Smart yachts: how are new technologies changing and enhancing life on board?

High entertainment technologies are capturing both yacht and superyacht owners’ minds  

Built-in servers with thousands of movies, advanced audio and video systems, light, climate and curtain control... It won’t be an exaggeration to say that the new stage in the evolution of smart home technology is complex intelligent systems that are being widely implemented on board today. By analogy with smart home, one can refer to them as “smart yacht”, and world leaders in the field are rapidly changing the idea of the possibilities of automation and use of modern developments on board. Just a few years ago this kind of innovations felt like science fiction, and today they are downright real. 

One of the key experts in audio, video and IT technologies on board yachts is Videoworks Group. The company was founded in Ancona early in the 1970s. At the very beginning, the founders of the company worked with sound equipment and started developing solutions for yachts almost immediately. In the middle of 1970s, they were the first to install entertainment systems that were really advanced for the time on board the Moneikos and the F100 superyachts. Both of the CRN boats became legendary. The latter was built for the great Gianni Agnelli. 

Today Videoworks has dozens of full-time employees and is represented not only in Italy, but in the US, the Netherlands, Great Britain and other countries. The company offers various solutions for audio and video content, interactive lighting, remote control systems, and develops its own software at a subsidiary called Itworks. 

Visual installations

With the help of high technologies yachts do not only increase the level of comfort on board, but solve some urgent problems. Thus, the need to hang TVs on the walls, mount them under the ceilings or hide in niches is becoming a thing of the past. What is a turned off TV? It’s a huge dark spot taking up space. Instead, special compact Full HD laser projectors are installed and integrated into yacht interiors. They take up virtually no space and provide highest quality images. When they are on, an entire free wall turns into a screen. Another solution is to hide screens behind mirrors and other surfaces, so that when the TV is off, it does not spoil the overall harmony of the space. 

Sometimes TVs on “standby” or in “sleep” mode can broadcast works of art, turning a saloon or a dining room into a modern art gallery with video installations. Interactive images are downloaded from the cloud storage. Koreans are still leading the premium screen segment confidently, but Chinese and European manufacturers are nipping at their heels. 

Another beautiful solution for superyachts is videowalls, showing the images that create some special atmosphere on board. For instance, the images and sounds of a green forest, or a cozy fireplace, or some exotic underwater world. This kind of innovation has been successfully implemented by German Lürssen, with one of the latest examples being the 122-metre Kismet delivered in 2024.

Sounding surfaces 

As for saving space, Videoworks now offers invisible speakers. When they are not in use, they are completely invisible, because they are disguised as materials in the interior. The Wider 150’s speakers look like QR codes. When a guest comes up to one, they can scan it with their smartphone and start playing their playlist immediately. 

Hidden speakers like the ones found on the Wider 150 can be united into “sound walls” with the help of Mover technology by Tuscany-based Powersoft company. It was initially developed for video games and home cinemas. Videoworks has changed the technology to enhance the sound quality. Actually, Videoworks can make almost any surface sound: the company’s experts just need to hide the equipment behind it, “adjust” the material, and then glass, wood or other surfaces may start functioning as speakers. Another stunning development is underwater speakers that make water – jacuzzi, a pool, a swimming platform and even the sea around – work as speakers. 

The company launches new products in this field quite regularly. At one of Metstrade exhibitions in Amsterdam (which is the main b2b event in marine equipment industry) it presented several interesting solutions. One of them is Slim Audio Master, which is a special compact system for managing sound on board. It was created for Videoworks by Leaff company and features 16 audio outputs, so the sound in almost all living areas of the yacht can be adjusted on one device, and the sound quality will certainly be unrivalled. 

However, the Italians have some serious competitors in the field of sound systems. Thus, L‑Acoustics Creations company has been on the market for over 30 years. The French manufacturer is known for creating special sound areas on board called Islands offering ultra-high definition immersive sound formats. L‑Acoustics Creations solutions are designed and installed by German Qualtron company.

Future is bright 

Another innovative feature has to do with lighting. Videoworks manages to achieve harmony with nature with the help of the Sun In A Room technology, which basically works as a night mode on the phone. The sensors on the hull and superstructure determine the intensity of sunlight outside and adjust the level of lighting inside the yacht correspondingly. 

Crestron company has come up with an interesting solution involving the use of Bluetooth. With the help of this technology the guests’ location on board is determined via their phones or smart watches.   Once the guest enters the cabin, the crew get a “Do not disturb!” notification, while the system can also adjust the light, sound, windows’ transparency, etc. automatically. 

British startup named Viveur went even further and made an effort to create a unique microclimate on board. These guys call themselves “Artisans of Ambience”. The technology monitors the combination of temperature, air flows, sound landscape, lighting and even smells. Viveur allows one to finetune the smallest details of the interior environment, with guests being able to choose out of several pre-set ambience options. 

Art to the masses 

The most interesting thing is that it’s not only custom superyachts that get the attention of the companies operating in the yacht industry. Мore and more solutions are offered for medium-sized production boats. For example, the flybridge Sunseeker Manhattan 68, unveiled in 2020, could boast an intelligent lighting system, offering four different modes on board: Movie, Party and two Night modes to create the most suitable ambience. The modes can be managed via an application. 

For production boats and medium-sized superyachts Videoworks offers its customers a Party Pack. It included small elegant speakers and subwoofers by the premium Tuscan brand called K-array, with a total power of 110 decibels, as well as a Samsung QLED 8K TV with a screen of up to 98 inches. The system syncs up with the ceiling lighting, turning the saloon into a dance floor or a home cinema in a split second. 

The company can equip compact yachts with a “smart pack”, including the sound from the premium American Sonos company, a video system with 4K Smart TVs fully integrated with Apple TV, Plex media servers and iTunes library, and a control panel from Crestron. The lighting operates through Vimar By-me automation system with various configurations. Videoworks also provides its own ItWmodeX application for iPad Mini, iPhone or Android smartphones, which allows one to adjust the sound, to control video and other “smart home” elements on board a yacht.  

The more time yacht owners spend on board, the higher the demand for new technologies and solutions. In response, companies keep unveiling new products, helping to change the ordinary course of life on board and to entertain guests. The industry does not stand still, which means that yachts will go on getting smarter and smarter.