Summer school holidays are the busiest weeks of the year for council pools and recreation centres. Hot days bring families, swim schools and lap swimmers all at once, and conditions on the pool deck can change within minutes.
Most facility teams still manage that rush with clicker counters, turnstile totals and a lot of experience. Experience matters, but it can’t tell you how many people are in the leisure pool right now, or prove to council how the facility was used last January.
Real-time people counting can. Here’s how council teams and facility managers are using live occupancy data to stay safe, staff smarter and back up every funding conversation with evidence.
Every aquatic facility works to bather load limits and supervision ratios set out in its safety plan and industry guidelines. The hard part isn’t knowing the limit. It’s knowing, in the moment, how close you are to it.
Cohera-Tech’s people counting solution, powered by the Vemcount platform, counts entries and exits automatically for each zone you define: the main pool, leisure and toddler pools, spa and sauna, gym and multi-purpose courts. Live occupancy updates continuously, so your team sees the real number instead of an estimate.
When a zone nears its threshold, staff get an automatic alert through the Vemcount app or by SMS. That gives duty managers time to act before a limit is breached: close a gate, redirect patrons or call in an extra lifeguard.
Live counts also matter in an emergency. If you need to evacuate, an accurate figure for how many people are inside, and where, helps staff and first responders confirm everyone is accounted for.
Rosters built on last year’s gut feel tend to miss in both directions: too few lifeguards on a 38-degree Saturday afternoon, too many on a wet Tuesday morning.
Historical occupancy data shows exactly when each zone peaks, by hour, day and season. Managers can build holiday rosters around those patterns, then use live occupancy on the day to move lifeguards to where swimmers actually are. The result is safe supervision without paying for staff you don’t need.
The same data supports usage-based cleaning. Instead of servicing change rooms on a fixed hourly rotation, custodial staff can be sent after a set number of visitors, such as every 100 entries. Facilities stay cleaner at peak times without wasting hours when they’re quiet.
Council facilities answer to many stakeholders: elected members, finance teams, state and federal grant programs, and the community. Each wants to know how public money is being used.
Manual counts are hard to defend. They’re prone to human error, they vary between staff, and they rarely show usage by area or time. Automated counting produces consistent, timestamped records you can export for:
When the next budget round comes, you’re not asking for more lifeguards or a new program on instinct. You’re showing the numbers.
[OPTIONAL: Customer proof point or short quote from a council or aquatic centre client]
Vemcount live data can feed a display at your entrance, your website or your app, showing how busy the facility is right now. Lap swimmers, families and gym-goers can choose quieter times, which means fewer complaints about crowded lanes and long waits, and a smoother spread of visitors across the day.
Pool heating, ventilation and air conditioning are some of the largest running costs in any council portfolio. Occupancy data can connect with your Building Management System (BMS) so ventilation and climate control respond to the actual crowd, not a fixed schedule.
|
Feature |
What it does |
Why it matters for your facility |
|---|---|---|
|
Zone counting |
Tracks each area separately, e.g. gym vs main pool |
Prevents overcrowding in higher-risk zones like the deep end, spa or sauna |
|
Live dashboards and alerts |
Real-time occupancy with app and SMS alerts at set thresholds |
Staff can close gates or redirect patrons before capacity is reached |
|
Historical analytics |
Daily, weekly and seasonal trends by zone |
Accurate rosters, budget forecasts and program planning |
|
Exportable reporting |
Consistent, timestamped usage records |
Audit-ready evidence for grants, council reports and contracts |
|
Public occupancy display |
Live “how busy” feed for screens, web and app |
Spreads visits across the day and improves patron experience |
The summer peak is weeks away. Installing counting now means your team goes into the holidays with live visibility, and comes out with a full season of data to report and plan from.
Cohera-Tech works with council facility teams and leisure operators to design a counting setup around your zones, safety thresholds and reporting needs.