Case Studies

Digital Snake and Monitor Mixing System Aboard Carnival Cruises

Ongoing Upgrades

Carnival Cruise Lines has been using Aviom’s Pro16 Personal Mixers on board its fleet of 22 ships for several years. When James Keaton, Carnival’s sound designer, decided to replace the heavy copper wiring in the designs for the fleet’s new ships and to begin retrofitting some of the existing ones to Cat-5 cable, he chose Aviom Pro64 digital snakes for the shows on board. Carnival’s newest ship, the twenty-third in its fleet, was the first ship to be outfitted with the new setup. The Pro64 digital snake was crucial to the launch of the Carnival Splendor, which features the 1,500-seat Spectacular show lounge that hosts revues such as “The Beat.”

While most of the ships have one moveable bandstand outfitted with the Aviom gear, the Carnival Splendor, future ships, and the ships to be retrofitted will actually have two complete systems. Each of the new systems includes two 6416m Mic Input Modules on stage that connect to two 6416Y2 A-Net Interface Cards in the Yamaha PM5D console. Sixteen monitor feeds are sent from front of house to stage on the same Cat-5 cable. These channels are routed through an ASI A-Net Systems Interface to convert the Pro64 signal to Pro16 for the band’s 10 A-16II Personal Mixers used for monitor mixing. Two A-16D Pro A-Net Distributors are also used on stage to distribute power and A-Net to the band’s Personal Mixers.

Reliable Performance Under Harsh Conditions

Not only does the transition to a digital system running on Cat-5 cable significantly streamline the ships’ setups and reduce maintenance needs, it also makes setup for each show much simpler since all that’s required is running one Cat-5 cable.

Keaton chose Pro64 not only for its simplicity and the ease with which it can interface with the Yamaha console but also because he knew he could rely on A-Net. Average life for a product that would last 10 years on land is about two years at sea, according to Keaton. But Keaton is making an Aviom digital snake the standard on the ships because he was impressed by the reliability of the products.

Aviom’s products have performed well on board despite the unique power requirements of the environment. According to Keaton, the plan with this design is to “set it and forget it” for the next five years.