inside the oasis of the seas, the biggest and most technically · pdf file ·...

66 • August 2010 • Lighting&Sound America

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he statistics boggle the mind:An ocean liner that is 360m(1,187') long, 65m (213') high,

weighs 225,282 gross register tons,can accommodate 8,461 individuals(passengers and crew), and cost astaggering $1.4 billion. It is longerthan four football fields, and canaccommodate more people thanRadio City Music Hall. It features a1,350-seat theatre, a fully functionalbroadcast-quality television studio(which can be turned into an ice rink),an immense promenade/mall, and anoutdoor amphitheatre that is home tothe first-ever theatrical water show onthe sea. Royal CaribbeanInternational’s latest and greatestclass of ship, the Oasis of the Seas,

is filled with the latest and greatest inentertainment technology, providedby the leading manufacturers in theindustry. A cadre of firms was involved,including system integration fromFUNA, TV Tools, and Lightinen. “It’sthe closest to a Las Vegas resort that Ihave seen,” remarks Marc Goossens,FUNA’s senior vice president.The man behind the technology is

Christopher Vlassopulos, head ofentertainment technology andtechnical design for Royal Caribbeanand Celebrity Cruises. “We’ve reliedheavily on our knowledge andexperience from previous ships,” hesays. Royal Caribbean has a sizablefleet of ships of various classes, all ofwhich are based essentially upon the

same design. “They follow the sameform, so it’s not so radical going fromone ship to the next,” he notes.Consequently, certain areas on theOasis are similar to ships commis-sioned in the past, and much of thegear is the same from venue to venue,ship to ship. He adds, “Our ships areoperated by our folks, who work onsix-month contracts, so we try tomake each ship similar to the others,and to keep the gear consistent.”

The Royal PromenadeThe first thing that guests experiencewhen they come onboard is the RoyalPromenade, a multi-use area thatfunctions as a meeting hall, aretail/dining space, and an enter-

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The laminar stream fountain at the Aqua Theatre does its stuff.

Inside the Oasis of the Seas, the biggest and most technicallysophisticated cruise ship ever

By: Sharon Stancavage

Copyright Lighting&Sound America August 2010 http://www.lightingandsoundamerica.com/LSA.html

“All the different scene effects thathave been preprogrammed areselected through the [High EndSystems] Wholehog III or the e:cue[controllers], depending on whetherit’s the parade, the ‘70s night, orwhatever they are doing—that way,they can bring the ceiling to its fulleffect,” says Dixon.Programming of the LED ceiling

took two weeks, and was accom-plished on an e:cue system byBroadway veteran Aaron Sporer.“There are some 3,000 LED RGBmodules in the ceiling, and they areall addressed individually,” commentsDixon. Originally, there were 16 DMXuniverses; through programming inblocks of nodes, the total wasbrought down to 11, with 56 showscenes in all. “Within the context ofthe entertainment programming, it isreally running a low-level or low-resvideo color shift—it is sort of a largepixelate, and then it goes much moredynamic for any fast show,” saysDixon. “Because it’s such a vastspace, you don’t see it as you woulda vertical screen.”Working in tandem with the illumi-

nated ceiling (which also features alaminar stream fountain with animpressive color-changing LED arm)is the entertainment lighting package.Vlassopulos says, “Along the entirelength of the Royal Promenade wehave 28 Elation Impressions, whichare the LED wash lights, and 22Martin MAC 250s.” During specialevents, a Martin Jem Hazer can beused to create effects.LEDs are an integral part of the

Royal Promenade, as they are all overthe ship. “We use them wherever wecan; it’s just a huge advantage forus,” remarks Vlassopulos, noting theirlower energy usage and their long life.“From an operational point of view,the advent of LEDs takes away halfour repair and maintenance problems,with fewer lamps to change. It’s muchmore manageable now, since all lampreplacements have to be done in themiddle of the night.”

