Zoom Past Zoom: Launch of PIVOT Yoga Live Classes Transforms Online Yoga Experience

Instant feedback pioneer develops international marketplace to put deeper online learning within reach of every yoga teacher and student

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#betteryoga–The rise of online fitness classes has left millions of students underwhelmed and frustrated by livestreaming tools designed more for business meetings than movement classes like yoga. In its quest to put an end to unsatisfying online classes, PIVOT Yoga from TuringSense launches its Live Classes today to ring in a new era of transformative online yoga experience, a one-stop marketplace and community, and detailed teacher feedback for students.¹

Whether it’s honing your individual practice or a group practice with far-flung friends, PIVOT Yoga live classes are affordable, accessible, and taught by respected teachers like Ro Nwosu, Leah Ward, and founding PIVOT Yoga Teacher Molly Grace from the US, Canada, and Sweden. All the student needs is the latest version of the PIVOT Yoga student app found in the Apple Store. For a video demonstration of a PIVOT Yoga class, click here.

Developed with feedback from hundreds of teachers and students, the PIVOT Yoga student app’s key innovations lie in solving many longstanding frustrations yoga students and teachers have faced using online meeting platforms to livestream yoga classes:

• Teaching Videos: Instead of watching teachers teach from a mat, students enjoy full attention from their PIVOT Yoga instructor as she controls playback of a pre-recorded video she shot, is re-using, or licensed to demonstrate poses. The student sees the teaching video play along with a live inset video of the teacher as she guides them. The student’s view of the teaching video is much sharper and easier to grasp than pose demonstration in typical livestreaming classes, which struggle with bandwidth optimization.
• Avatar View: An important roadblock for students is lack of visibility. If most of a student’s body is hidden from the teacher’s view, she will not receive accurate feedback. For each student wearing a smart PIVOT Yoga Shirt and Pant featuring “barely there” sensors, the teacher can view on demand a live 3D student avatar updating 50 times a second. This display allows the teacher to see any side of the student’s pose, including an overhead view, and works the same regardless of the student’s lighting conditions or phone placement.
• Highlights & Kudos: Students will also appreciate how their teachers can use a rich set of feedback tools, even if they are not wearing the PIVOT Yoga Shirt and Pant. For example, during class, the student may receive a congratulatory “Kudo,” a brief animation on the student’s phone. During the warmdown at the end of class, students can discuss Highlights, teachable moments from the class captured earlier by the teacher. Students can also receive Highlights by email after class.
• Rich Annotations: Students will also enjoy the teacher’s ability to annotate on any screen that is broadcasted to them — on a teaching video, on a live model’s video, a highlight, or even on a student’s avatar. This is particularly helpful for making alignment-oriented changes to improve a student’s practice.
• Performance Tracking: If a student is wearing the PIVOT Yoga Shirt and Pant during class, her postures are captured automatically and scored per class, overall, and per pose. This information is used to flag milestones for each student — for example, when she does a new pose or reaches a personal best.
• Integrated Pose Lists & Titling: Students will also see pose titles in their experience when a teacher chooses to mark up her teaching video.

Online yoga is here to stay and is part of the larger virtual fitness market, which is forecasted to grow from a $6 billion industry in 2019 to $59 billion by 2027 (Allied Market Research). This is driven no doubt by teachers being forced to develop new habits of teaching online, while studios have been closed. Once they reopen, online group classes are expected to remain critically important even after the global pandemic is over.² So getting the experience right is paramount.

“Online yoga classes could have been a saving grace during the pandemic, but ultimately they proved frustrating,” said Joe Chamdani, TuringSense’s Co-founder and CEO. “We believe in great teachers and great teaching, and transformative experiences for student yogis, but current platforms have failed to deliver. PIVOT Yoga, with our Motion AI and powerful feedback tools, is required to take online yoga classes to where we all want them to be.”

The Technology Behind PIVOT Yoga Live Classes

Starting from its core Motion AI SDK, PIVOT Yoga built its live class experience and teaching tools with extensive customizations on top of the Agora Real-Time Engagement Platform. “We’ve worked with thousands of partners,” said Tony Zhao, CEO & Co-Founder of Agora, Inc. (NASDAQ: API). “And we’re impressed with just how innovative PIVOT Yoga has been in leveraging our RTE platform. We’re incredibly excited about supporting this new product effort.”

Pricing & Availability

PIVOT Yoga Live Classes: Live classes typically start from $7.00 USD per session and will vary, determined by each teacher. All new users can enjoy the discount code LIVE15, which is $15 off their first order of live class credits. Live Class credits may be purchased on the PIVOT Yoga website from students in North America, U.K., Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, New Zealand, Philippines, and Singapore. Each credit costs $1 USD to purchase.

PIVOT Yoga Shirt and Pant: The PIVOT Yoga Shirt and Pant currently retails for $99. To purchase, students must reside in the U.S. or Canada.

PIVOT Yoga Teacher: Teachers, who can literally be from anywhere with internet access, are welcome to join and start managing their classes and payments on the PIVOT Yoga platform. Signup instructions are at pivot.yoga/teacher.

About TuringSense

TuringSense, a pioneer in online movement teaching and intelligent wearable technology, is revolutionizing instruction for all kinds of human movement with its multi-patented 3D digital motion capture technology. Its PIVOT-branded products help consumers track progress and learn faster, in both live and on-demand applications. Founded in 2015 by a founding team of elite-level athletes and research PhDs, the company is venture-backed and based in Santa Clara, CA, the heart of Silicon Valley USA. www.turingsense.com

¹ PIVOT Yoga 2020 Yoga Student Survey (n=270) found that 80% of yoga students are not “very satisfied” with the feedback they get during a class, and 40% effectively never get any feedback at all.

²The PIVOT Yoga 2020 Yoga Teacher Survey (n=100) found that yoga teachers expect online yoga classes to be 6X as important after the pandemic as they were before the pandemic, and that online teaching will be approximately as important as in-studio teaching even after studios are re-opened.

Contacts

SKC, Inc.

Mary Placido

(415) 218-3627

mary@skc-pr.com

SKC, Inc.

Sharon Y. Sim

(415) 420-1889

sharon@skc-pr.com