The Core Story
Peloton, the fitness giant, looks to realize the enormous potential of digital technology in the aviation industry. With its partnership with Delta Air Lines, in-Flight Peloton Classes with AR VR are being planned.
While Peloton already provides fitness guidance services through smartphone apps and hardware like treadmills and stationary bikes, Delta Air Line’s in-flight entertainment systems look to expand this availability. It also marks the first time that Peloton is providing its services outside the ecosystem of its products.
The company is already providing the availability of five stretching and meditation classes for Delta passengers exclusively. These classes are exclusive custom classes that Peloton will produce for Delta passengers and range in length from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. The company remarks that these classes will help the passengers to relax, stretch and fall asleep during their flight.
These classes will also help to ease travel difficulties occurring when we travel on long-duration flights. In addition, with classes assisting the passengers in relaxing and falling asleep, these classes will also help them reduce and overcome their fear of flights.
These classes are under the supervision of some popular fitness instructors, including Adrian Williams, Chelsea Jackson Roberts, and Matty Maggiacomo. These instructors will also refresh and update these classes every few months. Peloton says that this will help repeat passengers, and they can take new courses every few months.
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Since these classes are exclusive classes for Delta Flight passengers, the company says that these classes will not be available anywhere else. However, since these classes do not require membership of Peloton, it will help expand their reach to new customers.
In a note of this, Peloton’s Chief Content Officer, Jen Cotter, said, “It gives us a chance for people that aren’t Peloton members about this accessibility and that we have the best fitness content in the world.” Cotter also noted, “We know that once someone downloads the Peloton app and tries one of our classes, they’re going to fall in love with Peloton.”
Cotter also remarked that these stretching and meditation classes are in the initial availability package on Delta Airlines flights because Peloton users frequently ask for travel-friendly exercises and fitness guides. Cotter further notes that these classes may not be well known to people but are very important and “critical to anyone’s wellness routine.”
While the financial terms of this collaboration are not open to the public, this partnership is happening while Delta Airlines are revitalizing their in-flight entertainment systems. This revitalization of the in-flight systems is happening now due to the lack of upgrades and changes because of the COVID-19 pandemic for the last two years.
Delta is also collaborating with Spotify, the music streaming giant, to add custom playlists and podcasts to setback televisions in flight in this revitalization. On the other hand, the collaboration with Peleton brings fitness routines as in-flight practices for Delta while bringing border health and fitness availability of its services for Peloton.
The collaboration will also see Peloton move beyond its hardware selling services and more towards its online/digital fitness services. Amid this expansion, Peloton also expands its reach and services towards other ventures like clothing, travel, and tourism.
However, Peloton’s move towards digital fitness guidance services is also huge, with more than 900 thousand subscribers paying for the company’s digital-only membership.
While this is not an AR/VR solution, it marks another big positive step towards digitizing in-flight consumer experience in the aviation industry.
Before we discuss how AR and VR enhance this development further, we must first understand these technologies.
How Are In-Flight Peloton Classes with AR VR Possible?
Both AR and VR are immersive reality technologies that enable immersive experiences on various levels of reality.
AR enables the enhancement of the real world with the help of various digital elements, effectively augmenting the real world. This enhancement combines different digital elements like sound, visuals, graphics, overlays, and sensory feedback like haptics. These digital elements and information all work together to provide a sense of immersiveness in the new “augmented world ” to the user.
The AR system delivers this information and elements while blending them with the real world to enhance it effectively. Currently, you can find various kinds of devices such as AR glasses, smart camera apps, and different AR kits that can provide multiple levels of AR experiences to the user.
VR, on the other hand, enables an entirely virtual experience in a virtual world. VR enables a 3D virtual world with its environment containing various digital elements such as sounds, additional graphics, and sensory elements like haptics. VR effectively blends these elements in the virtual world to immerse the user entirely and make them feel like they are a part of this virtual world.
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VR systems are more common in availability and accessibility than AR devices due to the simplicity of VR, which only requires a high fidelity display with sensors to detect consumer movements.
However, AR systems like AR camera apps that provide various AR experiences with overlays of different digital elements are prevalent. They are more common than any VR device or system. It is also due to the high availability of smartphones with cameras in the general consumer space.
Various kinds of VR devices are available in the market today. VR headsets from different brands like Microsoft’s HoloLens, PlayStation VR, Facebook’s Oculus VR, etc., provide VR content to consumers.
How can AR/VR complement this Development?
Industry 4.0 is already setting its foot in the current landscape of technology and industrial applications. Various industries worldwide are moving towards digital technologies like AR and VR to prepare themselves for the digital revolution coming forth Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR).
AR and VR are two emerging technologies with capabilities to revolutionize whole industries and immersive experiences in different applications. They are rapidly evolving with the power to empower enterprises with the potential to streamline their services & operations, enhance their capabilities and provide their services more effectively & efficiently.
While companies and industries are more than eager to integrate or use these technologies for product innovation, research, and development, one of the most critical and revolutionary applications of AR and VR is enhancing consumer experience and AR/VR training. With the acceptance of these emerging technologies increasing among industrialists and general consumers, AR/VR training is also slowly gaining mainstream market.
This increase in the market is happening not only for AR/VR training but also for the whole industry of immersive technologies like AR, VR, and MR. Studies show that the global market for AR and VR will cross 30.7 Billion US Dollars in 2021. Researchers further predict that this figure will rise exponentially to reach more than 300 Billion US Dollars by 2024. It shows high expectations from AR/VR technologies, but companies are also consequently moving to adopt and integrate them.
Companies adopt these technologies to enhance consumer experience and a digital upgrade in their product innovation, design, and development. Since various digital technologies and AR/VR have a massive potential in the Aviation Industry, companies adopt these technologies accordingly.
The adoption of digital technology in the aviation industry is only just the start. The intention behind digital in-flight entertainment systems is pretty straightforward: provide passengers with an immersive experience that will help to enhance their experience during the flight more. And for this, AR/VR technology is a perfect match.
With the immersive capabilities of AR and VR technology, airlines will be able to fully immerse their passengers in a different world or even in the real world with its augmentation. For instance, passengers can watch various VR content and interact with them during their flight. Moreover, airlines can develop AR windows that provide various information about the flights and the scenarios visible outside the window with AR. Thus, it will boost the interactivity of the passengers with the in-flight systems and provide a completely new immersive experience.
Such systems will be able to immerse the passengers in virtual or real worlds completely. It will also enable airlines to reduce the fear of flights among people, not just passengers in-flight but also potential customers outside. Since many people do not travel by air due to their fear of air travel, AR/VR experience of flights or AR/VR training can eliminate these fears.
Either by training or by positive virtual experience through AR/VR, this can significantly help to reduce fares of air travel among people. In addition, this will also boost airlines sales by eliminating fear or the increase in enthusiasm for flight among people. Ultimately, AR/VR will bring considerable advantages in air travel for consumers and their in-flight experience and airlines by economically enhancing the grade of service and expertise they provide to their consumers. Consequently, FS Studio encourages companies to adopt digital technologies and AR and VR technology in their respective industries and applications, like In-Flight Peloton Classes. For this, FS Studio provides a range of innovative solutions and R&D technologies for various digital technologies, including AR/VR with state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence at its core.