The ceiling isn’t the only area inthe Royal Promenade that pushes thestate of the art. “In terms of sound,it’s a rather large, rather difficultspace,” says Vlassopulos. “It has lotsof hard surfaces, a hard floor, and nocentral place for audio.” The solutioncame from RCCL’s longtime audiopartner, Meyer Sound. “The RoyalPromenade needed low-frequencysupport to make it a true enter-tainment space, as it was designed,”says Goossens. “Due to architecturallimitations, we had to come up with asubwoofer that fit inside the base of astreetlight.” Meyer’s R&D departmentwent to work and designed the MM-10. “It’s the world’s smallestsubwoofer, which we were able to getinto the bases of the streetlamps—it’stwice the size of a PC sound system,about 20" high and 11" wide,” notesVlassopulos. There are severalvarieties of the MM-10, each withdifferent connections and installationoptions; the MM-10aC is installed onthe Oasis. The frequency response ofthe MM-10 is 33Hz to 228Hz; it has a10" driver, a single-channel poweramp, and onboard processing. “Thesubwoofers worked out beautifully,and are the perfect match for thatspace,” says Goossens.The main system in the Royal

Promenade also includes 42 Meyer

UPA-1Ps; the supplemental system iscomprised of 28 Atlas FAP42TCspeakers, with six Atlas FAPSUBsubs. “We supplemented the mainsystem with the Atlas ceiling-mounted speakers to fill in thesehard-to-reach areas, and time-alignedthem to the main system,” reportsGoossens. The space is also home toa variety of gear from Aviom; awireless intercom system from HME;a standard intercom from Clear-Com;microphones from Shure; a MeyerMatrix3, including Wild Tracks harddisk playback and a CueMixer controlsurface (also found in all other largeentertainment venues on the ship);and a Yamaha DM 2000 console witha bridge and side panels.Creating the Royal Promenade was,

in the end, a group undertaking.“Many people were involved withphysically putting this together, fromFUNA, and from the entertainmentindustry, which is typical of RoyalCaribbean,” Dixon notes.

Opal TheatreThe Opal Theatre, which is host to a90-minute edition of the Broadwaymusical Hairspray, as well a newshow, Come Fly With Me (see sidebar,pg. 66) is reminiscent of earliervessels, with some changes. “Thetheatre is, by and large, from a


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tainment venue; it is 18m (60') wideby 122m (400') long. Above is anilluminated, color-changing ceiling. “Inthe past, we’ve used neon, which isgreat, and it does what it does,”Vlassopulos says, philosophically.However, since the creation of theVoyager class of ships, thetechnology has changed, and PhilipsQLX Powercore modules havereplaced the neon. During themorning, the ceiling typically istreated as an architectural element,featuring a light blue look. As the dayprogresses, it gradually changescolors. “During the evening, weintroduce movement in the ceiling—from port and starboard to the centerspine we have a very slow colorchange. It’s basically reversing in andout, very slowly,” says Oasis of theSeas project director Richard Dixon,of Project International Ltd., based inColchester, UK, the lighting designconsultant firm for the entire ship.(Overall control of the lighting for thepublic spaces was provided byElectrosonic; the company used aHelvar Imagine 920 router, integratingall the lighting in these areas into oneship-wide dimming system.)The most dramatic changes to the

ceiling happen when it’s in enter-tainment mode, which, on a nightlybasis, can be viewed by 3,000 guests. P

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This page: Different views of the Royal Promenade, with the illuminated, color-changing ceiling that makes use of Philips QLXPowercore, a linear LED fixture.

