The newly refurbished Aberdeen Sports Village (ASV) has recently undergone a £500,000 overhaul to enable it to offer a stronger user experience, with digital connectivity at its core.

The site, which reopened at the end of August 2019, has capacity for approximately 9,500 members. Since re-opening, membership has already increased by 17%.

Kris McIntosh, Health & Fitness Development Manager at ASV, says: “We’d come to the end of the lease agreement with our previous partner and knew we needed to update to enhance the atmosphere, modernise kit and, critically, move with industry trends in terms of tracking and usage. We’d seen a number of users considering moving to competitors who’d undergone refurbishments. It was time to up our game in order to compete.”

The key priority was to transform the gym into a modern, connected workout area with everything digitally linked. “Previously, we had limited access to equipment usage information but we didn’t know what kit was being utilised, when or how often. Footfall through the door was where our information stopped,” says Kris.

It’s for this reason that ASV selected Precor’s Preva – which captures workout data from CV machines and enables members to set and track goals, as well as earn virtual motivational badges. “From an operational standpoint, Preva gives us the ability to gather data like never before. We use it to check equipment status daily as well as for weekly and monthly usage reports,” says Kris. “We’ve used Preva to monitor footfall at peak times throughout the day, then scheduled our functional sessions around those peak time to utilise our offering more efficiently. From a maintenance perspective we have access to every piece of kit’s status. This allows us to highlight specific trends and instantly report faults or issues, which decreases downtime dramatically.”

Preva reports for October 2019 showed that ASV members completed 19,682 workouts in 5,550 hours – up 446 hours on the previous month.

Entirely connected
In March 2019, Precor partnered with global technology giant, Sony, to enable the delivery of digital exercise tracking on its strength kit, too. Sony’s Advagym means operators also using Preva can now offer a complete workout tracking journey – Preva stats are automatically downloaded to the Advagym app, giving users an entirely connected gym experience.

Kris says: “Sony Advagym sensors on our strength machines record reps and sets. Members touch their phone to the sensor ‘puck’ to start tracking their workout in real-time, with stats automatically uploaded to the app. I’ve been incredibly impressed. Our PTs and gym staff use the app to increase interaction with members and create bespoke training programmes so customers achieve their goals faster.

“I use the system to monitor utilisation so I know what kit’s being used, how often and when. The insights into user preferences are unreal. I can run reports on every single bit of kit. We had over 1.8 million repetitions across the fixed weight machines throughout September and the highest number of reps was on the cable machine, which clocked a total of 147,366 reps in the first month after opening. These are astonishing statistics.”

Mixing and matching
Based on customer feedback, ASV opted for Precor’s unique mix ‘n’ match on CV offering. “Because we have incredibly high footfall we went for 700-line treadmills for durability and functionally, with the higher grade P82 consoles,” says Kris. “The mix ‘n’ match option was a big part of our decision to work with Precor – it allowed us to adapt to exactly what our customers need but maintain that premium feel.”

Existing members also requested a better functional training area and high intensity equipment, so ASV installed the Assault Range and an Open Format Queenax Training Rig. The member demographic “is anyone and everyone, from students and over 60s to corporate, junior and family memberships,” says Kris.

For this reason running functional Queenax classes on the gym floor is vital for customer engagement. “We run Queenax HIIT, Stretch and Queenax Core. They meet the needs of every member, whatever their starting point – new members are coming in just for these classes. Since October, we’ve seen 54% occupancy and delivered Queenax to hundreds of customers.”

The centres NPS rating – the percentage of people who would recommend ASV to a friend or colleague – has leapt up to 49%, which is considered ‘great’ (0-30 = good, 30-70 = great).


For Kris and his team, the added value of working alongside Precor was their ability to help pull numerous suppliers together.

“Our sales rep Colin has been there right from the start. Always approachable, always helping to liaise with suppliers – from Netpulse and Hutchinson Tech to Marina Training Solutions. He was crucial in getting Advagym up and running,” says Kris. “He was the middle-man that helped hold the whole thing together and his problem-solving abilities were crucial for successful execution.”

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