At today's Mac IT conference opening session, Bruce Wolf from the Royal Caribbean cruise line discussed the computing infrastructure for some of the company's newest ships. Since these ships are built for an extended lifespan, the technology choices made during the build process are still critical up to 15 years later. Apple and Nanonation provided a solution proposal that apparently knocked the socks off of the RC executive committee, and some of the proposed tech began to make its way into the ship's operations.Beginning in late 2006 with the Freedom of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas, shipboard signage onboard was driven by Mac Minis with an XServe back end and Samsung displays. Later, custom messaging to the passengers (announcements, shore excursions, fitness center scheduling, casino promotions and touchscreen ship maps) appeared on the largescreen displays. Moving on from the big displays, some newer builds have entertainment and reservations capability (dining and activities) in the staterooms.
Moving forward, ships will be equipped with a broadcast room that feeds content to both guest staterooms and crew cabins (each driven by either a Mini or an Apple TV). Back-of-house crew signage, guest enrichment centers for learning opportunities and public signage will all be Mac-driven. Eventually, every television on the ship will be backed by a Mac. On the Celebrity Solstice, now under construction, the build in progress is supporting 1000 stateroom TVs from a bank of XServes and Mac Minis.
Next time you cruise the shining seas, keep an eye out for the Mac in the back!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-16-2008 @ 6:01PM
Scottie said...
Also, on Explorer of the Seas, the large touchscreen displays in the oceanographic center are driven by macs. They display current location and meteorological info.
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1-16-2008 @ 6:09PM
Mr.Clicky said...
Signage, promotions, 1000 TVs. Sounds ghastly.
And just what pray tell are "guest enrichment centers for learning opportunities"? It's still a classroom even if it's afloat.
Arrr...
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1-16-2008 @ 7:04PM
Fritz Laurel said...
Holodeck! Where's the holodeck!?
Seriously, someone needs to be working on this.
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1-17-2008 @ 10:58AM
Icelander said...
I see it as a security measure. Those brooding teenagers aren't used to using Macs, so they'll have a harder time hacking the computers on the cruise (while their parents are off playing shuffleboard or whatever) than if they used Windows or Linux.
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1-21-2008 @ 6:56PM
Doug Newman said...
Thanks for linking to my site :-)!
I haven't seen too many Macs at sea, so I'm thrilled that Royal Caribbean is now using some of them.
More thoughts on this from a Mac-using cruise writer on my blog (http://blog.dougnewmanatsea.com).
Doug
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