Counting people in is not the same as knowing how many are inside. How an occupancy monitoring system derives the live figure, where a maximum occupancy limit applies and how the signal reaches the door.
A visitor counter answers “how many came today?”. Occupancy monitoring answers a different question: “how many are inside right now?”. The first is a sum that only grows. The second goes up and down all day and has to be right at every moment, because someone at the door acts on it — at the entrance of a public building as much as at the door of a club or bar. The same occupancy measurement in front of a screen is the basis of audience counting for digital signage.
That is why occupancy needs both directions. A single line that only counts entries can tell you the day’s visitors, but never who has already left.
Every entry adds one, every exit subtracts one. A real-time occupancy counter keeps this running balance and updates it with each crossing of the counting line.
Small errors — two people crossing very close together, someone turning back on the line — do not cancel out; they add up over the day. A good system makes that drift visible and gives you a way to reset it, rather than hiding it.
Capacity monitoring compares the live figure with the maximum occupancy limit and turns it into a signal anyone at the door understands. A warning level before the limit gives staff time to react. The signal can appear on a screen at the entrance — the full-screen live view of the Vicodis Visitor Counter — or switch a lamp, a siren or a relay.
The limit applies to the building, not to a door. With several entrances, every door needs its own counting line and all of them must add up to one balance. Room occupancy counting works the same way, one level down: each hall or floor becomes a zone with its own balance and capacity.
In Vicodis this is the job of Vicodis Zone: a master camera combines the doors into one figure.
Because small errors accumulate, an occupancy figure is set back to zero once a day — at a time when the building is certainly empty, for example early in the morning. The entries and exits already counted stay untouched; only the balance starts fresh.
Venues that are open past midnight need one more setting: a business day that does not end at 00:00. Otherwise a Saturday night is split into two days in every statistic. Vicodis lets you set both times independently — when the day begins and when the balance is reset.
Car parks are the exception: vehicles stay overnight, so there the daily reset is usually switched off and the figure is corrected by hand when needed.
A maximum number of people is usually set by the building permit, the fire safety concept or the rules for places of assembly, and sometimes by an event licence. The operator is responsible for keeping to it.
Occupancy monitoring does not change that responsibility, but it makes it manageable: staff see at a glance when the limit is close, and the figures document afterwards that it was kept. For public buildings, see people counting in public buildings. This is not legal advice — check the requirements for your site with the responsible authority.
It counts every entry and every exit and keeps the difference as the number of people inside. Each crossing of the counting line changes the figure immediately, so it is always current. Because small counting errors add up over time, the figure is reset to zero once a day when the building is empty.
Usually the building permit or the fire safety concept, sometimes an event licence. The operator is responsible for keeping to it. An occupancy monitoring system does not change that responsibility, but it shows staff at a glance when the limit is close and documents the figures afterwards.
Yes. Room occupancy counting works the same way as for a building: a counting line at every door of the room. With several cameras, each room or hall becomes a named zone with its own figure, capacity and traffic light, while the total for the building is kept at the same time.
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