Season report
Visitors per day and in total for the city, the organiser and the press.
Counting visitors at a Christmas market
Christmas market visitor counting for the length of the season: a camera above each entrance counts who comes in and who leaves, and the live occupancy shows how full the market is right now. Rented as a complete set, with no network and no IT on site.
- Visitors per day and per hour, across all entrances
- Live occupancy against the limit of your safety plan
- Rented for the season, everything included
On the market now
2,310
of 3,000 permitted
In today14,820Out today12,510Entrances3
Example figures, Saturday evening
Context
The situation
A Christmas market runs for five or six weeks, and on a Saturday evening the lanes between the stalls fill up within an hour. The safety plan sets a limit, the city wants to know how many people came, sponsors and stallholders ask for figures, and next year’s planning starts from this year’s numbers. A tally clicker at the gate does not survive a busy evening, and nobody wants cameras that record visitors. What is needed is a Christmas market people counter that only counts — for exactly the weeks the market is open.
Counting points
What gets counted and where
Counting visitors at a Christmas market happens at the entrances. Each entrance gets its own camera with a counting line across the path; it counts in and out separately, so the figure on site is simply everyone who came in minus everyone who left. With several entrances, the cameras are joined through Vicodis Zone and one camera adds up the whole market.
The figure is only as complete as the entrances you count. A market that is open on all sides — between houses, across a square — can be counted at its main access paths, but people who walk in through an uncounted side street are not in the figure. In that case the counts show visitor flows at the main entrances rather than an exact total, and an occupancy limit can only be watched where every way in is counted.
counting line, one camera eachinout
Products
Which Vicodis products are involved
| Product | Role at the market |
|---|---|
| Visitor Counter | Counts in and out at each entrance, keeps the figures on the camera |
| Vicodis Zone | Adds up all entrances to one market figure and one occupancy |
| Occupancy view | Live figure with a traffic light for the security team, in any browser |
Safety plan
Christmas market crowd management with a live figure
Where the safety plan sets an occupancy limit for the Christmas market, the security team needs the figure at a glance, not a spreadsheet. The traffic light view runs in any browser — on a tablet at the gate or a screen in the control room — and turns amber at the warning level and red at the limit. Because the market closes every night, the figure on site is set back to zero automatically before opening, so small counting differences do not pile up over the season.
- Green, amber, red against your own limit.
- All entrances in one figure through Vicodis Zone.
- Reset every morning before the market opens.
For the season
Renting the counting system for the season
Most markets need counting for a few weeks a year, so renting is the natural choice. To rent a people counter for a Christmas market, you book one rental set per entrance. Each set comes complete: an Axis camera, the Vicodis licence, a cabinet with router and mobile data — and with several entrances, Vicodis Zone is part of it as well.
A season usually covers two months of the regular rental rate plus the one-off setup fee per set; the figures are on the page about renting a mobile counting system. Before the sets go back, you export the figures for the whole season as CSV, ready for next year’s comparison.
Per entrance
Camera and licenceincluded
Router and mobile dataincluded
Several entrances joinedincluded
Typical seasontwo monthly rates + setup
Purpose
What the data is used for
The counts are stored in 5-minute intervals and add up to hours, days and the whole season — in the calendar, in reports and in the CSV export.
Sponsors and stalls
Figures to back stall rents, sponsorship talks and the question which days pay off.
Staff and opening hours
The busy hours of each weekday, for security, cleaning and opening times.
Next year
This season’s CSV as the baseline when the market is planned again.
Data protection
Counting without recording visitors
The camera analyses the image internally and keeps nothing but the count. No picture is stored or sent, no face is recognised and no visitor is followed across the market. That keeps the conversation with the city’s data protection officer short. The principle is explained in detail under counting and the GDPR.
- No images stored or sent
- No faces, no tracking
- Counts only, kept on the camera
On site
Installation notes for this environment
Mount the camera above the entrance path, from 2.50 metres upwards, looking down — on an entrance arch, a pole or the roof edge of a stall next to the gate. A winter market is dark by late afternoon, so use an outdoor camera with infrared and make sure the path itself is lit; strings of lights and moving decorations belong outside the counting area. Hats and hoods are no problem for a camera looking down at an angle; a large umbrella can hide the person underneath, so heavy rain may lower the count slightly.
The cabinet needs a socket with permanent power — not a circuit that the market switches off at night — and mobile reception. Where exactly the camera should hang is covered in installing and aiming the camera.
- From 2.50 m, looking down at the path
- Outdoor camera with infrared
- Lights and decorations out of the counting area
- Permanent power for the cabinet
FAQ
Questions from market organisers
01
How many rental sets does a Christmas market need?
One set per entrance you want to count. A fenced market with two gates needs two sets, a market with four access paths needs four. The sets are joined through Vicodis Zone, which is included, so one camera adds up all entrances and shows the occupancy of the whole market in one figure.
02
Can the market be counted if it is open on all sides?
Partly. The cameras count the main access paths, but visitors who come in through an uncounted side street are missing from the figure. You still get consistent flows at the main entrances and comparable figures from day to day, but an exact total or an occupancy limit needs every way in to be counted.
03
What does a season cost?
A season of five or six weeks usually means two monthly rental rates plus the one-off setup fee for each entrance set. Camera, licence, router, mobile data and Vicodis Zone for several entrances are all included. The current rates are on the rental page, so you can work out the total for your number of entrances.
04
Does the counting work in the dark and in winter weather?
Yes, with an outdoor camera that has infrared and a lit entrance path. Hats and hoods do not stop it from counting, while a large umbrella can hide the person underneath in heavy rain. Keep strings of lights and moving decorations out of the counting area, because they can disturb the image analysis on dark evenings.
How many visitors does your entrance really have?
Tell us your camera model or your project — we check compatibility and come back with a concrete proposal.