Mr Tohiaraki said gym members could choose a fitness class out of a selection such as yoga, combat, or pump-style. The class then begins to play on a big screen.
Up to 10-12 gym-goers can join the session, or wait until that class finishes to choose their own.
"People want to be able to do a group fitness class at a time that suits them," Mr Tohiaraki said.
"They have been extremely popular, it's a real point of difference for the clubs that offer them."
The videos are mostly American but videos produced from Australia, New Zealand and Brazil - including Zumba - will soon be available.
Mr Tohiaraki said instructors were one of the biggest costs for gyms. This system also eliminated the problem of instructors not turning up.
The 24-hour fitness model - low cost without all the extras - is working for Anytime Fitness, with new gyms planned for Tauranga.
"People want a gym membership and then they want to spend in other areas such as Weightwatchers or Jenny Craig or bootcamp," Mr Tohiaraki said.
"They don't want to spend all their money in the gym environment, and they don't want to pay for all the services if they don't use them."
Snap Fitness in Papamoa is extending its gym to offer group fitness classes from July.
Owner Liz Baker said video group fitness classes would be timetabled during peak times, but gym-goers could choose their own video classes outside those times.
"It gives people the flexibility to choose a time of day that suits them."
The new group fitness area will also be used for real-life instructor sessions.
But gyms with in-house instructors were not impressed by the fad.
Lisa Chan, owner of The Gym, said video group fitness was designed to avoid paying wages for a real instructor.
"If I was going to do it off a video, why would I leave my home and risk coming in and someone else was halfway through a video, so you can't do it anyway?
"You can't call it group fitness if it's not a group - it's a big screen in a room."
Overseas instructors on the videos used different terms, and were unable to help gym-goers doing moves incorrectly, she said.
Sue Murphy, manager and group fitness instructor at Oceanblue Health and Fitness Club, Papamoa, said she did not understand the concept of video group fitness sessions.
"I'd be really surprised if it's popular.
"When you teach a class, you take your personality every time. It's personalised, you use people's names, you can have a laugh.
"You recognise who was there last time and encourage them to go a little faster and a little harder."
On-screen fitness classes are the opposite of the philosophy at new Mount Maunganui gym SPEE Training, which opened in March.
Director Vanita Henry said every gym session was a class with a personal trainer, in small groups of up to eight people.
"We ask everyone why they like it, and they say because it's personal.
"You get everything you can out of each and every person."
