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Concept
VirtualGym TV
Summary
VirtualGym TV was a live broadcasting and on-demand online gym, which provided access to hundreds of exercise classes.
The company was created to help address the global obesity crisis, which faces the UK, and the wider general population. One of the key reasons for this is that more than 85% of the adult population, either can't, won't or don't visit a gym or health club in order to participate in regular exercise. The typical barrier to participation are personal reasons such as self-consciousness, intimidation, cost, and flexibility. The "delivery solution" from VirtualGymTV was designed to permit on-demand access to exercise to eliminate these participation barriers.
The company reached out to an audience of in excess of 130,000 retail and corporate users.
The idea was founded when the then Managing Director, Richard Davis, was having a conversation with a high level instructor colleague, where at the time, the only real options were to either create a Fitness DVD and distribute it in the normal way, or to broadcast on the television. Coming from a background in Employee Benefits, Davis developed what is primarily a corporate benefit for large scale, fragmented workforces, but was accessible by the wider general public as well.
The company continued to grow and by the summer of 2008, it formed a strategic alliance with the major sportswear manufacturer, Asics. More recently, they had achieved approval from the Department of Health and are a delivery partner of the Change4Life and MoreActive4Life social obesity campaigns (NHS) before they closed down. They also worked in partnership with their alcohol limits campaign, and the business awareness campaign with the FIA (Fitness Industry Association).
The product's core functionality relied on a specialized software named 'Virtual Personal Trainer' (VPT). This software was designed to collect an array of physiological and psychological data, which was subsequently analyzed by the VPT to generate personalized exercise recommendations.
Official source
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