FOOTHILL RANCH, CA — December 2008 — Christened Queen Victoria last December by HRH the Duchess of Cornwall, Cunard’s newest Queen is the second-largest ship in its fleet. Facilities aboard this ultra-luxury passenger liner include seven restaurants, thirteen bars, a ballroom, a theatre, and three swimming pools.

Two of these have Renkus-Heinz PNX121’s and PN212 subwoofers installed to the specification of Nautilus Entertainment Design (NED), which specifies audiovisual systems for many of the world’s top cruise lines. Among the many projects NED has completed for Cunard is Queen Victoria’s elder sister, the Queen Mary 2. Alan Edwards, Principal Sound Designer for Nautilus Entertainment Design, says the PNX loudspeakers were chosen for three reasons.

“The aft pool deck and the mid-ship pool are outdoors, so we definitely needed something with reliable weatherization,” Edwards explains. “The discrete profile of the cabinets helps us integrate them into the overall look and feel of the pool decks, and so does the rotatable horn, which gives us the mounting flexibility we need to fit everything into the limited space available.”

Like most public areas on a cruise ship, the pool decks are used for multiple purposes. With its 12-inch woofer and 1-inch compression driver on a Complex Conic Horn, the PNX121 can handle everything from PA announcements to foreground music. For dance parties and exercise classes, the PNX212 subwoofers with their dual 12-inch drivers and compact enclosure provide subbass impact.

NED bi-amplified the full range PNX121’s with QSC CX254s on the compression drivers and CX702s on the woofers. QSC CX1102s drive the PNX212 subwoofers. Signal processing is dialed in on Peavey NION N6 units. To keep things simple for Queen Victoria’s crew, who after all are not hired for their audio expertise, NED designed a front end with AMX control panels for accessing shipwide program material such as background music and PA announcements.

For special events that require a local audio source such as an exercise instructor’s microphone, an Allen & Heath PA12 mixer is available at each location.