On-water rowing simulator utilises Bluetooth connectivity

7th November 2022

Insight SiP

Paige West

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Most of us know we should be doing more to build and maintain our fitness. But it’s hard to find the time and summon the motivation to go out to the gym, and few of us have the space for a dedicated gym room at home or want ugly fitness equipment in our living rooms.

Luckily, WaterRower have come up with a solution, which is to build elegant rowing machines out of wood that are more like Scandinavian furniture than something you’d see in a gym, whilst incorporating the latest technology to provide motivational programmes and data driven incentives to train.

As the name implies, the machines don’t use conventional resistance technology but have a tank filled with actual water to provide a realistic rowing experience both in feel and even sound. The high-end look and feel does not however come with compromise on delivering the data driven fitness programmes and fine control that people expect from modern equipment.

WaterRower have selected Insight SIP’s modules to provide Bluetooth connectivity across its product range. The machines can connect to both WaterRower’s own apps and a variety of third-party offerings, including ones with online ‘fitness on demand’ classes to provide that extra incentive to get active. The connectivity to third party apps is based on the FTMS (FiTness Machine Protocol) that runs on top of Bluetooth to provide interoperability between apps and machines.

Current models include Bluetooth connectivity as standard, but as these devices are built to last, existing customers haven’t been forgotten either, with the option to retrofit connectivity via an add on unit.

As well as connecting to a smartphone where a user can assimilate all their fitness data, WaterRower provide its own monitor units linked wirelessly to the rotor, for customer that want a standalone solution.

Chris Footner, Project Design Manager said: “We chose the Insight SIP solution as it offered a high-performance miniature solution that could fit into our existing designs and could also be easily used in our new products whilst taking up minimal PCB space. We also like the fact you had a variety of models all with the same footprint and pinout, which meant we could easily choose the optimum solution for different products without major effort to learn about the different devices. We use the 1507-AX, 1907-LL, and 1907-HT, according to the requirements of each product, and have some new ideas for future developments.”

Nick Wood, Sales, and Marketing Director for Insight SIP said: “We are delighted that WaterRower’s chose our devices for their connectivity solutions. These really are great looking machines, and we look forward to working with them on their future developments.”