VMO has launched a suite of new screens in Australia’s first ‘health club of the future’, as the Fitness First health club chain open’s Australia’s first high-tech “connected gym”.

VMO have marked the occasion by installing top notch screen technology and audience engagement software, with 17 screens at Fitness First’s latest health club in Sydney’s new Barangaroo district taking the VMO Active network to 140+ locations with a plan to grow the network by 50 per cent in 2017.

VMO’s managing director Anthony Deeble said, “I’m delighted to add Barangaroo to the growing VMO network. The audience engagement technology is market-leading. Our new screens are also state-of-art in line with the high-value audiences attracted to the health and wellbeing category.”

This is the first major project by VMO since the acquisition of Active Media Group (AMG) in July this year. The expansion brings the total number of screens of VMO’s trans-Tasman network to over 8,500; a figure set to rise in 2017 as VMO continues to deliver a broader digital network at scale.

The “connected gym” boasts intelligent exercise machines that connect to members for a personalised training experience. Members are detected via their mobile phones as soon as they walk into the club, and log in to individual exercise machines which record their workout data.

Deeble added, “This is the first of many VMO Active health clubs that will receive DART. World leading technology that through an Audience Measurement Device anonymously detect viewer’s facial features to assess age, gender and engagement – with precision. In fact this is a world first for the health club industry.”

It’s through DART (Digital outdoor Audience in Real Time) – VMO’s exclusive real time audience measurement system – that VMO has been able to offer advertisers a level of campaign accountability by providing deeper insights and detailed audience data.

“Digital screen technology and insights from audience engagement is what is truly driving growth in our category. VMO is proud to be at the lead when it comes to innovation in both these areas” said Deeble.