Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series Powers an Engaging Guest Experience On Board Circle Line

Circle Line, the only cruise company dedicated to sightseeing in the New York Harbor, offers a front-row seat to New York City’s most iconic landmarks. Established in 1945, Circle Line has hosted over 80 million passengers on their cruises. Today, Circle Line has the most modern fleet in the industry, featuring state-of-the-art boats showcasing the city’s most well-known landmarks, including the Hudson Yards, One World Trade Center, Brooklyn Bridge, Yankee Stadium, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Circle Line is invested in providing tourists with a comfortable and relaxing cruise. Passengers can sit back, relax, and enjoy breathtaking views of the city’s skyline with unparalleled views on the outdoor deck through huge panoramic views in temperature-controlled indoor cabins. To enhance the experience, Circle Line has standardized audiovisual technology to provide an engaging experience that compliments their award-winning tour guides narrating every detail along the route.

Audio Video Solutions NJ LLC (AVS)., a New Jersey-based residential and commercial audiovisual solutions provider, was selected to engineer and integrate the audiovisual technology aboard Circle Line. Audio Visual Solutions brings two decades of experience designing, installing, and servicing audio, video, and control systems for many well-known and dynamic brands, including La Prairie, McDonald’s, Phillips 66, SoulCycle, Steelcase and Vince.

“The project with Circle Line began as a test case,” said David Slavitt, president of AVS. “Circle Line did not have any prior form of distributed audio or video to enhance their passenger experience. They wanted to integrate audiovisual technology for digital signage that promotes their brand and provides entertainment while passengers are on the boat.”

Mr. Slavitt added, “Initially, we started the project on a single ship, but have recently completed our second ship. On the first deck, we integrated four monitors on the ship’s walls. We added a single 86-inch monitor on the second deck. Each of the displays has multiple sources, including two PCs, which are connected to Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series. One of the PCs is dedicated to the onboard CCTV cameras. Specifically, the cameras can broadcast the sightseeing destinations and views from outside. This is particularly useful if there’s inclement weather and the passengers are sitting inside the ship. Additionally, we integrated HDMI inputs for entertainment, advertising, or any other additional information they want to share with the passengers. The system is incredibly flexible with the content that can be distributed and shared.”

AVS implemented Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series, including seven decoders, four encoders and one wall plate encoder on each ship. The system is designed to control various video sources, live camera views and digital signage for the multitude of displays. The PacketAV Wall Plate Encoder provides Bluetooth connectivity for seamless audio distribution. Audio Visual Solutions leveraged network-based technology through the PacketAV Matrix Series for seamless audio and video distribution across multiple decks onboard the ship while eliminating additional cabling infrastructure requirements.

“The goal was to enhance the passenger experience significantly,” noted Mr. Slavitt. “Circle Line wanted to engage with tourists beyond speaking to them throughout the tour. Simultaneously, the user experience was important, too. They wanted to create a simple and seamless audiovisual solution for the crew to interact with the passengers. Through the control system, we’ve created a complete audiovisual system that meets their goals and expectations. It’s simple to use, yet impactful for the passengers.”

Mr. Slavitt added, “Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series was an integral component to the simplicity of the audiovisual system. We’ve worked with the PacketAV Matrix Series in the past. It’s very flexible and easy to work with, yet it provides a reliable solution. Overall, the customer is thrilled with the system. They plan to standardize the system and integrate it into the rest of their fleet over the next year or two.”

The PacketAV Matrix Series is a cinema-quality, ultra-low latency encoder and decoder solution designed to bypass the constraints of traditional matrix distribution systems. The PacketAV Matrix Series supports USB 2.0 over IP and can be deployed on any industry-standard IP network by harnessing the flexibility and scalability of converged IP networks. Utilizing existing network resources, the encoders and decoders can be rapidly deployed, enabling cost-effective distribution of multi-channel Dante/AES67 audio and video over IP.