Viking Line has become one of Lab.gruppen's best customers for C Series amplifiers, due in large part to the enthusiasm for the brand of Viking Line's AV Coordinator, Jouni Sironen, and his 16-strong team of technicians. The total inventory across the six ships currently fitted with Lab.gruppen and the new vessel to be delivered in early 2010 numbers around 200 and increases every year as old amplifiers are replaced with new Lab.gruppen ones, or new audio facilities are added. The seventh ship, the Rosella, who is the 'Grande Dame' of the fleet, will be entirely refitted with Lab.gruppen next year.
Sironen explains: "We have about 300 amplifiers in total installed across the entire fleet. So far, around 200 are Lab.gruppens, including some that date back to the late '80s and are still going strong. We are progressively replacing all of our old Lab.gruppen amplifier stock with new C Series amplifiers. With the exception of the 100 or so amplifiers that are purely for public address security announcements; our aim is to have the entire fleet standardized on C Series within the next few years."
(Jim Evans)