At the turn of the century, automated mechanical bell-ringers
replaced humans to strike massive bells across many churchs in Italy.
Now, over a hundred years later, an Italian company is putting a new
technological twist on that upgrade by allowing church bells, and
recordings of bells to be activated remotely via smartphone.
RC TouchBell is a wireless bell-activating system, developed by
Rubagotti Carlo, a company in the north Italian region of Lombardy.
Giacomo and Luca Rubagotti are bell restorers who got together with
their childhood friend, Giorgio Campiotti, an IT expert, to create a
system to cater to the needs of modern clergy.
"Today there are fewer and fewer priests in Italy," said Campiotti in
an interview with Deutsche Welle, "and they often have to look
after two or three churches. So a remote system can help a priest who
has to be in two or three places at the same time."
The company pioneered the RC TouchBell in 2008, installing
easy-to-use touch screens in many local churches. The system is
electronically connected to the hammers which hit the bells to make them
ring. It is able to store hundreds of chime combinations in its memory,
which can be selected and activated at the touch of a button, or
programmed to ring at the same time every day.
In recent months, the company has expanded that technology so that
priests or other church officials can activate that same system
remotely simply by using an application on their iPhone, even if
they're many kilometers away from the church.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: A new iPhone app allows priests to activate the church bells from anywhereRC TouchBell looking to expand in Italy, abroad
Since its launch, the touch screen system has been a major local success.
"At the moment, we have about 50 clients in northern Italy,"
Campiotti added. "and we're looking for an international distributor of
our product."
His associate, Giacomo Rubagotti, has the bell tradition in his
genes. The company he now runs with his brother, Luca, was founded by
their father, Carlo Rubagotti, who was one of the first bell restorers
to introduce motorized bells to Italian churches.
Rubagotti noted that, in spite of their old-fashioned image, the
Italian clergy are really quite interested in modern technology.
"Priests are very attracted to new technology and digital systems”,
he said while laughing. "One priest friend of mine has three cellular
phones: one iPhone, one Blackberry and one Nokia system. He loves
high-tech!"
In fact, now the company has developed the mobile phone bell
technology, they are already receiving requests to modernize the system
further.
"One priest on Lake Como asked me if we could set up a remote control
system that could be operated from the main diocese management office,"
Rubagotti said. "All the church bells in the entire Como province could
then be rung from there."
The system has other benefits too, thanks to high quality recordings
of real bells made directly in church bell-towers, and speakers with
top-of-the range sound diffusion technology. Modern churches built
without bell towers can now enjoy the realistic sound of chimes, using
the RC TouchBell system to activate virtual instead of real bells.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Chiari is the only church in Italy besides St. Peter's in Rome to have 11 bells instead of the usual eightLocals are happy with the system
In the neighboring small town of Nave, the parish priest, Don Giuseppe, is very enthusiastic.
"We used to have a really bad old system of recorded bells, which was
always breaking down and sounded awful," he said. "These bells sound
much more realistic and they're really easy to use."
And locals are also more than satisfied with the solution.
"I like them!", said a local woman in Nave, "Whether they're real bells or not, I don't mind. I like them!"
Author: Dany Mitzman
Editor: Cyrus Farivar
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5862022,00.html
