Historical milestone

Before its foundation in 2004

The foundation of Beta Nit is indelibly linked to simulation of natural light on scale models.

In 1994, Giulio Maria Podestà build a manual wooden heliodon to experiment the sun exposure of a building which was about to be build in the centre of Milan. The project was developed for the Technology of Architecture course.

In 1997/8, Podestà graduated with honours with a project based on the design and construction, on his own, of a steel and wooden prototype, partially operating, of a new artificial sky, so called scanning, because the sky was made up of parts that were reproduced using a scanning process which decomposed it in more than 140 round parts. The prototype, which is made of a steel bolt-on frame and wooden infills was successively refined in its electronic commands.

In the following years, Podestà improved the electronic part of the artificial sky which proved to be not strong enough. The engine commands were operated by microcontrollers to increase performance and reduce costs. At the same time, he also developed the first lighting technology projects.

Member of the augenvi team In 2001, he put together a working group, initially called IEM (International Environmental Machines) and then augenvi (augmented environment).

In 2002, the team took part in the Business Plan competition of Turin consortium I3P and in the Piacenza Produce Innovazione competition organised by the Associazione degli Industriali di Piacenza (Piacenza Industrialists’ Association). In the same year, the team won an annual scholarship for the start of a business with a high content of innovation sponsored by Spinner, a body of the Emilia Romagna Regional Authority. The augenvi team was based in San Giorgio Piacentino.

Fortronic 2003 In 2003 the augenvi team took part in its first exhibition Fortronic 2003 in Padua, where the marketing manager illustrated its technological and business project to the audience of Arena Progetto Innovazione.

2004. The start-up

From the initial group of nine people, Podestà and two other partners set up Beta Nit srl (see press release of 7th March 2004).

In 2004 the industrial estate in San Rocco al Porto, was organised with administration offices and technical departments for mechanical and lighting technology design (see press release of 6 December 2004).

Most of the machines are computers with Linux operating system. The remainder minority uses Windows XP. We also have laptops with Windows Vista and Mac OS X to check multi-platform applications.

The company structure is based on an IT system with three layers and is supported by two local Linux servers:

An integrated management system for external communication combines telephone, fax, email, answer phone and project management (allocation of tasks, calendar, reporting and monitoring).
A document management system which is accessible through standard network protocols (webdav, ftp, smb, https) both within the network and (intranet) from outside (internet).
A corporate wiki system for project documents.
An integrated accounting management system which allows for multiple users and platforms and can be accessed with restricted use also from the outside.

2005/6. Technological development and promotion

In 2005, the partners transferred the ownership of the light simulator patent to Beta Nit (press release of 10 January 2005). Promotional activities started at this time, combined with technological development.

Stand R2B 2005 In February 2005, Beta Nit took part, upon invitation of the Spinner Consortium and of the Catholic University Sacro Cuore, in the first edition of the R2B 2005 Exhibition in Bologna (see press release of 18 February 2005). During the show, the news of national TV channel La7 showed part of our simulation at the stand.
At the same exhibition the company’s project was presented at the conference Innovazione e Made in Italy. La ricerca incontra l'impresa (Innovation and Made in Italy. Research meets businesses): this attracted particular interest by ENEA (Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Environment).

Poster In April 2005, Beta Nit participated in the electronics exhibition Fortronic in Padua with the Spinner Consortium.

IENA 2005 In November 2005, Beta Nit participated in the IENA 2005 international fair in Nuremberg (press release of 10 October 2005). At this fair, the first 1W white LED illuminator, made up of 100 elements was shown in operation, as integral part of the artificial sky (called Sun and Sky Compact Simulator), in operation. A silver medal was awarded to the company as evidence of the interest, also a commercial interest in the technological solutions presented (press release of 5 November 2005).

In 2006 Beta Nit participated in more public events.

Scintille di futuro In February, Beta Nit participated in Scintille di futuro (Sparkles of Future) at Palazzo Farnese, Piacenza (press release of 23 February 2006) an exhibition of new local technologies.
In March the exhibition terminated with the conference Eco del Futuro (Echo of the Future) attended by public administrators and local businessmen who discussed about sustainable development and the available tools. (press release of 1 March 2006).

Sun and Sky Compact Simulator In April, the company attended the international fair Light + Building in Frankfurt (press release of 28 March 2006). The simulator of natural light attracted the attention of researchers and scientists who came from all over the world, but in particular from Asia and expressed great interest and admiration. The working device, even if it did not have a data collection system, was shown to many selected potential customers.

In May, Beta Nit returned, for the second time, to Bologna at R2B, this time as a guest of Spinner and Aster (press release of 19 April 2006).

EuroSun 06 In June, Podestà introduced the project of the artificial sky (see press release of 25 May 2006) to the qualified audience of the EuroSun 2006 conference in Glasgow.

In November, the artificial sky was presented to another international conference: AIDI in Venice (press release of 25 September 2006).

In December, the event organiser Spazio Service invited Beta Nit to take part in an educational exhibition at the scientific laboratories of LEAP (press release of 14 November 2006). At this fair a small booth was set up where visitors could leave drawings and writings about what the sky evoked for them. More than 500 documents were collected in a little more than a month.