Sun Princess, the largest cruise ship belongs to Princess Cruises, is also the first ship powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the fleet. The ship is 339.9 meters long, can accommodate 4,300 tourists at the same time, and completed its first voyage in the middle of this year. The ship utilizes LEDs in different locations to decorate and beautify its interior and exterior spaces, and uses multiple ultra-high-definition LED screens to provide guests with immersive visual experience. Now, let’s take a closer look at how designers to achieve astonishing visuals with LEDs at this magnificent “mobile island” on the sea.

Sun Princess – the first cruise ship in the fleet of Princess Cruises that utlilizes LEDs for immersive visual experience

Princess Cruises is a large cruise ship fleet operating company headquartered in the United States. Matt de Jong, the director of lighting and video of the fleet, said the main reason for using LEDs on Sun Princess is that unlike projectors and other types of screens, LED panels are thin and lightweight, and fit the architectural design of the ships well. They wont’ obstruct the clean lines of the ship, and meanwhile provide astonishing immersive visuals for the guest. And at the same time, thin LED panels also leave more spaces for the guests.

Sun Princess, a 339 meters long cruise ship

The Sun Princess’ LED lighting and video playback systems mainly appear at the Piazza, Arena Theatre, The Dome, Princess Live venue, The Landing and the Lido Pool. They are controlled and operated by Hippotizer Tierra+ MK2, two Mayon+ MK2, one Karst+ MK2 and two Amba+ MK2 media servers provided by GreenHippo.

The inside of the dome on the deck of Sun Princess utilizes LED poles and displays for immersive visuals.

Matt deJong also said that the thin and light characteristics of the LED screen perfectly circumvent the relatively limited space on the cruise ship, and the reason why Hippotizer was chosen to run the LED lighting and screen display system is that it has a unified user interface and scalability, which can be adjusted according to space requirements. In addition, the system is highly stable and supports 24-hour operation of the LED.

Kinglight provides various LEDs for LED panel manufacturing

Among them, a large LED screen consisting of three parts is used in the Piazza or atrium of Sun Princess; and the ETC Atlas Pro RGB LED lighting system is arranged in the architectural structure of the hull, thus implanting unique LED lighting effects into the hull structure and rooms.

In addition, the LED screen display system on the Sun Princess also uses the Hippotizer Shape function to track the position of the LED screen, creating an effect similar to the LED panel “passing through” the visual content. In this way, whether the screen is turned on or off, it becomes part of the visual content, thus achieving a seamless transition of the visual content when the screen moves.

In the Sun Princess’s Arena Theater, a nine-segment LED screen was installed, and a rigging device was used to achieve on-stage, off-stage movement and rotation. In addition, LED panels were also installed on its stage columns. One of the major performances required a large pixel map for a custom-shaped stage pixel light box.

The LED screen in the dome-shaped lobby on the top of the ship is used to display visual content to create atmosphere and can be used as a stage background for performances and nightclub events.

Sun Princess also uses LED screens as backdrops for the Princess Live venue.

Inside the Princess Live venue, the Hippotizer Amba+ MK2 controls a long, letterbox-sized LED wall.

On The Landing, the lower guest deck of ship, one side of the room features an LED wall that closely follows the curve of the room. This screen displays messages on port days and 24-hour content on sea days. It is powered by a Hippotizer Mayon+ MK2 with capture card and controlled via sACN via a QSC touchscreen in the venue or MA3 on a PC.