The Opal Theatre. Fisher Dachs was the consultant, and JaffeHolden the acoustician.

technology standpoint, a bareperformance space, albeit we have amuch bigger thrust stage this time,”says Vlassopulos. “But it’s not wildlydifferent from the Freedom or theVoyager series of ships.” However, headds, “Technology has let us do a lotmore than we could ever have done in1999.” Wilson Butler Architectsprovided master planning, archi-tecture, interior design, and projectteam, and construction oversight forThe Opal Theatre, the Aqua Theatre(about which more later), and otherspaces on the ship. Fisher Dachs wasthe theatre consultant on the Opaland Aqua Theatres, with PeterRosenbaum acting as projectmanager. JaffeHolder was theacoustician on both venues, with RussCooper consulting on acoustics andMark Turpin as audio designer.The technology in the theatre

includes the standard theatrical gearfrom City Theatrical (top hats, donuts,barn doors), ETC (225 Source Foursof various degrees), cabling fromTMB, and dimmers from ETC. Thereare also automated fixtures fromMartin (32 MAC 700 Washes, six Mac700 Profiles, two Mac 2000Performances, 30 Mac 575 KryptonXT), eight Martin Stagebar 54s, 14Martin QFX150 fiber illuminators,Wybron RDM-enabled Coloram

scrollers, and two High End SystemsAxon media servers. Control isprovided by a High End SystemsWholehog III console.On the video side of the theatrical

equation, Vlassopulos says, “We havetwo 103" Panasonic plasma TVs forIMAG on either side of theproscenium, and there are Christie16K front, center, and rear projectors.”The Opal Theatre’s audio booth is

home to a Meyer Matrix3 audiocontrol system, which includes WildTracks playback. “The flexibility andendless potential of the Matrix3created a new dimension for theshows. This, along with the Meyersound system, raised the bar for thecruise ship theatre, it’s potential tohandle any type of entertainment,”says senior project manager DerekWarner, from FUNA. The audiocomponent also includes QSC ampli-fiers, Clear-Com and HME intercoms,and cabling from Whirlwind.

Studio BStudio B, a venue found on otherRoyal Caribbean ships, functions asan in-house television studio, a generalmulti-use entertainment space, and,with its retractable floor, a theatre foran ice show. When the latter is inplace, “We have disco parties, gameshows, and all sorts of different events

in there,” explains Vlassopulos.On Oasis, however, modifications

have been made to the floor. If the icecover doesn’t reach the correcttemperature in the correct amount oftime, “it freezes to the floor if you’renot careful,” Vlassopulos notes. To fixthe situation, he and his team turnedto STX. Vlassopulos says, “The icefloor was engineered by the yard, butthis time we made sure underneath ithas UHMW [ultra-high molecularweight] nylon strips; there’s noaluminum touching the ice itself.”The lighting in Studio B includes

24 Martin Mac 700 Washes, 14 MartinMac 575 Krypton XTs, 14 Martin Mac250 Washes, a variety of ellipsoidalsfrom ETC, and 50 Acclaim X Bar HIPslining the edge of the ice, with controlby a Wholehog III. Cabling is by TMB;the network includes 40 Pathway6202 Pathport C-Series nodes, eachwith two DMX outputs. For video,there is an Axon media server and aChristie 16K projector.Audio in Studio B includes Meyer

speakers—M1Ds, UPA-1Ps, andM1D-Subs—along with QSC CX702amps. There’s outboard gear fromLexicon and TC Electronics, as wellas a Yamaha DM 2000 digital consolewith a meter bridge and side panels.Mics include Shure, Neumann,Sennheiser, Electro-Voice, and AKG.The broadcast component of the

room is impressive. “We have fourSony BRC 300 robotic cameras, wehave four connection points forhandheld cameras, we have anextensive Clear-Com communicationssystem, and four Lycian 1.2Kfollowspots,” Vlassopulos says.

Aqua TheatreOasis of the Seas is home to theworld’s first Aqua Theatre, a 600-seatamphitheatre that features a 6.6m -wide-by-15.7m-long (21.9' by 51.6'),and 5.4m-deep (17.9') kidney-shapedpool, which also includes a laminarstream fountain. “We definitely are notshy about trying somethingcompletely different,” explains


Vlassopulos. The Aqua Theatre takesup a full 1/8th of the ship, or, inVlassopulo’s words, “one completefire zone.” It is home to Oasis ofDreams, a theatrically orientedevening production, and SplishSplash, a daytime dive show.The production team at Royal

