Icareus and Let’s Virtual bring popular Lavis group exercise classes as a paid online video service

Helsinki, 23.04.2020 Icareus and partner Let’s Virtual have released a new paid LAVIS-TV group exercise online video service. Through the service, thousands of enthusiasts will be able to participate in classes and exercise from home.  

The coronavirus pandemic knocked on the Finnish field of sports services when group exercise and various group meetings were banned and people stayed in their homes. This was also experienced by Lavis-Lavatanssijumppa Oy, which runs LAVIS group exercise classes and trains instructors all over Finland. The company had to quickly get a solution to serve its enthusiastic hobbyist, but at the same time also commercialize its content. The starting point of the service was to compensate for lost group sports income and get a new service to bring new growth to the company.

LAVIS combines the best pieces of dancing with group exercise classes. The lessons move without a couple of stage dances with familiar steps to the beat of hump, waltz, foxtrot, rock, jive, Cha-Cha-Chan and samba, among others. There are more than four hundred trained instructors in more than sixty locations, and there are thousands of passionate enthusiasts of dance and exercise in Finland.

Lavis’ CEO, Ms Sirkku Pusa, says: “The coronavirus pandemic hit us as dramatically as probably did all other sports service providers. Fortunately, we had been in touch with Let’s Virtual before and discussed setting up our own online video service. Therefore, it was possible to design and implement LAVIS TV on a fast schedule in this exceptional situation. We have received a lot of positive feedback about this service and for many it has been a breather in this situation when hobbies are on a break everywhere”.

From a service perspective, the Lavis hobby required a reliable Icareus Suite cloud-based video service with a user interface that could be easily customized to meet the Lavis brand and needs. The user interface also had to be responsive so that videos and content could be viewed on all different browser-based terminals, such as a computers, mobile phones and tablets.

In order to commercialize the service, the following were introduced:

• Icareus Suite user registration and subscriber management
• Live channel streaming with event EPG data
• Seven (7) days catch-up TV of past exercises
• Content packaging modules as well as Suite voucher payment
• Bamboran payment services that support credit / debit card payments, online banking and billing for both one-time and monthly subscription fees.

In addition, the entire user interface had to be embeddable as part of the Lavis homepage so that users felt that they were using the Lavis service. A combination of all of these gave birth to a Lavis TV. The service was launched to everyone for a free two-week period, after which it was made chargeable.

Mr Tero Hiltunen, Marketing Director of Let’s Virtual Ltd commented: “We have worked with Icareus before and we knew they had the speed, flexibility and experience to implement a new paid video service, even with days of notice. What is also important to us as a service operator is fast and competent communication between us, the technology and the content provider – and that is what it has been. When everything works, it is also seen commercially in turnover and earnings.”

Icareus CEO Mr Toni Leiponen commented on the editorial: “Lavis was a sports hobby unknown to me, but it has been great to get to know this sport, find a wide and passionate circle of enthusiasts around it and be building a new video service for their needs”.

In addition to the released Lavis TV, Let’s Virtual is partnering with Icareus to launch new services with other sports and content providers in the near future.

Icareus Suite is an online video service (Online Video and TV platform, OVTP) that allows both companies and other content owners to manage and distribute their video content on all end devices. Icareus Suite is Europe’s most versatile online video cloud, used by TV channels, operators, companies, public organizations and SME enterprises. Icareus Suite offers a number of optional features such as live streaming, video-on-demand streaming services, customizable video portals, webinar events, social media utilization via YouTube or Facebook simulcasts, centralized social media video sharing, subscriber management, own ads management, payment wall to download videos from your mobile phone to the service.

Utilizing the Icareus Suite video cloud, Icareus also offers companies and public organizations a ready-made, but branded, secure and easy-to-use Icareus Enterprise Video service.

Read more:  https://icareus.com/online-video-and-tv-platform/ and https://icareus.com/solutions/icareus-enterprise-video/

Let’s Virtual Ltd is a Finnish start-up company that promotes the well-being of employees of corporate customers and the vibrancy and quality of life of elderly and senior citizens through sports video services. Let’s Virtual currently operates in Finland, but aims to open business abroad in the coming year. The owners of the company are VLMedia Ltd and private individuals. More information: http://www.letsvirtual.com/

Lavis-Lavatanssijumppa Ltd is a Finnish company offering sports services. In 2014, the company’s CEO and founder Sirkku Pusa and partner Johanna Partanen jointly developed the hugely popular LAVIS stage dance workout, which combines the best pieces of dance with group exercise classes. The classes feature dancing without a couple of stage dances to the familiar steps. There are about a hundred trained instructors in more than sixty locations. “Lavis” is a registered trademark. More information: https://www.lavis.fi

Icareus Ltd is an online video technology and broadcast TV specialist founded in 2001 and having offices in Finland and Spain. Icareus provides video cloud solutions and trusted broadcast TV platforms and our solutions are enjoyed by millions of consumers via our broadcaster, operator, OTT and OVP customers in over 60 countries.  Combining online and broadcast has been the core of our activities over almost two decades. We’ve been making the change from linear TV to today’s multi-screen experience.

More information: https://www.icareus.com