Allen & Heath onboard Viking cruise ship

24 August 2012

Finland - Allen & Heath's Finnish distributor, Noretron Audio Ltd., has finalised a deal with Viking Line Abp to install iLive digital mixing systems and MixWizard analogue rackmount mixers in the company's new M/S Viking Grace cruise ship.

iLive systems, comprising iLive-T112 and iLive-T80 Control Surfaces with iDR-48 and iDR-16 Mix Racks equipped with DANTE network option cards, and a total of seven MixWizard WZ316:2 rackmount mixers, will be installed in the ship's night club, and several restaurants and conference rooms.

Noretron is also supplying all other entertainment audio, including loudspeakers, amplification, wireless microphone- and IEM-systems.

According to Viking's AV manager, Jouni Sironen, the new audio systems have been carefully designed to deliver crystal clear sound in every part of ship. Allen & Heath was the console manufacturer of choice because iLive is installed in several of the company's other ships and has operated without any problem under constant and heavy use - approximately 18 hour per day, seven days per week, all year.

The ship is being built in Turku shipyard run by STX Finland Oy and will start operating in January 2013 between Finland and Sweden. Viking Grace will be equipped with highly advanced, environmentally-friendly technology, as it will be the first large scale cruise ship in the world to use LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) for its energy source.

Jorma Tikka, Noretron Audio's senior sales manager, concludes, "This project is challenging and at the same time rewarding. We at Noretron are proud to be part of the project and look forward to seeing a technologically advanced cruise ship on the Baltic Sea. Cooperation with Viking Line has been smooth from the very beginning. The customer had a clear vision of the desired results, which in turn made the planning stages of the entertainment audio systems straightforward for us. Installation, testing and system tuning will take place by the end of 2012. Thanks to the renowned brands Noretron represents, I am totally convinced that the entertainment audio of Viking Grace will be world class."

(Jim Evans)