ICG World Tour is a new collaboration with our friends at Indoor Cycling Group that features beautiful scenic rides and inspiring workouts designed by master trainer Jim Karanas. Each World Tour workout is carefully designed to reflect its unique terrain, so that a ride through the Italian Alps is a completely different experience than a ride on the Seattle waterfront. Virtual Active's compelling visuals combined with Coach Karanas's immersive narration will have you feeling the heat on your face as you grind through Death Valley and the wind at your back as you coast down Timmelsjoch.

ICG World Tour is replacing our Virtual Active Advanced Cycle line. We've re-imagined the indoor cycling experience and designed a new product that is substantially better. In addition to an improved workout format, we've included two thirty minute expeditions with each DVD and download. The DVD features the option to play the two workouts consecutively for a sixty minute ride. Basic rides are also available for those who want to enjoy the scenery alone. The first series includes American Southwest, Northern Italy, Pacific Northwest, and Wild California.

Connect18 is an innovative mind-body fitness program designed to bring physical training, world travel, and learning together for a powerful multimedia exercise experience.  The program alternates intervals of high-intensity road segments that challenge the body, and lower-intensity learning tours that engage the mind.  With Connect18 you’ll get a workout, take a trip, and learn about a language, culture, or subject of interest.

The French Caribbean Tour is a six-part series that takes you to the island of Guadaloupe, where you'll learn about the local culture, environment, and language, all in the course of a moderate interval workout.  Full of colorful characters, beautiful roads, and immersive French language instruction, the program will make your workout fly by.  You'll even have a chance to test your French in fun, engaging quizzes.  With six forty-five minute workouts for one low price ($39.99 DVD, $29.99 download), The French Caribbean Tour is also a great value.  Bon voyage!

Another great Virtual Active-powered product has arrived.  Johnson Health Tech has announced the launch of the Passport Player.  Passport is the first Virtual Active offering that interacts directly with home fitness equipment.  The set-top media player features HD Virtual Active programs that communicate wirelessly with select Livestrong and Advanced Fitness Group equipment (the LSPRO2 and AFG 7.1 AT, respectively), adjusting the treadmill's incline to match the climb you see on your television, and adjusting the playback speed of the video to match the speed you set on your treadmill.  With Passport and the Livestrong/AFG treadmills, you'll feel the terrain change under your feet, and reach the top of the mountain sooner by running faster.

The Passport comes packed with two Virtual Active run programs: The American Southwest and Northern Italy.  Additional videos will be available for purchase at www.passportplayer.com.  For more information on Passport-compatible equipment, visit www.afgfitness.com or www.livestrongfitness.com.

Important Note: 

The Virtual Active Home downloads sold at www.vafitness.com will not work interactively with the Passport Player.  The downloads sold here are simple video files designed to playback at a single speed on your computer, tablet, media player, or portable device.  The Passport is a distinct platform, designed for use with a particular set of home fitness products, and passport-compatible videos can only be downloaded from the Passport Player website.  We apologize for any confusion that may have occurred regarding this new offering.

Virtual Active has teamed up with San Francisco-based Bit Gym to produce a new Virtual Active experience, designed explicitly for Apple iOS devices, such as the iPad.  The app includes speed-interactivity, meaning the faster you run, the faster the video plays back, and the faster you reach the top of the mountain.  Want to slow down to check out some scenic detail?  Slow your pace and the video will slow down with you.  Need to take a break?  Stop running and the video will stop and wait patiently for you to proceed.  The team at Bit Gym has done a great job implementing this technology.

This new app, dubbed Virtual Active: Bit Gym Edition, is available now in the iOS App Store.  The free application is packed with a short sample video, so you can give the speed-interactivity a test drive.  It is compatible with treadmills, bikes, and ellipticals.  Ten full-length Virtual Active Run videos are available as in-app purchases for $7.99 a piece.  We plan to add more features, more content, and new experiences to this fantastic new platform in the coming year.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire -12/14/11)- Netpulse, Inc., the leading provider of personalized interactive media for fitness centers and active lifestyle consumers, announced today the acquisition of Virtual Active, a San Francisco-based media company that produces exercise-focused, virtual reality products. As a part of the acquisition, the entire Virtual Active team will be joining Netpulse, also based in San Francisco, to develop the most engaging exercise media experiences available for active people. 

With the acquisition, Netpulse expands its fast-growing platform which provides consumers worldwide with engaging content and data regarding their fitness experience. Netpulse has partnerships with seven of the leading commercial fitness equipment manufacturers, accounting for over 73% of global fitness equipment sales to health clubs. In addition, the Netpulse platform is available to consumers outside health clubs via mobile devices and home fitness products.

The Virtual Active team films and produces high-definition runs and rides through famous locations around the world. Shot from a first-person perspective, the films transport exercisers to trails and paths in breathtaking destinations like the Swiss Alps, Northern Italy, the Black Forest, Rocky Mountains, and famous cityscapes like Los Angeles, Chicago, Berlin, and Venice. Soon, exercisers will even be able to experience renowned events like classic cycling races and famous marathons around the world.

"Virtual Active's engaging content and propriety methods combined with Netpulse's patented technology creates an incredibly powerful platform that provides tremendous benefits to our OEM partners, health clubs, and exercisers," said Netpulse CEO and Co-Founder, Bryan Arp. "With the Virtual Active acquisition, 2012 is going to be an explosive year of growth for us as we integrate sponsored events, social competitions, and other gamification elements into our interactive media solution."

"We are extremely excited to be joining the Netpulse team," said John Ford, president and founder, Virtual Active. "The broad distribution of the Netpulse platform means even more exercisers will experience the unique Virtual Active content, allowing us to do more with it than ever before."

Mark Zabel, vice president, global marketing and product development, Johnson Health Tech, one of the largest manufacturers of commercial and home fitness equipment worldwide, said, "We have worked with Netpulse and Virtual Active separately to provide interactive media experiences on our products to the delight of our customers. We think this marriage is a perfect fit, and we are excited to see what they deliver next to drive further consumer engagement."

About Netpulse
Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Netpulse, Inc. is a media and data services company focused on delivering dynamic, interactive products and experiences to active lifestyle consumers. Integrating a rich history in technology, fitness, and media, Netpulse delivers a personalized media experience that makes exercising more enjoyable and rewarding. Netpulse media products, which are available through exercise equipment in fitness centers and through mobile applications, provide advertisers with direct one-on-one access to a highly engaged audience that is difficult to reach through traditional media. Netpulse investors include Javelin Venture Partners and DFJ Frontier. For more information, please visit www.netpulse.com, and, for additional information on Virtual Active products, please visit www.vafitness.com. Netpulse + Virtual Active Video: http://vimeo.com/33630632.

Virtual Active is proud to add another great fitness media product to our library.  Connect18 is an innovative mind-body fitness program designed to bring physical training, travel, and learning together for a powerful multimedia exercise experience.  The program alternates intervals of high-intensity road segments that challenge the body, and lower-intensity learning tours that engage the mind.  With Connect18 you’ll get a workout, take a trip, and learn about a language, culture, or subject of interest, all from your treadmill, bike, or elliptical.

Connect18 makes its vafitness.com debut with the California Wine Tour.  This series of six 45-minute varietal-themed classes will take you down the country roads and through the quaint towns of California’s Central Coast.  Along the way, you’ll stop at wineries and vineyards, hear from winemakers, and participate in quizzes that test your wine knowledge, all while you workout.  You’ll stay fit and sound like a genuine oenophile at your next dinner party.  Enjoy over four hours of cardio entertainment for only $39.95 (DVD) or $29.95 (download).

Learn and burn,
Virtual Active