Watch: New MSC Cruise Ship Has 480 Sq. Meter LED Canopy

February 27, 2020 by Dave Haynes

This is the LED canopy ceiling on a new cruise ship.

The entire ceiling of the 96 meter shopping promenade on the new MSC Bellissima is covered by a giant 480 sq. meter curved LED screen. It functions as a digital ceiling that creates an artificial atrium, but also runs a series of animations, including ports of call.

The ship, which had its maiden voyage a year ago, is one of the biggest cruise liners on the water. I’m not sure many digital signage people would have anticipated the cruise industry as a big vertical, but these are Vegas-sized floating hotels that clearly compete, at least in part, on bling.

Four Winds Interactive recognized years ago the opportunity in the cruise business – even opening a satellite office in Miami. I’m not sure many others have chased this, possibly because there’s only a short list of cruise line companies building these mega-ships. But on those, you’ve got an opportunity to do wayfinding, digital menu displays in multiple restaurants, events directories, in-room messaging and on and on.