One of the decks of the highly acclaimed GTS Infinity has recently undergone a major poolside lighting renovation. Upgraded to an array of 30 state-of-the-art LED color changing flood lights, the Infinity needed a state-of-the-art control system as well.

The project requirements included the ability for the system to automatically run cues nightly with colorful washes and dynamic color arrangements. The ship staff also needs direct pushbutton access to override the pre-programmed looks and the ability to bring in a "guest console" for integrating the lighting into live special events was also needed. Michael Riotto of Michael Riotto Design, LLC (MRD) chose CueServer.

"CueServer was chosen as it is easy enough for onboard staff to use, but it also has an integrated time clock for preprogrammed looks to occur nightly", said Riotto.

Making It Work

CueServer was programmed by MRD Lead Programmer Mathieu Poirier. CueServer was loaded with numerous scenes of colorful washes for the 30 LED fixtures. Loops and chases were assembled that illuminate the area with slowly changing, but very dynamic light.

CueServer's extensive timer events were programmed to make changes to the lighting at specific times of the day as well as based on the current sunset and sunrise times (as automatically calculated by CueServer). CueServer can even be programmed to take different action on different days of the week.

CueServer's front-panel buttons were programmed to allow the ship staff to override the currently playing time-based program with several directly accessible lighting looks for special events.

Automatic DMX Override

The last major feature was to provide a way for a "guest console" to be introduced into the system when a live event was occuring in the area. The idea is to allow the live act to be able to plug into the system and take over control of the poolside lighting with their lighting console.

This was accomplished by wiring CueServer's DMX Input jack to an externally accessible patch panel in the venue. Then, CueServer was programmed to respond to DMX Input by cancelling it's time-based program and allowing the DMX to pass-through to the fixtures. When DMX Input is removed, CueServer is programmed to respond by returning to it's time-based program. It's fully automatic and fool-proof.

Remote Control

A future plan for Infinity's CueServer installation is to place CueServer on Celebrity's ship-wide Ethernet network and have CueServer accessible via their ship-to-shore Ethernet router.

Michael Riotto says, "I can be at home in New York and program and/or monitor the system when the ship is in Alaska, South America, anywhere. Anytime a program needs to be updated or a time clock cue adjusted, it's a matter of minutes before all changes are made".