How to stay under your occupancy limit

A capacity number on a licence or a fire-safety certificate isn't a suggestion. It's set for a reason, how many people can get out of a room in the time available, and going over it is the kind of thing that gets noticed at the worst moment: an inspection, an incident, or a busy Saturday night when nobody's counting. The problem is that a stated limit and the actual headcount in a room tend to drift apart the moment there's more than one door.

Why a clicker at the door drifts

A handheld counter or a door tally only works if every single person crosses the one point being counted, in the direction being counted, every time. A second entrance, a fire exit propped open on a warm night, or a shift change where the running total doesn't get handed over, and the number on the clicker stops meaning anything. It counts people crossing a line at some point in the evening; it doesn't tell you how many are actually in the room right now.

Watch the room, not just the door

This is what Occupancy Compliance does. It's an alerting check, which means it judges a window of recent frames rather than one still image, so it's reading a sustained over-capacity state, not reacting to a single frame that happened to look crowded for a second. The check flags when a space is running over the limit set for it, on screen, by email, or by a JSON webhook to a manager's phone or a display at the door, with a description of the moment and a link to it.

It's a count-style read of how full a space looks from the camera, not a biometric system. There's no facial recognition and nothing that identifies who's in the room, only a description-based estimate of the room's fullness against the number you've set.

1. 01

   Point a camera at the room or the entrance

   A camera with a clear view of the space, or the entrance everyone funnels through, works best. An existing RTSP camera is fine as-is; Svid captures the feed on our side.

2. 02

   Set the limit for that space

   The limit is set per space, so a function room, a gym floor and a bar area can each run to their own number rather than one building-wide total.

3. 03

   Turn on Occupancy Compliance

   Create an account at app.svid.ai. Onboarding asks four quick questions and suggests checks and a watch level, editable before you pay, with the full price derivation shown ahead of Stripe checkout. Occupancy Compliance is priced in the Store as the extra it adds at your own usage.

4. 04

   Act on the alert before it becomes a problem

   An alert lands the moment a space is judged over its limit, giving a manager the chance to hold the door or thin the room out there and then, rather than finding out after an inspection or an incident.

What it covers, and what it doesn't decide

Occupancy Compliance is evidence and an early warning, not a legal ruling. It flags when a space looks over the number you've set, which is useful the moment it happens and useful afterward if a licensing visit asks what happened on a specific night. It doesn't itself satisfy any particular licensing authority's requirement, and it isn't a headcount accurate to the person, it's a description-based read of how full a room looks. Whether that's enough for a given licence condition, and what to do when it fires, stays a decision for the venue and whoever holds the licence.

How accurate is the count?

It's a description-based read of how full the space looks against the limit you've set, not a headcount guaranteed to the person. Every alert links to the moment, so a manager can look at the actual footage and judge it directly.

Does this satisfy our licence's capacity condition on its own?

We wouldn't claim that. It's evidence and an early warning that a space is running over the number you've set, which is useful to have, but whether it satisfies a specific licensing authority's requirement is a question for whoever holds the licence, not something the check decides.

Does it identify who's in the room?

No. There's no facial recognition or biometric identification anywhere in Svid. The check reads how full a space looks, not who's in it.

Can different rooms have different limits?

Yes. The limit is set per space and the check runs per camera, so a function room, a gym floor and a bar area can each be held to their own number.

Does it work for a one-off event, not just a permanent venue?

Yes. A live phone camera at app.svid.ai/live.html works for a temporary setup once you've signed in on the device, alongside RTSP cameras, uploaded files and video URLs for permanent installs.