Caribbean is eminently qualified toput on standard theatrical perform-ances, including ice shows; however,a water show was a new type ofperformance. “We know how to run atheatre, but it’s a different story whenit’s underwater,” says Vlassopulos.To fill in the missing pieces, Steven

Michelman, a technical consultantfrom Fisher Technical Services, Inc.,of Las Vegas, who has worked onnumerous water shows, was broughtin. “There are safety concerns—youhave a ship that’s moving while youhave performers who have nocommunication devices on them atall—and they’re up on a high platformdiving into a pool that is that is notvery big compared to the heightyou’re at,” Michelman notes.To assist the performers, there are

four stagehands underwater—the twowho do cues are on an underwaterintercom system from OceanTechnology Systems, of Santa Ana,California. The other two are Master

Scuba Divers who catch the divingperformers, give them oxygen ifneeded, and escort them offstage.The intercom system, above andunderwater, is by Clear-Com, HME,and FUNA.The dives can be dangerous.

“When the ship is stable, the divers’jobs are hard enough,” saysMichelman. “But when it is rough,and they bounce on the 3m (9.8')springboard, if the ship moves theboard moves, and they can miss theboard on the way back downagain. The performers have to behyper-aware of the ship’s movementat all times.” It’s less of an issue forthem to dive from the 10m (33') fixedplatform, he adds: “They only needthe platform to support them beforethey take off. They don’t need it to bein the same position after theyjump. Believe it or not, the divers whodo both the 3m and 10m dives feelmore comfortable on the 10m.”RCCL, with Michelman’s assistance,developed a triple redundancy safetysystem, used before each dive.Inside the pool are two caves,

located upstage right and left.These areas are used for under-water prop storage, and althoughthere is an exit via a ladder,Michelman recommended that they

be off limits to performers: “Eventhough we have additional scubaregulators in place in case aperformer ends up in these areas,there are certain criteria that needto be met before the underwaterstage staff enters those caves.”

Oasis of Dreams also uses propsfabricated by River City Scenic, ofCincinnati, including a curtain, a pieceof driftwood, and large lily pads.(Rose Brand supplied all thenecessary soft goods.) “The under-water stage staff works very hard,”says Michelman. “They go frompulling the curtain at the opening tohelping a performer make an under-water entrance to moving andpresetting heavy large props.”The Aqua Theatre pool contains

three underwater lifts, provided byHandling Specialties, of Grimsby,Ontario, the firm that also created thelifts for O, the Cirque du Soleilspectacular at the Bellagio in LasVegas, and Le Rêve, the water showat Wynn Las Vegas. “We’ve never hadsuch a large pool with three liftsinside it,” Vlassopulos remarks. Thespace also makes use of seven SonyBRC 300 cameras, a MedialonManager show controller, and twoHigh End Axon media servers.On either side of the pool are two


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The Aqua Theatre contains three underwater lifts, provided by Handling Specialties, of Grimsby, Ontario.Hairspray is one of two shows in the Opal Theatre. River City Scenic built the show, withsoft goods supplied by Rose Brand.


The nightclubs on Oasis of the Seas feature lightingby Michael Riotto Design (MRD), a firm based inLong Island City, New York, and Montreal. The

company bills itself as “specializing in the art of lightingdesign as expressed through its architectural andtheatrical applications,” and it’s fair to say the approach tothe clubs is both architectural and theatrical.Blaze (photo, following page) is the main dance club,

and its unusual configuration—it’s an oval room withremarkably low 10' ceilings—was a challenge for MRD. (“Itwas originally designed to be a two-level lounge,” MichaelRiotto notes.) To liven the space up with dynamic visualeffects, he made use of Traxon Technologies’ 64PXL MirrorWash RGB LED panels. There are 64 of them, arrangedwith a slight taper to match the oval shape of the ceiling.Each panel features 64 individually addressable pixels,allowing for the creation of pulsing color effects that arecapable of keeping the room lively all night long. “It’s alighting fixture unto itself,” says Riotto. “It’s also an archi-tectural element. The soffit around the ceiling has amirrored surface, so, when the ceiling isn’t lit, it blends inwith the architecture.” He notes that the Traxon product“had never been done in a ceiling format before.”The rest of the lighting package for Blaze relies heavily

