Entertainment on AIDAnova cruise ship

Together with AIDA Cruises, Bosch Rexroth has designed, planned and built in a completely new type of upper stage machinery for the fleet’s newest and largest cruise ship, AIDAnova. It was installed in the Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg. In the Theatrium, dancers, singers, artists and hosts inspire the audience several times a day. The central element is the LED tunnel installed two decks above the stage that floats down onto the stage. 

Fog shrouds the stage. Lighting effects, dynamic beats and from the ceiling, a huge cylinder covered with LED panels glides down. The stage technology used on the AIDAnova sets new standards for cruise-ship entertainment. The cylinder with a diameter of nearly four meters telescopes through the ceiling. Its exterior is completely wrapped in LED panels. “Together with engineers, we developed a LED tunnel exclusively for AIDAnova. It is something that can produce completely new dramatic effects for the ship’s variety-filled show and entertainment program,” said Volker Kirsch, Head of Sales for Stage Technology at Bosch Rexroth AG. The upper stage machinery also includes additional point and lighting hoists as well as a circular curtain hoist. 

The lowerable, 360 degree stage for the Theatrium is surrounded by three two-part ringed stage sections that can also be lowered. During the shows, a stage technician operates the upper stage and lower stage machinery with a joint Rexroth stage control. With more than 20 safety functions, the stage control meets all safety regulations and normative requirements. The shows are centrally planned and prepared in the Entertainment House in Hamburg. The directors have the corresponding motion sequences and scene changes programmed here. The sequences and scene changes are then copied onto the control system aboard the ship and run in coordination with the lighting (triggered via time code).

Rexroth integrated the stage technology into AIDAnova at the Meyer Werft in Papenburg. Cruise ships are assembled from sections to blocks of 30 metres in length and 30 metres in width. The sections start the building process upside down: The floor is on top and the ceiling on the bottom. The sections are not turned over until they are joined to blocks. In addition to the Theatrium, Rexroth assumed responsibility for the stage technology of Studio X – a completely equipped TV studio on board the AIDAnova and the Time Machine Restaurant, which promises exciting dinner entertainment for the entire family. Over the next few years, the drive and control specialist will equip other ships for AIDA Cruises with stage technology made in Lohr. 

AIDAnova has left in December 2018 for its first cruise. With this ship, AIDA Cruises is setting standards in other areas as well: The company is the world’s first cruise-ship operator to completely use environmentally friendly liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the ship’s propulsion. This technology cuts emissions of nitric oxides by up to 80 percent.