showrooms, they had to have staff that could operate these systems. Plus, they did the work to establish a network to hire these technical people. They are getting very good quality technical staff from Canadian theater circles, and also out of England, these days. I have met several engineers who are well established West End technical talents, and it is quite impressive and refreshing to be onboard a ship where the staff is well up to the task and doing excellent work. As short as two years ago, I don't believe I could have said that."

Laying out the facts, Mr. Stull gets brutally honest, and states, "The lifecycle of a ship is forecasted to around 22 years. The entertainment systems are forecasted to last 10 plus years on a duty cycle, and that is with ten hour a day operation, 365 days per year - less a few days for dry dock. You are talking about very extensive use of equipment. The only other use that is similar are the theme parks, but those systems do not have the limited access of a cruise ship system. You will get a ship near a service facility maybe eight hours per week, or less. They come in at 9 a.m. and they depart at 5 pm, so good luck in getting something repaired or replaced."

Within the last ten years, a real maturity in the technology of pro audio equipment has evolved. The quality of audio and the reproduction equipment has finally risen to the quality levels of video and visual technology. "It is a credit to all of the US audio equipment manufacturers that the quality is so good and the failure rate is so small," adds Mr. Dunn. "We try to specify US made audio equipment, since 90% of the ships are in some kind of United States domain for most of their lives, and American made pro audio products are recognized as the best in the world. In cases where something fails, it always seems to fail in an 'infant mortality' situation, in the first few days of operation. When the gear gets past that stage, you're going to get the standard year or two of quality operation before you have to perform general maintenance or you have replace something with superior technology."

The cruise industry has no where to go but up. Statistically, less then 10% of the population has ever taken a cruise, which is a very low percentage compared to other forms of vacations. There is huge market to tap into and the industry is going to get stronger. The market is not saturated, as was predicted five years ago, if it were there would not be all of these new ships being launched so frequently. Entertainment technology never seems to stop improving and, according to Mr. Dunn, "that's what makes the job fun. It also make the job a little difficult, because you know if you spec a product for a new build ship, you know two years down the road when you are ready to install the job, the product will most likely not be available in the same model or configuration. We're fortunate because we can keep focusing the cruise lines on the new technology, and they keep a very open mind to all of it."

Mr. Dunn concludes, "We'll always be involved with all the cruise lines, but I don't believe the major contractors will ever be at each other's throats bidding on the same projects. We have all developed our own little niches within each cruise line. Competition is good because it keeps you on your toes, but if I was on the job with a competing company I would work with them and assist them in any way possible. What goes around, comes around. We're all there for the same reason."