As a recently-married man, I’ve found that there are traditions that you marry into. One of those traditions is annually joining my wife aboard The Rock Boat (therockboat.com), a themed music cruise which is now preparing for its 13th installment, hosted by the band Sister Hazel and boasting 2,000 attendees. The producer, Sixthman, who formed alongside the original Rock Boat more than a decade ago, provides themed cruises for artists as diverse as Kid Rock, Weezer and Zac Brown Band.
Eight Stages, 30 Bands
The Rock Boat XII, which sailed from New Orleans to Cozumel at the beginning of March 2012, featured more than 30 bands in eight separate performance venues spread from bow to stern of the 855 foot long Carnival Elation. Live music begins at 11:00 a.m. and is scheduled into the early morning hours. Multiple bands play concurrently at different locations throughout the ship, and many bands play multiple times, in different venues, throughout the course of the cruise. From a performance standpoint, The Rock Boat resembles a multi-band festival, but unique logistical and technical challenges set it apart from the typical summer concert event.
In addition to the standard festival considerations of staging multiple artists on fixed changeovers, there are additional obstacles for shipboard production. One core challenge is the physical movement of the ship under motive power and from wave motion. Ship cruising speed is approximately 20 knots, and the ship can pitch and/or roll noticeably while underway. To a moving ship, add the port authority, load in logistics, gear storage, power distribution, confined spaces and passenger safety as further potential impediments to a successful show.
At the helm, navigating around these obstacles for The Rock Boat XII, is Sixthman’s production manager, Rodney Stammel. While on board, Rodney oversees the Rock Boat’s artist experience and production crew. Rodney’s production office is tucked into what would be a small bar on a normal cruise. This office is constantly abuzz with Sixthman staff, production crew, band crew and band members. Rodney greets visitors with a subtle, easy smile that surely serves him well amidst the bustling office. Ever busy, Rodney informs, “We have 690 cases plus contents submitted on our [Customs] registration.” In addition to the gear, there are 75 odd personnel distributed between production, security, stagehands and Sixthman staff.
Executing on production for Rodney are head audio technicians Steven “Dublin” Stapleton and Sean Henry of SES Live Professional (seslivepro.com). With more than 35 years combined experience in professional audio, Henry and Stapleton have worked closely with Sixthman on over 40 themed cruises spanning more than a decade.
Henry is talkative, while Stapleton weighs his words slightly before piping up. It is clear that the two enjoy a long history of working well together. About their cruise show history, Stapleton reminisces, “We’ve only cancelled one show, because the singer was so seasick he couldn’t stand.”
Sixthman’s production team must interface with the crew and technical systems aboard Carnival Elation and, to that end, Carnival Cruise Lines provides technical staff as liaisons. Carnival’s point man is Tim Cabral, manager of entertainment guest activities, whose full-time responsibility is production support of all themed and corporate cruises. Cabral’s role in linking ship to Sixthman is immediately evidenced by the two radios he wears during our time at Carnival Elation’s coffee bar. As he speaks, his viewpoint on the role his team provides is apparent: “Carnival’s expertise for production makes us the preferred industry destination for themed cruises.”
Cabral also introduces another of his support team, Jeff Gazdacko. Gazdacko is one of Carnival’s entertainment fleet supervisors. Normally, Gazdacko is a roving tech responsible for insuring that audio from Carnival’s entertainment show designers translates well in each different ship environment. About the position, Gazdacko says, “I started off as a shipboard sound tech, but three weeks into my second contract I was promoted from within, because I used to work for a record label and knew Pro Tools.” Cabral and Gazdacko complement each other nicely; Cabral is clear and commanding, while Gazdacko has the quiet professionalism one might expect in a soldier. For The Rock Boat, Gazdacko works alongside Cabral in operations supporting the outside production crew.
In the course of conversation, Cabral speaks highly of the production crew. He offers, “We have brought in Sean and Stapleton to tune some of the installed sound systems aboard our fleet… Dublin is the best FOH engineer I have ever met.” While they may not have the cure for seasick singers, Henry and Stapleton consistently deliver quality sound reinforcement in the face of shipboard technical challenges.
A Tricky Load-In
To see how The Rock Boat deviates from a land-based music festival, one need only consider load in. Depending on the tide, the entrance point to the ship can be above, at, or below dock level. Production load in must also intertwine with the ship’s replenishment of normal consumables. Production gear, backline and band gear for The Rock Boat typically consists of one 53-foot semi and four 24-foot box trucks. Load in to the ship’s marshalling area can occur in as little as 90 minutes, depending on entrance height and ship restocking considerations. Load in requirements vary for each port, but generally bands’ crew must meet Sixthman’s production trucks off-site for gear exchange, as only Sixthman’s vehicles are approved for loading in by the port authority. Band vans, coaches, trucks and trailers are stored in secured hotel parking for the duration of the cruise.
