A footfall space is a named area used for people traffic counting. A Portal Beam set to Footfall mode counts how many people move between footfall spaces — for example, through a doorway, entrance, or corridor crossing. You assign footfall spaces to the beam as Inbound and Outbound: people moving in the inbound direction add to an inbound count, people moving in the outbound direction add to an outbound count.
Footfall spaces sit outside the location hierarchy. A footfall space is defined by its name alone, it is not tied to a room or drawn on a floor plan.
How footfall spaces work
A Portal Beam in Footfall mode counts people moving between footfall spaces. For that data to be categorized correctly, you assign footfall spaces to the beam as Inbound and Outbound. This association is configured during sensor assignment in Smart Location.
Inbound and Outbound are each optional lists, so a footfall beam does not have to use two footfall spaces:
- Two-direction count. Assign one or more footfall spaces as Inbound and one or more as Outbound to count traffic both ways through an area.
- Single-direction count. Assign one or more footfall spaces to a single direction and leave the other empty. This is valid for a single doorway or entryway where you only need to count one way.
Without footfall spaces defined before installation, a Portal Beam in Footfall mode has no areas to associate with, and its traffic data cannot be correctly categorized.
The setup sequence for Footfall mode:
- Create footfall spaces in Smart Location before installing Portal Beams in Footfall mode.
- During device assignment in Smart Location, assign the appropriate footfall spaces to the beam's Inbound and Outbound directions.
Footfall spaces vs rooms
| Room | Footfall space | |
|---|---|---|
| In the location hierarchy | Yes, belongs to a floor | No, sits outside the hierarchy |
| Drawn on a floor plan | Yes, polygon boundary | No |
| Used for occupancy | Yes (Room Occupancy mode) | No |
| Used for traffic counting | No | Yes (Footfall mode) |
| Required for location | Yes | Only for Footfall mode |
Creating and managing footfall spaces
Footfall spaces are created in Smart Location. in the navigation, select Footfall. The Smart Location Creator or Administrator role is required.
A footfall space requires only a name. Footfall spaces are assigned to a beam's Inbound and Outbound directions during installation, not on the footfall space record itself.