- NEW YORK, NY--Carnival Cruise Lines recently upgraded its fleet with a series of three Electro-Voice and Dynacord audio installations. Each installation was performed by SES Live Professional, a burgeoning sound production company based in Senoia, Ga. Since its foundation in Jan. 2008, SES has quickly earned a reputation across the Southeastern United States for quality sound, performance, and consulting.
- SES was first commissioned to refit the main theaters of Carnival’s four Spirit Class liners -- the Pride, Legend, Spirit, and Miracle -- with EV NetMax N8000 System Controllers to control all matrix routing, equalizing, and time alignment of each multi-speaker cluster throughout the ceilings of the main theaters. Steve “Dublin” Stapleton, owner of SES LivePro, recalls the installation:
- “To ensure a smooth and seamless installation, we walked Carnival through every step of the process. They needed a partner with the proper professional experience to supervise and tune their sound as precisely as possible, and we were pleased to do just that.” Stapleton, a long-time champion of Electro-Voice products, looked to EV’s NetMax N8000 to provide consistently excellent performance on a nightly basis. He and SES Technician Sean Henry performed the installation personally.
- “The NetMax N8000 is the perfect machine,” says Stapleton. “It’s very easy to set-up and navigate, and its macro set-up configurations are very intuitive. But best of all, for a complete digital processing system, it’s built like a tank!”
- The installation was so successful that James Keaton, Director of Audio Entertainment for Carnival Cruise Lines, approached SES LivePro to do a second group of installations. This time, Stapleton secured a contract to refit the back lounges aboard the Carnival Destiny Triumph with NetMax N8000s. SES also installed a Dynacord Cobra-2 portable line array system for the main PA in the Destiny’s back lounge.
- Most recently, Carnival commissioned SES to refit the Lido Deck Line Array system onboard the Carnival Liberty using XLCi line array loudspeakers from Electro-Voice. The arrays aboard the Liberty consist of two hangs of two XLCi 215 and six XLCi 127DVX cabinets per side (finished in white) and were installed while the ship was in service. Stapleton comments, “Doing an installation at sea was quite a feat for two technicians and three riggers (from SRS Rigging)! If I didn’t have the help of a great crew, coupled with the speed with which the EV arrays went up, this job would have been far more challenging. The project was well-received by everyone onboard and shoreside, impressing anyone who had their doubts whether a project this large could be done without disturbing the guests. I couldn’t have asked for better results, and the system sounds fantastic.”
