Music is an essential component of a good workout which contributes to the success of a fitness studio. It helps to create a motivational atmosphere, distracts people from pain and fatigue, increases endurance and promotes metabolic efficiency. Most importantly, it makes working out much more enjoyable! Thus, it is crucial to pay attention to details of your sound systems. For members to smash their fitness goals, your sound system has to suit the atmosphere and facilities in your gym well. Let us take a look at some of the key considerations of a sound system in both physical and virtual settings!

Important Considerations 

Apart from the equipment and facilities of your studio, providing an excellent sound experience is a significant part of the workouts. Customizing a sound system for your gym that meets different workout needs is a thoughtful and yet satisfying process. Knowing which considerations to keep in mind when customizing your gym’s audiovisual systems will help you create viable solutions to cater to individual, private, couple and group workout sessions.

Sound system for physical classes

The first thing to note for your sound system in a physical class would be the ease of use and connectivity. A good sound system would be highly compatible across multiple devices. It should also enable you to connect easily through bluetooth, with zero or minimal disruptions during usage. Another key thing to note would be the clarity of instructors’ voices, which should be balanced out with the background music. Members should be able to hear both the music and instructor without straining their ears. Next would be the placement and accessibility of the sound system which affects sound quality. It is not feasible to place speakers in every corner in the room and obtaining professional advice will help you to ensure that there is an equal distribution of sound within your studio space to avoid the creation of hot and cold spots. These professionals will design the speaker’s placement after taking factors like the room size and ceiling height into consideration. With regards to accessibility, instructors should be able to have control of the sound system at any point of time during the workout. We chanced upon Absolute Sound Distribution which carries a wide variety of audio products for home and commercial entertainment systems. Some of the many projects done by them include Box Office Fitness, F45 studio Alexandra, Pebble Bay Condo Gym and Aloha Cycle Club, KL. 

Sound system for virtual classes

When it comes to virtual classes, there are different factors affecting your members’ experiences. Without professional sound systems in the studio, you can enhance the virtual workouts by using a proper microphone that is purpose-built for audio recording. For streaming and recording of classes, it would be good to have smartphones with a high resolution camera. A device with a larger screen such as a laptop would be necessary for live classes, such that instructors are able to observe members’ activity and correct their postures during the sessions. Not to mention, an ideal environment with minimal background noises for filming would enhance clarity of instructions during workout. Last but not least, when posting up your recorded lessons, do note that music in your videos should be licensed or owned by you as copyrighted media is prohibited on many platforms.

When it comes to retention of members, building the right sound system creates good workout experiences which would enhance retention rates. A one-size-fits-all approach would not work well hence it is important to know the needs of your studio and members in order to customize your audio systems.

This article is written by Lim Wan Qi.