Behind the cash desk
The line sits where guests are already in — not where they wait, show ID or turn back.
Counting at the door of a club or bar
A club night does not end at midnight. People counting for clubs and bars needs a business day that matches the night, a capacity figure the door staff can trust and a signal they see without looking twice.
- Nightclub capacity counting with a traffic light at the door
- A business day starting after midnight, or whenever you close
- The night as one figure, not two
Business day · starts at 08:00
Saturday night counts as Saturday
08:0014:0020:0002:0008:00
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Context
The situation
Clubs, bars and live venues open in the evening and close in the early morning. Their licence sets a maximum number of guests, the door staff decide who comes in, and the busiest hour is usually after midnight. A counter that splits the night at 00:00 produces two half-nights in every statistic — and a capacity figure that nobody at the door believes is worse than none.
Counting points
What gets counted and where
Door counting: venue entrances are counted behind the queue, not in it.
Exits and smoking areas
Every door guests use to leave or come back needs its own line, or the figure drifts.
Floors and rooms
Several floors with their own limits become zones with their own figures.
Products
Which Vicodis products are involved
| Product | Role in a venue |
|---|---|
| Vicodis Visitor Counter | Counts at the door, with the business day of your venue |
| Full-screen live view | Traffic light for the door staff on a tablet, optional sound when it turns red |
| Vicodis Zone | For several floors or entrances with one licensed capacity |
Purpose
What the data is used for
At the door, an occupancy counter — bar, club or live venue — keeps the licensed capacity in view. Afterwards, the figures show which nights and hours are full — useful for booking, staffing and the conversation with the licensing authority. The principles behind the live figure are in occupancy monitoring with a live capacity limit.
- At the door: how many are inside, against the licence.
- After the night: guests per night, peak hour, comparison with last week.
- For the authority: a record that the limit was kept.
On site
Installation notes for this environment
Venue entrances are dark, busy and full of people who stop. Use an infrared camera where the entrance is unlit, mount it high enough to see over groups and place the line where guests walk through rather than stand.
Set the business day to begin when the venue is empty — for example at 08:00 — and the daily zero reset shortly before, so each night starts clean.
- Infrared for dark entrances
- Line behind the queue and the cash desk
- Business day and zero reset in the morning
- Tablet or screen for the door staff
FAQ
Questions from venues
01
How do I stop a night being split at midnight?
Set the business day to start when the venue is closed, for example at 08:00. Vicodis then books everything from 08:00 to 08:00 the next morning as one day, so a Saturday night appears as one figure in the calendar, the charts and the reports instead of two halves.
02
Can the door staff see the count without a computer?
Yes. The live view runs full screen on any tablet or screen at the door, with a large number and a traffic light. You set your own texts for each state, and a sound can play when the venue reaches capacity, so staff notice it even when they are busy.
03
What if guests leave through a different door?
Then that door needs its own counting line, otherwise the figure inside keeps rising. With one camera per door and Vicodis Zone, all doors add up to one figure for the venue. A daily zero reset in the morning removes any small difference left over from the night.
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.