Giffoni Film Festival, Mitsubishi technology at the service of cinema

The air conditioning system is created by Mitsubishi Electric with solutions specifically designed for the specific environments and activities of the cinema

GIFFONI VALLE PIANA (Salerno) – In Giffoni there is a beautiful climate. The small town among the hills behind Salerno is blessed with an area rich in nature, it is no coincidence that the ancients called it Campania felix.The quality of life is high, a peaceful life, evidently, given that as Wikipedia reports, the town boasts one of the lowest percentages of divorcees in the province.It will be the good air, which remains so even in the rooms of the cultural event that made the name of the center known which is home to just over 11 thousand inhabitants all over the world: the Giffoni Film Festival. It is probably the most important event in the world dedicated to the seventh art because it focuses on young people, and therefore on the future.The festival was born young and from a young man, saw the light in 1971 from an idea of ​​the then eighteen year old Claudio Gubitosi, who is still its director today.

In the rooms you can breathe enthusiasm, both among those who participate as members of the public, jurors or operators of the structure who keep the initiative going all year round and also take it around the world. You can also breathe well outside of metaphor thanks to the air conditioning system created by Mitsubishi Electric with solutions specifically designed for the specific environments and activities of the cinema. These are systems that vary the air supply based on the different moments in the life of a room:before the public enters, during the screening, in the various seasons and different temperatures.Naturally the system must not disturb the viewing of films, therefore the silence must be high and the air flows must also be well directed, to avoid things that happened in the past, with non-optimized jets that made the screen canvas vibrate, with deleterious effects on vision.Everything is controlled by various automated digital systems connected to sensors in the room that give information on the state of the air, its quality, detect humidity and carbon dioxide concentration, for example, and intervene as needed.To go more technical, for the Giffoni structure Mitsubishi Electric has created a customized VRF (Variant Refrigerant Flow) air conditioning system, highly technological and highly energy efficient systems that allow you to save on energy consumption.The one serving the rooms in question works with zone thermoregulation for better comfort management and consumption control.Mitsubishi Electric has installed air handling units (AHU) with precise characteristics. The VRF systems were used in dual modes, primary air management and climate control, both in cooling and heating, in an advanced manner. In fact, they have been combined with remote control systems which, in addition to controlling the temperature, mount sensors to detect humidity, presence and brightness inside the rooms.Mitsubishi Electric's Advanced remote control allows you to control up to 16 indoor units.The aim is to be able to manage functionality and consumption with a view to reducing energy consumption, as well as greater well-being.The remote control is equipped with 4 sensors (temperature, humidity, presence and brightness) which allow the use of advanced control functions.For example, the presence sensor allows energy saving by allowing you to configure different modes based on the logic of presence/absence of people. The air handling units and air conditioning systems continuously exchange information through a network made up of both a dedicated external signal interface module (M-NET bus) and via data network, applying from time to time the different desired values ​​calculated and developed for the structure.The particular intended use of the two buildings of the Multimedia Valley by Giffoni pushed the designers to create a tailor-made system for the structure, acting in particular on the air handling units.The six that serve the projection rooms perform the function of primary air, a double speed, activated carbon filters and electric steam humidifiers were then added inside the units. Considering the peaks of attendance in the rooms during the days of the festival, the units have been sized to manage the mixture and the recirculation of the air and, to support the load, the internal machines of the VRF system have been programmed to intervene in the event of peak power requests.Each unit has been equipped with its own electrical panel which contains, in addition to what is necessary for the typical function of the system, also the regulation and management cards for the notification of states and alarms, the double ventilation speed, the programmable logic controller PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and the machine control board.The Campanian company Tecnoprogetti was responsible for the project.

All this ensures that the system is organized to react to different scenarios:full or empty room, before the screening or during, in summer or winter, if the air is too dry or there is too much carbon dioxide, if it is too cold or too hot. Here, 'too hot' is with us and due to the ongoing climate emergency it will be so in the future too.Last summer, which is struggling to go away, recorded record temperatures, “It has never happened so far, and not even with the 40 degrees of July and August did the scenario of having to turn on the auxiliary systems to lower the temperature arise, it has always remained at optimal levels”, the projectionists report.If during the screening the sensors were to request it, detecting excessive heat or CO2 concentration, the machines furthest from the theaters would still be turned on so as not to disturb the vision in any way.Rather, as soon as the sensors 'see' the lights in the room go off they send the machines a request to activate the 'projection scenario', increasing the silence, while all the other parameters such as temperature, pressure and humidity are constantly kept under control.For Mitsubishi Electric Climatizzazione the Giffoni rooms represent a privileged context in which to test all these applications, given the large number of systems that can be applied.

In short, the meeting between the production company and the cinema house for young people was fruitful.“With some people you create a harmony, an empathy, with Mitsubishi Electric we got along very well and were listened to”, reveals the founder-director of the festival Gubitosi.“A festival that never closes travels around the world, we have recently been to North Macedonia with the Giffoni Macedonia Youth Film Festival, then there will be Georgia and then Tokyo”, he says, “it is a festival for the various generations of young people, we go from the 3-6 year old class through another four up to the over 18 class, which essentially reaches any age".Freed from rigid contexts, as it must be for art and creativity.“Giffoni makes you understand that you don't need big places, we are in the town where I was born”, continues the creator of this exceptional, in the sense of unique, cultural event.“Giffoni is a feeling in which we have involved thousands of young people, and when they arrived here they found themselves in a family”, continues Gubitosi, “the secret is to network and now we are thinking about a media valley with 15 other municipalities”.A project that was born visionary but has become very concrete for the territory, because "here we have 140 young people working permanently, young people who do not emigrate, and we have also attracted some from northern Italy", reports the founder director, and also the accounts, the cheap ones, come back:“for every million invested we return 2.8, these are not things you find every day”.

And it goes on: a 5 thousand square meter cinema museum is under construction to house the history of the festival and the history of cinema, with pieces that are also "witnesses of time". An example?“The projection machine donated in 1951 by the American ambassador to the world premiere of 'Quo Vadis' to Giulio Andreotti, who in turn donated it to us", says Gubitosi, "the original ET by Carlo Rambaldi, another gift, then scripts, memorabilia.A heritage preserved here but which we have donated to the State, to the National Library Service".In short, an intention that goes well with the corporate slogan of Mitsubishi Electric, world leader in the air conditioning of environments with particular attention to the cultural system.There are now several sites of cultural value where the brand has provided its technological excellence, "we like to work on culture and social responsibility activities, we do a lot of them", explains Raffaella Fusetti, Marketing Communication Manager of the Air Conditioning Division of Mitsubishi Electric, "and then we are interested in showing how our technologies, solutions and applications are applied”.In addition to Giffoni, they have been applied, in the cultural sector, to the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan and in the Sala dei Duecento in Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, as well as the entire Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan, where exclusive dedicated visits will be organised. and the Luigi Rovati Foundation.