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“Carnival Magic” equipped with Paintes and LEDBeam 350s from Robe

The 1500-capacity Showtime Theatre, show lounge and central entertainment hub of the 306-metre long “Carnival Magic” cruise ship, has been recently upgraded with the installation of thirty new Robe Painte, thirty LEDBeam 350 and twelve MiniPointe moving lights, which were installed while the ship was still in operation around Miami.

Co-ordinating the upgrade project was Carnival Cruise Line fleet supervisor for lighting Silviu Ardelean and lighting manager Alexander Nelson, who explained that the refit saw the replacement of the original moving lights. The 3-tiered show lounge is located over decks 3, 4 and 5 of “Carnival Magic” and serves as the ship’s main live performance space, presenting a wide array of different productions. David Horner redesigned the venue’s lighting, incorporating the new fixtures, and giving it a new twist. However, everyone was keen to keep the integrity and style of the original lighting design.

Nelson notes that in the cruise world, they generally expect around seven to ten years’ life out of equipment in relation to technical refits, with maintenance onboard all Carnival Cruise Line ships co-ordinated by in-house teams and technical support engineers. With this specific refit on the horizon, they looked at options, explains Ardelean. Tony Perez, the sales lead and maritime specialist for Robe, had arranged for them to visit Robe’s HQ and factory in the Czech Republic, and they subsequently decided on the Paintes, which were then customised by Robe, producing a special Spot edition without shutters for this application.

Different shows in the Showtime Theatre - including cabaret, comedy, reality games, theatre, dance, and television - run seven days a week during normal operations based on the sailing schedules of six and eight-day cruises, varying between four different 45-minute productions. Some days a show will be performed twice.

The twelve MiniPointes are rigged on four mobile trussing towers wheeled on and off stage through the shows, while the Paintes and LEDBeam 350s are rigged on the over-stage bars, with more LEDBeam 350s around the side drop positions for cross stage washing and key lighting. These are maintained day-to-day by an onboard lighting tech who will also operate the shows using their GrandMA2 console.

The new lighting installation was completed in three overnight sessions and across two days while “Carnival Magic” was at sea and operational. When swapping out the rig, they even played two shows on one of these days - with a mix of old and new moving lights.

Horner had worked on the show file in advance so he could be ready to run the shows during the changeover whatever happened to be installed at these moments. With the new Robe products, he is using features like split colour to produce interesting looks and effects, while also emulating some of the traditional scenes from before.

Tony Perez also helped Carnival Cruise Line pick gobos to help recreate some of those retro looks from before and ensured that these were changed in the fixtures before leaving the factory.

(Photos: Silviu Ardelean)

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