Since last December 12th it has been possible to get to know and experience in a new way one of the most famous Italian places of art, spirituality and culture in the world thanks to the Extended Reality digital solutions made available thanks to millimeter band 5G
Culture and technology allies for the future of the Italian artistic heritage: the monumental complex of Santa Croce in Florence enriches the visiting experience with new Extended Reality digital solutions which allow you to immerse yourself in an innovative way in the incomparable cultural heritage of one of the symbolic places of Italian culture in the world, admired every year by hundreds of thousands of visitors.
An innovative project that was born as part of the broader collaboration agreement between TIM and Opera di Santa Croce to promote new forms of management and valorization of cultural heritage, developing virtuous synergies between specific skills in the historical, artistic and technological fields.
The ancient and majestic Franciscan Basilica which houses the tombs of great historical figures such as Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli, together with the Last Supper, the cloisters and all the other extraordinary works of art that the Complex houses, now offer a new way of visiting that incorporates movement, dynamism and interactivity . The objective is to increase visitor involvement and improve the cultural offering, also to attract new segments of the public.
Discovering Santa Croce between past and future in Extended Reality
The project, which makes Santa Croce one of the most innovative historical sites on the Italian scene, was presented last month on the occasion of the event ‘Discovering Santa Croce between past and future in Extended Reality’, organized by TIM Enterprise and Opera di Santa Croce with the collaboration of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and the support of Live Reply as software developer. During the event the guided tour in augmented and immersive reality which will allow visitors to enjoy a more engaging cultural experience through digital elements such as images, animations and 360° videos. Participants: Alessia Bettini, deputy mayor of Florence and councilor for culture, Cristina Acidini, President of the Opera Santa Croce, Elio Schiavo, Chief Enterprise and Innovative Solutions Officer of TIM, Stefano Filipponi, General Secretary of the Opera di Santa Croce, and Fabio Iaione Country Manager Italy and Senior Director Business Development of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
The initiative represents the first stage of the project which, through Extended Reality, will allow us to better understand the richness of the heritage of Santa Croce, a unique place characterized by the interaction between spiritual, artistic and civil elements. After an initial testing phase, in the coming months these technologies will become an integral part of the visit support equipment that will be made available to the public.
Throughout 2024, visitors will be able to appreciate the works inside the Monumental Complex in an innovative way using 5G millimeter wave smartphones powered by Qualcomm Technologies, on which an augmented reality application developed by Live Reply is installed, a leading company in the design and implementation of solutions based on new communication channels and digital media. A new way of experiencing art made possible thanks to the high bandwidth capacity and minimum latency of TIM’s 5G millimeter wave technology and the Extended Reality solutions of TIM Enterprise, the Group’s Business Unit dedicated to companies and public administrations.
The two thematic routes
The spiritual identity and the secular identity of Santa Croce have given rise, in particular, to the development of two thematic paths that can be explored with new technological methods: the first linked to Franciscanism and the other to the great Italian personalities of whom the Complex preserves memory.
Il Franciscan path, created with the collaboration of the Community of the Conventual Friars Minor of Santa Croce, it winds between the Cenacle and Giotto’s fresco ‘St. Francis receives the stigmata’, which is located inside the Basilica. The public will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the history of the Florentine Franciscan community through immersive 360° videos and detailed images in augmented reality of works such as The Tree of Life and the Bardi Table. Visitors will be accompanied by a narrator who will guide them to discover details not visible to the naked eye.
Il second route, The Greats of Santa Croce, celebrates women and men who have distinguished themselves for their civic virtues and their intellectual genius and takes place inside the Basilica. Through augmented reality you will have the opportunity to ‘meet’ a digital version of Galileo Galilei and Giorgio Vasari who will tell details and curiosities regarding the history of the monumental complex, and to admire architectural details of the monuments dedicated to Dante, Machiavelli and Rossini.
During the event it was also possible to try immersive reality applications thanks to special wearable viewers which, in perspective, could allow you to create a real journey inside the Basilica of Santa Croce even remotely, giving further impetus to the development of digital tourism.
The role of TiM Enterprise
With this initiative, TIM creates a unique experience in the tourism and cultural field, thanks to the innovation capacity of TIM Enterprise, with solutions with high development potential for our country, which allow us to broaden the audience of visitors and the quality of the visits themselves artistic and cultural, as they make contents and places more usable and engaging, even those that are not accessible or have been destroyed. The objective is to rediscover, through new technologies, museums, archaeological sites, areas and all the precious and protected places that Italy offers to the world, which can be revisited in an ’emotional’ way by physically entering history without barriers architectural or temporal.
Licensed cover image Depositphotos