With 50 locations, mostly in the New York Metropolitan Area, and a goal of 300
locations by 2020, Blink Fitness is growing quickly. The low-cost subsidiary of Equinox
Fitness, Blink gyms focuses on service and cleanliness, without the extras found at the
luxurious Equinox gyms. You won’t find a sauna or a steam room; you aren’t provided
with a towel. But you do get high-quality service and equipment in a clean, friendly
environment. And of course, you get workout music, which is carefully selected to
provide the beat and level calculated to keep you motivated.

In this environment, it’s important that the staff be able to easily get music into the
sound system without having to think about the technology involved. To that end, the
team at system integrator Advance Sound of Farmingdale, New York, designed sound
systems for Blink gyms that accept Bluetooth input via Attero Tech unBT2A single-
gang, Decora style, Bluetooth audio receiver wall plates.

“In addition to the large rooms, some Blink locations have Small Group Training or
SGT rooms,” offers Advance Sound senior engineering manager, Thomas DePace.
“Sometimes the clubs have two of these group fitness rooms, one with a wooden floor
for yoga and the like and another equipped with indoor bicycles for spin classes. The
Attero Tech unBT2A is a very user-friendly device that allows group fitness instructors
to come in, connect their phones using Bluetooth, and play tunes from the phones.”

The unBT2A provides Bluetooth stereo audio input, stereo balanced audio over CAT5
cable, customizable device naming, remote pairing activation, and remote control and
status monitoring via RS-232. Bluetooth is a superior solution to hardwired audio for
Blink’s group rooms, DePace points out because if someone is on a bike or running in
a class, cables can get in the way, break, or simply disappear. At the same time, with
so many clubs, Blink wants district managers and individual venue managers to be
able to work with the sound system and troubleshoot problems as much as possible
without requiring outside help. So the Bluetooth solution needed to be easy to use.

“The Attero Tech unBT2A is integrator-friendly as well as user-friendly,” praises
DePace. “We like that the only thing the user touches is the Pair button. And in
addition to offering easy connectivity, the unBT2A lets us name each device, so when
the clubs have two fitness rooms, instructors know which room they’re connecting to.
Other Bluetooth solutions we tested did not offer device naming.”

The main sound system that Advance Sound installs in Blink gyms employs a Dante
network managed by a pair of Symetrix Prism DSPs. The specific loudspeakers
selected for Blink’s systems vary depending on the design of each space, but in
general DePace’s team specifies JBL Control-series pendants or ceiling speakers.

Although the SGT rooms are tied into the main Dante network, the sound in each
room can be independently operated. “With the DSP, we can set the room levels, so
they’re repeatable and sustainable for every group,” DePace notes. “It’s not like each
instructor changes the settings, and you don’t know what they did. And when there’s
no group in the space, the gym manager can send audio from the main system into
the SGT room. So you can use an instructor’s phone as a source via the unBT2A or tie
the SGT room into the main system.”

Sound system reliability is mission-critical at Blink. “The sound system is so important
to these spaces; you can’t put a ‘scheduled for repair’ sign on it,” DePace points out.
“So our Bluetooth solution had to be reliable. We tested everything from a $30
Bluetooth solution to a $100 solution, and nothing was as dependable and usable as
the Attero Tech unBT2A. With other devices, you would lose connectivity, especially if
the instructor was jumping around and had their phone in their pocket. But the
Bluetooth signal from the Attero Tech unBT2A was very dependable. We did a line-of-
sight test, and we were able to get a strong Bluetooth connection to the unBT2A at a
significant distance, so we were more than comfortable that the end users’ Bluetooth
device would stay connected.”

The Attero Tech unBT2A Bluetooth system has fully proven itself at Blink gyms.
“Blink’s staff and management are very happy with the system’s Bluetooth reliability
and ease of use,” confirms DePace. “Blink is growing, and as they add new locations,
we’ll continue to install unBT2As in their group rooms.”