on Martin gear, including five Mania DC-2 effects units;eight SCX600 two-hundred-fifty-watt scanners; four ManiaSCX800 Rollerscans; two Martin/Jem Magnum ClubSmoke heads, one Jem Magnum Club Smoke base, and36 Philips Color Kinetics iColor QLX 6" units, which areused for cove lighting. The lighting is under the control of ae:cue system outfitted with 32 DMX universes (aided by aSwisson DMX splitter). The Traxon ceiling, Riotto says, “istied into the entertainment show lighting system. The DJhas a touch-screen monitor next to his work station, whichallows him to actively engage whatever cues he wants forthe music. We preprogrammed about 50 cues of all sorts.”Dazzles (photo, this page) is more nightclub than disco;

it’s a two-deck bar, complete with features that include amirrored ceiling and a view of the ship’s Boardwalk area.According to the website TravelAgentCentral.com, the“centerpiece feature is its lovely dance floor that wouldmake Fred and Ginger proud. Dazzles celebrates the grandHollywood era with wall art/photographs depicting such1930s and 1940s Hollywood stars as Rita Hayworth andJean Harlow.” Wilson Butler Architects designed the club.For Dazzles, MRD was asked to design a cost-effective

method to light the dance floor from beneath temperedglass panels; the solution was Traxon’s 1PXL Module RGB.It’s designed as a direct-view fixture, equipped with anacrylic cover to protect the surface-mounted LEDs from

abrasion. The Module spreads its light in a 120˚ beamangle; MRD and Traxon tested it, using a sample of thedouble-paned glass flooring provided by the shipyard, toestablish the right spacing between the 72 LED Modulesand the floor. The product can be adjusted in terms ofcolor, to change the mood in the room, or to coordinatewith the stage lighting during live performances.The rest of the club’s lighting package includes six

Elation Design Spots, three Elation Impression 25° andfour Impression 10° units, nine Acclaim X Drum HIP LED


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7m (23') wide Barco O-Lite 612 walls,used for both content and IMAG.“When we designed them, Barcoprovided a 3m-wide section,” saysVlassopulos. “We hired a crane thatheld it in position, and saw what itwould look like when installed.”The lighting, used during the

evening performances of Oasis ofDreams features 14 Philips ColorKinetic ColorReach Powercore LEDunits with 8° lenses, 11 ColorReachunits with 63° lenses, and fourColorReach units with 13° lenses;

they, along with LED units in manyother parts of the ship, wereprovided by LED Source, ofWellington, Florida. “ColorReach is avery powerful fixture, and isdesigned for outdoor use. We hadthem custom-painted to match theship’s hull color,” says Warner. Therest of the lighting package, installedby FUNA, includes two Martin MacIIIs, two Martin Mac 700 Profiles, twoHigh End Systems DL.3s, eightElation DLED 108IPs, and two Lycian2.5K followspots.

Regarding audio in the AquaTheatre, Goossens says, “We werelimited, by the architecture, forsuitable locations for the line-arrayspeakers. The locations and angleswere far from optimal.” The solutionwas a combination of speakers fromCommunity and EV; they include 12E-V XLD291-WH-NLs for the mainline array, four Community W2-312-64 HWs for onstage/offstage fill, andfour EV XS212-WH-NL subs, alongwith a number of QSC amps. Alsofeatured are 18 Community W2-2W8Ws and 12 W2-2V8W speakers.The mics are from Shure.Also on hand is a Meyer Matrix 3

audio control system with Wild Tracksplayback. “Wild Tracks is basically aserver that allows us to program fromvarious different points, and it’s allmanipulated digitally,” Vlassopulossays. It is the source for time code,which is synchronized with the ship’sclock, and is used to control audio forthe fountain shows.The Oasis of the Seas is docked in

Ft. Lauderdale, where it sails to theCaribbean. It will remain the largestpassenger ship until the unveiling ofAllure of the Seas, the next RCCLship, in December.

