RoboScreens on the Ovation of the Seas

Development and Implementation:  The development of the room required a staggering amount of coordination between the various expert integrators that collaborated on the project. Entirely new technologies had to be developed to realize the artistic design vision for the space. Challenges to be addressed in the development of the space included show control across all of the production elements and the impact of ship motion for a vessel at sea.[4]

andyRobot worked with Tsevas from RCI to develop the show control system that was required to coordinate how the industrial robots would interact with video as well as all the other show elements in a live performance context.[5] Among other tests, this is when the media servers feature of tracking the movement of all six ABB robots came to life. Tsevas says, “I always aim to design intuitive user interfaces for the end user,’ he says, “and take out of the equation the learning curve on how to operate the show system. All show control software functions and cues were created in a modular fashion to accommodate the rehearsals and any changes resulting in the ongoing creative process during production.” Jan Hüwel of coolux created the technology specifically for this application. He used the Pandora’s Box media server and the Widget Designer show control systems from coolux media systems. Pandora’s Box provides the tools for adjusting the image content in three dimensions in real time. Despite an extremely steep projection angle and the extremely short distance between the window façade and projectors, this so-called “warping” process makes it seem like a single projector is projecting on a flat cinema screen. After cleaning and maintenance the system was designed to recalibrate the projection elements to their original positions with millimeter accuracy. [6]

Another problem is that Two70 is a room that moves at sea. Magill says that, “Vibration is a major problem on cruise ships, where light bulbs can unscrew themselves, and chandeliers can sway just enough to provoke a bout of seasickness if not properly dampened.” This is particularly a problem for Two70 because it is located above the  powerplant for two of the Quantum’s thruster pods. This meant that the deck had to be heavily soundproofed and isolated from the vibration of the thrusters’ machinery. In addition, the giant glass panels had to withstand the impact of waves on the high seas, which is challenging from an engineering standpoint. “The venue itself is nothing short of spectacular.” says McLean, “and the gear is world class. Atmosphere provided us with 10 highresolution video images that portray a variety of things, from a woodland forest, to a waterfall, to a large open green meadow and several others. Thanks to Theo’s custom interface, the coolux interface is a dream to work with, and so user friendly we believe almost anyone could come in and quickly pickup the basics of running the system.”[7]

“It’s basically a big TV screen meets robot and has a baby,” he says of RoboScreen. “Now make it really gigantic and then make a theater based around that. That’s what Two70 is. With the RoboScreens designed to participate as characters in the show, they take a bow at the end of the show, and the audience is cheering for robots.  As andyRobot describes, “It’s absolutely ridiculous what we did on that ship. Robots had never gone on the deep ocean like this. It’s all new frontier. You’ve got to have the muscle of a Royal Caribbean to do that.”[4]

ABB Robotics Live with andyRobot from the Quantum of the Seas