Delivering the Immersive Fitness experience
IMMERSIVE FITNESS THE TRIP™ is Les Mills’ premium GroupX cycling class and the most innovative fitness experience on the market. It’s available at 60+ sites worldwide with 16 in the UK – 15 of which have been designed and delivered exclusively by Hutchison-t. We’ve been the national technology partner of choice to Les Mills since the UK’s very first immersive installation at David Lloyd Raynes Park, and are the UK’s most prolific and experienced integrators of immersive fitness solutions. In the first of a two-part series, we walk you through the technical delivery of the multisensory trip, and reveal how our tech enhancements are leading the charge in the UK’s immersive projection revolution.
The Project
THE TRIP is a live instructor-led indoor cycling class that immerses riders in a virtual world of mind-bending video content synchronised to the beat. The idea is to engage the senses on so many levels you forget you’re working so hard.
Using a combination of Les Mills’ powerful forward-motion video content, finely calibrated AV, and our seamless technology integration, riders are transported into a semi-hypnotic immersive state that helps them reach their absolute fitness limit.
Delivering the Core Spec
Les Mills have produced a brand standard set of studio specifications as the basis of THE TRIP. Collaborating closely with the client, the team at Les Mills, and Les Mills’ global technology implementation partner, we come up with a bespoke immersive audio-visual solution built around this framework – one to suit each studio’s specific needs and maximise the space.
To ensure a flawless installation, our teams are on hand from the get-go producing all technical and artistic designs, delivering high quality technical drawings, liaising with local and national contractors, and providing on-the-ground user training to ensure every studio delivers a first-rate IMMERSIVE FITNESS experience.
When it comes to hardware, the first thing you need is a screen. The dimensions of your room will ultimately dictate the size, but it has to be cinema-spec and curved so your peripheral vision is engaged. Next, projectors. The bigger the screen the more you need (West Wood’s Westmanstown Club in Dublin reigns supreme with 3 projectors and a colossal 15-metre screen, though Les Mills have recently approved an alternative cinematic solution using a single projector and flat floor-to-ceiling screen if you’re limited by budget or space).
Prior to installation, our engineers survey every site to identify environmental factors that could interfere with the meticulous alignment of the projectors (vibration from a nearby free weight area or adjacent GroupX space is a common culprit). If needed, we’ll then be able to specify from a variety of solutions, ranging from anti-vibration brackets to fully customised mounting frames.
Once the studio is prepped, our in-house specialists use ultra advanced Panasonic Laser Light Source projectors and Panasonic Geometry Manager Pro software. These ensure crisp, expertly calibrated images which conform to the curvature of the screen, with seamlessly blended and colour-matched edges where the images overlap.
Finally, for rich, clean music that reinforces the immersive “cocoon”, Hutchison-t acoustically primes each studio to cope with loud high-intensity sound. Coupled with a precision-positioned premium sound system to minimise music and instructor speech reverberation, this creates a smooth and uninterrupted musical journey to match the visual trip.
In part two, we discuss our bespoke high-level enhancements, and why operators including Les Mills’ national HQ, David Lloyd Clubs, Alliance Leisure, Clifford Health Clubs, the West Wood group, and Village Hotels across the UK and Ireland choose us to deliver their most unique and authentic immersive fitness experiences.