Above and below. Studio B can be turned into a venue for ice shows. In the above photo, you can see the Acclaim X Bar HIP units,which line the edge of the ice.

Dazzles (above) employs a Meyer Sound system based on theUPA-2P loudspeaker, and Blaze (next page) uses six Meyer UPJ-1P VariO speakers and 600-HP and M1D-Sub subwoofers.

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with large-scale video images. Maxwell visits an urbansetting, defined by a large printed streetscape with a dimen-sional lamppost, stairway, and subway entrance; the scenealso features a 20' tumbletrack trampoline for acrobatics.Later, a plane appears; it’s a 40' replica of a Douglas DC-3,complete with spinning propellers and a cockpit that popsopen to reveal a singer. An RP screen flies in behind theplane, for video flying effects. “From front to back, the planeis only 5', with a tail section that is only an additional 5',”says Hariton. “But it’s 40' wide. The side doors of thefuselage open and three tap dancers come out on eachwing. After their number, the plane pulls back, and theydisappear into two traps built into the floor. It always makesthe audience gasp.” Other scenes include what thedesigners call “the Escher wall,” after the artist M. C.Escher, for a number with performers walking upside down,courtesy of a series of two-point harnesses by Foy.As should be clear by now, one of the designers’ special

skills involves packing away large amounts of scenery intotiny spaces. “Our producer says we’ve learned to foldthings up into matchboxes,” says Baral, and she’s not faroff. This knack proved especially useful for the secondshow in the Opal, the Broadway musical Hairspray. (TheOasis presents the 90-minute version of the show, asadapted for its sit-down engagement in Las Vegas.)The designers have put their own stamp on Hairspray,

beginning with the opening number, “Good Morning,Baltimore,” in which the young heroine, Tracy Turnblad,negotiates the streets of the city, here portrayed by aseries of dimensional wagons, representing buildingexteriors, which move on tracks (both laterally andupstage-to-downstage) and also revolve. (Hariton notesthat they used the original John Waters film as a key visualreference, and their designs certainly do have thatBaltimore look.) They pay tribute to the original Broadwayproduction, which made extensive use of an LED wall, withan arrangement of 400 Acclaim X-Panels; the product, alightweight RGB SMD LED panel, is designed to create

low-resolution graphics; the designers mounted them in adiagonal array on a black velour hardwall rigged to fly on amotorized batten, with custom aluminum mountingbrackets. The wall is covered with a black bobbinettescrim. (All scenery was built by River City Scenic, withsoftgoods and printed drops supplied by Rose Brand.) Thetotal thickness of the wall is 4".

Hairspray features many locations, a fact thatchallenged the designers’ sleight-of-hand skills. Forexample, Hariton says, the set depicting The Corny CollinsShow, the American Bandstand-like series where much ofthe action takes place, is a little miracle of economy:“There are four sets contained in the wall of The CornyCollins Show. The center portion rotates around its axis,with two separate rolldrops contained in it. The panels oneither side each have two alternate panels on separatetravel tracks; the wall rotates and the side panels slidesideways. We can have four sets on one fly pipe, becauseRCCL provided us with motorized winches with two-toncapacities.” In other clever touches, one revolving unitdepicts both the interior and exterior of the Turnbladhouse, and the show’s title tune is performed in front of ablue contour curtain that is also seen in Come Fly WithMe; the curtain, Baral says, “has 18 individual motors, sowe can make it ripple and do many other effects.”“We trained ourselves to deal with backstage logistics

before we design a show,” says Hariton. “Once we havesolved that theatrical Rubik’s Cube, the design just fallsinto place.” Jennifer Schriever was the lighting designer forHairspray, with Simon Harry lighting Come Fly With Me.Jeremy Plummer, of Under the Radar Productions,directed Come Fly With Me; Harrison McEldowney, also ofUnder the Radar, staged Hairspray. On the next RCCLship, Allure of the Seas, Hariton and Baral will co-designthe musical Chicago, working with John Lee Beatty andKen Billington, the scenic and lighting designers of theBroadway edition. The trick is that Chicago will co-existwith another aerial spectacular.—DB