Once production equipment is loaded to the ship’s marshalling area, it must be secured for the voyage. “We buy so much strapping!” says Henry. Some gear, such as the primary sound reinforcement, remains in place for the duration of the cruise. Many pieces, though, such as band gear, backline and mixing consoles, alternate between staging and deployment. As gear is needed, production crew manages transport to the ships’ venues, securing gear at those venues and subsequent re-strapping in the staging areas. “Every deck you add weight to must have [sea water] ballast below,” Dublin explains. The ship’s crew is informed of the weight and staging location of equipment so that they can properly ballast the ship before setting sail.
Supplying power to all the gear aboard ship is another technical test. The power distribution for gear brought aboard ship is based on the standard 3Ø 208V wye configuration common in professional audio. Ship power, however, is substantially different. Guests aboard Carnival Elation see a luxury vessel, but below the surface she is a floating physical plant. All of her motors and machinery require electricity generated by six 60Hz auto-synchronized diesel prime movers on a 6.6kV 3Ø delta electrical buss.
Power Constraints
Global shipboard load is highly inductive, and power factor for the generators is routinely below 0.7. This means Carnival Elation’s 65,000kVA installed generator capacity is good for about 44MW of electrical power. Her motive power is diesel-electric, and up to 28MW of her installed generation can be used to drive two external propeller pods based around huge synchronous AC motors. The remainder of her power weaves through ship from two primary feeds. The first feed uses transformers to step 6.6kV down to 440V 3Ø delta. The second uses a motor in series with a generator to reduce 6.6kV to 440V 3Ø delta. The first feed supplies the majority of the ship’s power, while the motor-generator feed supplies “clean” power to the ship’s lighting and certain electronic systems.
Entertainment power derives from the first feed via isolation transformers that convert 440V delta to 208 wye on camloks. Carnival supplies the isolation transformers for The Rock Boat’s audio infrastructure. “Carnival has fixed many of the entertainment power issues that hamper the industry,” says Cabral, and Henry confirms that power is much better than the old days of “bare copper buss bars behind a panel.” With the great number of motors (and motor controllers) cycling on and off throughout the ship, intermittent background noise sometimes creeps in but, in general, The Rock Boat portable sound systems are impressively quiet in the difficult electrical environment.
A Musical Sendoff
With production gear suitably loaded, staged and powered, The Rock Boat XII lived up to its moniker. Immediately after leaving port, Sister Hazel kicked off the music with a sendoff concert on the Lido deck atop the ship. The majority of music performed on The Rock Boat is reproduced through Electro-Voice XLC and XLD line arrays supported by Xsub subwoofers, Zx and Sx powered speakers and Xw floor monitors. Supplementing the E-V products are dB Technologies DVX monitors and two small portable ground stacked arrays based around dB DVA products. FOH and monitor consoles are a mixture of Avid SC48, Yamaha M7CL and Yamaha LS9.
Chris Buford, long-time monitor engineer and lighting designer for Carbon Leaf and a veteran of six Sixthman cruises, has high praise for the hard-working production crew. “They have great tech staff, and I have gotten to know them over many cruises,” he says, adding, “Sixthman is good with hospitality — I consider it a paid vacation.” Buford is even able to include some of Carbon Leaf’s lighting package during their sets.
“Sixthman improves our band experience over time,” Buford adds. “We’ve gotten to know them, and them us, which makes the job easier for everyone. They’ve lengthened changeovers and moved to alternating stages.”
Henry and Stapleton also echo the process of improvement. Gone are the days of disassembling an elevator to fit a Midas H3000, or disabling an elevator to provide power for a venue stage. Henry describes, “We learned to pack so that everything fits inside the 4-by-4-by-6-foot steel bins they use to load the ship.”
Certain wrinkles in shipboard production will likely never disappear. For instance, retrofitting a cruise ship with fly points is no small task. The points must be designed, installed by a skilled welder, inspected, tested and, finally, certified by the ship’s insurance company. Ship elevators will always be designed primarily for passengers, Henry and Dublin will continue to need additional “EXIT” signs to satisfy the ship’s safety officer, and the life safety system will continue to cut signal, or power, to the PA systems at inopportune times. Such inconveniences are the small price to pay for ongoing passenger safety and help make this moving music festival different than an everyday gig.
Smoother Sailing Ahead
Logistical and technical improvements mirror the growth of the cruise. From its early days of two bands on one stage with less than a dozen crew to 35 bands on nine stages, The Rock Boat continues to grow in popularity. Calming the production swells allows for a great fan experience and bigger events. Sixthman has a vision for a ship dedicated to themed music cruises: “Our goal is not to just ‘do’ The Rock Boat,” Rodney states, “but to ‘be’ The Rock Boat.”
A moving music festival makes long days for the production crew, but their hard work produces a fun experience for passengers, bands and band crew. A testament to the excellent passenger experience are the over 1100 repeat guests that sailed on The Rock Boat XII.
From a production perspective, Mark Goodell, on his first Rock Boat as FOH engineer for Bronze Radio Return, sums up the experience nicely: “Loved it, having a great time… All I can say is the whole thing is awesome. When you think about putting together a festival on a ship, you’d think it would be hell, but they’ve made the whole festival experience translate really well on a ship. Makes you feel like you’re not a boat.”
