From the portal “Automation Plus.it” 2001: "Now in its fifth edition, the Exhibition of Cultural Heritage and Activities (November 30 - December 2, 2001), organized by VeneziaFiere with the High Patronage of the President of the Republic, confirms itself as one of the most important appointments for all operators in the sector . In this context, the presence of ServiTecno which, with Intellution and its integrators, has always been an attentive supplier of products and solutions for public utility services and Building Automation in historical and artistic buildings.
There are many applications in which Intellution's Fix and iFix software products, distributed in Italy by ServiTecno, are used for the supervision of buildings, systems and networks, for example in the most important and famous Palaces of Venice (Palazzo Ducale, the Fondaco dei Turchi, Correr Museum, Mocenigo Palace, Cà D'Oro Palace).
These buildings are all kept under control by supervisory systems, created by Novatekno of Mestre, which use Intellution's iFix software. In Rome, Acea MultiUtility has recently used some Intellution software licenses to control the lighting systems of the Domus Aurea and St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
The Domus Aurea in Rome
A bit of history of Rome from Wikipedia and from the Archeoroma website: The Domus Aurea ("Golden House" in Latin, precisely because much of this precious metal was used in it) was the urban villa built by the Roman emperor Nero after the great fire that devastated Rome in 64 AD The destruction of a large part of the urban center allowed the princeps Nero to expropriate a total area of about 80 hectares and build a palace that extended between the Palatine, Esquiline and Celian hills.
The villa, probably never completed, was destroyed after Nero's death following the restitution of the land on which it stood to the Roman people. The emperor Vespasian gave the order to demolish the buildings flattening them and filling them with rubble to erect the famous "Flavian Amphitheater" (ie the Colosseum). A few years later on the rubble of the Domus Aurea buried the emperor Titus and the emperor Trajan had the Baths built. The luxurious decorations and sculptures were also removed while the rooms were covered with earth up to the vault to act as a base for future buildings, and the frescoes and stucco decorations of the Domus Aurea remained buried for centuries until the Renaissance: "fortunately" this total destruction saved the "grotesques". In fact, like the volcanic ashes of Pompeii, the tons of sand had the function of protecting them from their perennial threat, humidity.
The "discovery" of the Domus Aurea in 1400
The find occurred at the end of the XNUMXth century when a young Roman boy accidentally fell into a crevasse in the ground on the side of the Oppian hill and found himself in an unusual cave gazing in awe at the ancient frescoes on the walls articulated around him. The frescoes discovered soon intrigued the young Roman artists who descended underground to be able to study the paintings in the light of torches and lamps.
To his great surprise, the works proved to be a revelation of what was the true face of painting in the ancient city and its imperial magnificence. The refined style of the architecture and the mythological scenes of imaginary animals in a fairytale style influenced great painters such as Pinturicchio, Raphael and Michelangelo for the frescoes of the Vatican Palaces, Castel Sant'Angelo and Palazzo Madama.
The story continues to the present day.
iFix in the Domus Aurea in Rome
Over the centuries some popes commissioned authorized excavations in the Domus Aurea making rooms, rooms and colonnades re-emerge from the earth, with the publication of over sixty engravings of the drawings found.
Later, the architect De Romanis reconquered another fifty rooms from the earth, publishing a plan and a report. From 1939 to 1969 the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome explored the upper floor and waterproofed the vaults. The decay of the decorations and stuccoes, the precariousness of the wall structures and the dangers of water infiltration led several times to the closure of the grandiose complex which with other ups and downs was then reopened to the public.
On the occasion of the Jubilee of the year 2000, the engineering company Utilitas of Rome, a direct emanation of the Capitoline multi-utility ACEA, was charged with enhancing the recent "archaeological discoveries" inside the Domus Aurea in Rome. Therefore, a modern and efficient lighting system was thought of to bring out the great beauty of the vaults and structures, to be presented to the world on the occasion of the Holy Year.
At the same time, many sensors (extensometers, hygrometers and thermometers) were disseminated throughout the excavations to monitor the stability and environmental conditions of the whole complex, to provide accurate information to technicians and supervisors of the Superintendency, and to ensure a safe visit to the tourists expected from every part of the globe.
An HMI/SCADA system was therefore needed capable of accurately collecting all the measurements taken and from which to control all the lighting points with the supervision of the electrical cabinets.
Utilitas, at that time a system integration company owned by ACEA, in contact with Inprotech (historic Roman partner of ServiTecno) thought of a safe and reliable HMI/SCADA software product: iFix by Intellution, distributed and supported in Italy by ServiTecno.
For this plunge into the past, special thanks go to my colleague and friend Sergio Petronzi from Rome, who has been collaborating with us for 30 years to make iFix the HMI/SCADA software product appreciated in Italy and around the world.
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