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10° and nine C Drum HIP LED 25° units, and four MartinSmartMAC compact profile units, all under the control ofa High End Systems Road Hog console, again aided by aSwisson DMX splitter. “It’s a more varied rig than inBlaze,” says Riotto. “We had the architect build in threefront-of-house positions, each of which has six Acclaim XDrum LED fixtures; it gives us plenty of front light, notjust for the dance floor, but for the stage as well. Wedidn’t have a lot of space for the front of house, so weneeded a low-profile unit.” This was an issue throughoutthe construction of the ship, he adds: “A good six to ninemonths into the project, all of the ceiling heights werereduced a little bit, so plenum space was absolutely anissue; we needed units with a small form factor.”With the many LED fixtures, Riotto says, “Maintenance

is minimal, and the energy savings are huge.” Speaking ofthe spaces for which he specified gear, he adds, “There’snot one dimmer anywhere. You don’t see any halogenunits, except for a few Martin scanners.” The Road Hogwas chosen in part because “across the fleet, RCCL usesHogs, although this was the first Road Hog specified, Ithink.” He adds that the omnipresent Hogs allow techni-cians to move from ship to ship without having to dealwith new consoles and their attendant learning curves.MRD handled six spaces on the ship, including

comedy, jazz, and Latin clubs, and an observation lounge.“For our spaces, we specify all lighting gear, control, andhow it interfaces with the architectural lighting systemsand the floor and ceiling plans—how it all gets tiedtogether, so they can go ahead and build it. Equally if notmore important, is the follow-up coordination. We’re notgoing to specify gear that will fall apart half a year downthe road. No headaches for the owner or the end-user—that’s paramount.”—David Barbour

Blaze features a ceiling made of Traxon Technologies 64PLXMirror Wash RGB LED panels.

Regular readers of LSA may remember Gerry Haritonand Vicki Baral, who design scenery for all thetheatre shows on RCCL cruise ships (“The Floating

Repertory,” LSA, September 2008). Their contribution toOasis of the Seas includes two shows each in the Aquaand Opal Theatres.The Opal Theatre is “a larger theatre than we’ve had

before,” says Baral. “It has a thrust stage rather than astraight proscenium configuration, and was conceived withaerial effects in mind.” The first show there is Come Fly WithMe, which Hariton describes as “about all the ways you candefine the word ‘flying.’”The action focuses on an Everyman character named

Maxwell, who is first seen leaving his house. The latter “isa projection, except for the door, which is a dimensionalpiece,” says Hariton. “This time, we had the luxury ofdoing rear-projection images that are 36' wide.” Whatfollows is a sequence taking Maxwell from his house to apark, in which motorized scenic pieces on floor tracksinteract with video images. “As he walks along, the houseand door move in synch,” says Hariton. “He gets in a taxiand drives to work, but he ends up in a park where heinteracts with video characters.” There’s even a gag inwhich wine is poured into a video glass. Projections aredelivered by a High End Systems Axon media server to aChristie Roadster S+16 projector.The picnic is interrupted by an umbrella that floats in

long enough for Maxwell to grab on and fly over theaudience; at the same time, a large hot air balloon comesup through an opening in the deck. The latter piece,“stored below, expands like a Chinese lantern,” saysHariton. “At full height, it’s 24' tall. At the end of thenumber, it disappears into the flies, folding up. The riggingfor the balloon is by Flying by Foy.”And so it goes, with the designers unveiling various

cunningly stored set pieces and filling out the stage pictures

The Acclaim X-Panel wall in Hairspray.

Come Fly With Me features a replica of a DC3 airplane. “From front to back, the plane is only 5', with a tail section that is only anadditional 5',” says Hariton. “But it is 40' wide,” to accommodate three tap dancers on each wing.

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