The action-packed 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 30 x new Robe PAINTE, 30 x LEDBeam 350 and 12 x 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.

Alex noted that in the cruise world, they generally expect around seven to 10 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, explained Silviu. They had eyes on PAINTE luminaires for some time – a compact fixture with Robe’s ground-breaking TE technology, a serious output and a nice array of features which is ideal for this size of theatre / performance space. 

“In the end it boiled down to a belief in the product,” commented Alex, adding that 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 which impressed them greatly. 

Robe was also willing and able to customise these PAINTES, producing a special Spot edition without shutters for this application, which was another bonus.

“We believe the PAINTE will be good for at least 10 years,” said Silviu, adding that the colours and colour mixing were also major considerations. As Carnival Magic’s main show is one of the few still featuring multiple scenic drops, how well these could be lit was critical to the decision.

Apart from that, they were keen on fixtures that all perfectly colour matched. 

Different shows in the space run seven days a week during normal operations based on the sailing schedules of six and eight-day cruises, varying between four different high energy 45-minute productions. Some days a show will be performed twice. 

The performances are a high quality, high production value collage of numerous genres – cabaret, comedy, reality games, theatre, dance, television – so multipurpose fixtures were essential.

The 12 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. 

Silviu remarked that all the Robe lights worked straight away right out of the boxes! “You normally expect one or two glitches or issues, but not these! We had 100% working!” Alex mentions that whilst visiting the factory, “[they] all noticed the rigour of the quality control process.” 

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. 

David 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 unique and interesting looks and effects, while also emulating some of the traditional scenes from before, which now look a lot more energised, vibrant, and eye-catching with the new lights.

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

“We really appreciate all Tony’s hard work and his excellent communication with the factory so they could implement our ideas and requirements,” concluded Alex.

Everyone is delighted with the new products, and Carnival Magic’s Showtime Theatre has a beautiful lighting rig to match her reputation as a lively, popular, multi-faceted entertainment environment with something for all to enjoy.