Projects: 4K Displays Create Virtual Balconies On Cruise Ship

December 31, 2014 by Dave Haynes

This is pretty wild. The cruise ship giant Royal Caribbean’s new Quantum of the Seas ship has installed 80-inch portrait-mode 4K displays in its interior staterooms (the ones that could never have windows anyway) to create virtual balconies.

The displays get a streamed feed – I’m guessing via fiber – from a set of high-def RED Epic cameras pointed at the surroundings, and the set-up on-screen emulates the look of a balcony, including railing.

Not a first (Disney has done this on a Disney ship, but with 42-inchers), but it’s still very clever. The set-up is also on a sister ship called Navigator of the Seas.

Control Group did the tech work and there are details here.

This would also have beat the crap out of the cloudy little outside-facing porthole we had on our one cruise experience.