What is Mapsted Flow and how is it different from camera-based people-counting?

Mapsted Flow measures how visitors actually move through a venue — flow paths, zone dwell time, congestion patterns, and aggregate occupancy — rather than just counting entries and exits at a door. Legacy people-counters report a single number per camera or break-beam sensor; Mapsted Flow reports trajectories, density, and predicted demand across the entire venue from the Mapsted Boost gateway aggregation layer. The result is operating intelligence, not just a foot-traffic tally.

How does Mapsted Flow compare to legacy RTLS or camera-DIY people-counting on install effort?

Camera-based people-counters scale linearly with venue zones — one camera per counted zone, plus per-camera licensing and per-zone calibration. Fixed-anchor RTLS systems require dense anchor arrays plus a calibration visit. Mapsted Flow installs roughly three Mapsted Boost gateways per 10,000 sqft of venue floor area, which means fewer pieces of on-site hardware to procure, fewer calibration walks, and a single Mapsted-native stack for the gateway, the analytics, and the predictive layer.

How does the predictive forecasting layer work and what data does it need?

The predictive layer ingests the venue's own historical flow data — visitor counts per zone, dwell distributions, path frequencies, and time-of-day patterns — and produces forward forecasts for visitor volume and likely congestion zones at a given hour or day. The model retrains continuously on the venue's own flow history so the forecasts adapt to seasonality, layout changes, and operational events. No external dataset is required; the venue's own Boost-gateway flow history is the training signal.

Is visitor privacy preserved? Does Mapsted Flow capture personally identifiable information or use facial recognition?

Mapsted Flow is designed around aggregate signal capture. No facial recognition is used, no personally identifiable information about individual visitors is collected, and no identity-tied behavioural profile is exposed to the venue operator. Operators see counts, densities, paths, and dwell distributions at the zone and venue level — not individual visitor identities. This privacy-first design is part of why Mapsted Flow runs on Boost gateways instead of ceiling cameras.

How does Mapsted Flow integrate with the wider Mapsted IoT stack?

Mapsted Flow shares the Mapsted Boost gateway with the rest of Mapsted's IoT family. The same Boost deployment that powers Flow analytics can aggregate signal from Mapsted IoT Tag for asset tracking, Mapsted Badge for workforce and visitor visibility, and IoT Analytics LOCATE for the analytics layer on top of the data. One on-site gateway, multiple operational use cases — no multi-vendor data plumbing.

How long does Mapsted Flow take to deploy from floor plan to live flow dashboards?

A venue with complete floor-plan data in standard formats typically moves from onboarding to live flow dashboards in weeks rather than quarters. Mapsted digitises the floor plan and zone definitions in Manage CMS, plans Mapsted Boost gateway placement at the roughly-three-per-10,000-sqft baseline, and begins reporting zone-level occupancy and dwell metrics from the day Boost gateways come online. The predictive forecasting layer activates once a baseline flow history has accumulated.

Can Mapsted Flow cover outdoor venue areas as well as indoor?

Yes. Mapsted's positioning stack covers both indoor and outdoor surfaces on one platform, so Mapsted Flow analytics extend across campus quads, plazas, warehouse yards, parking areas, and other outdoor zones that the operator wants to measure. Aggregate visitor flow, zone occupancy, and dwell patterns work the same way in outdoor zones as they do indoors — and the predictive forecasting layer treats outdoor zones as additional measurable zones in the venue's overall flow model.

Mapsted Flow
— Boost-powered visitor
flow intelligence

Enterprise space-flow analytics platform

Boost gateway coverage at roughly three devices per 10,000 sqft of venue floor area
Real-time occupancy, dwell, and path-trajectory dashboards across every zone
Predictive foot-traffic forecasting layered on the venue's own flow history

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Mapsted Flow visitor analytics dashboard showing a venue heatmap, zone-level occupancy counters, and a predictive foot-traffic forecast chart

110+

patents

30+

countries

Billion sq. ft.

Boost per 10,000 sqft

Mapsted Flow operator dashboard showing a venue heatmap, dwell-time distribution, and a predictive occupancy forecast for the next operational period

PLATFORM CAPABILITIES

What Mapsted Flow delivers for venue operators

Mapsted Flow turns visitor movement into operating intelligence for the venue. Flow paths, dwell distributions, zone congestion, and aggregate occupancy are measured by Mapsted Boost gateways deployed across the venue — the on-site analytics brain that aggregates positioning signal at roughly three Boost devices per 10,000 sqft of venue floor area.

Real-time aggregate occupancy and dwell-time analytics across every venue zone
Path trajectories and density heatmaps powered by Boost gateway aggregation
Predictive foot-traffic forecasting layered on the venue's own flow history
Indoor and outdoor zones measured on the same Mapsted-native positioning stack

View Mapsted Flow

Products inside the Mapsted Flow family

Mapsted Flow organises six complementary analytics products into one operations layer that runs on Mapsted Boost gateways. Each product below opens a dedicated Flow sub-page with deployment details and use cases.

Visitor Behaviour Analysis

Behavioural signal layered onto venue flow paths.

Aggregate visitor behaviour signal layered onto Mapsted Flow's path and occupancy data — visit frequency, path patterns, zone engagement, and dwell-distribution behaviour, all powered by the Boost gateway baseline and presented to operators in privacy-first aggregate form.

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People Counting Insights

Aggregate counts across the entire venue, every zone.

People-counting insights derived from the Mapsted Boost gateway aggregation layer — entry, zone, and dwell counts reported across the venue without ceiling-mounted cameras or one-counter-per-zone deployment overhead. Reports export to CSV and a REST API supports downstream BI feeds.

View counting

Heat Map Visualization

Real-time and historical heatmaps across every floor.

Indoor heat-map generator powered by Mapsted Boost. Visitors' aggregate signal across the venue produces real-time density heatmaps plus historical replay, so operators can compare today against last week or against a comparable seasonal period and adjust venue layout against actual flow.

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Real-time Wait Time Monitoring

Live queue and wait-time signal at zone level.

Real-time wait-time monitoring at the queue, kiosk, or zone level using the Mapsted Boost gateway aggregation layer. Operators see live wait estimates per zone, get overcrowding alerts when thresholds breach, and feed the same signal to digital signage that shows visitors the lowest-wait option in the venue.

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Dwell Time Analytics

Time-on-zone distributions across the venue.

Dwell-time analytics from the same Boost gateway baseline. Operators see how long visitors spend in each zone, how the distribution shifts across time of day and day of week, and how a layout change moves the dwell curve — without instrumenting any per-zone hardware beyond the existing Boost gateway placement.

View dwell

Crowd Management

Density thresholds, overcrowding alerts, and capacity guard.

Crowd-management surface for high-density venues. Operators set per-zone density thresholds, receive overcrowding alerts in real time, and review historical density patterns for capacity planning. Built on the same Mapsted Boost gateway aggregation layer that powers the rest of the Flow stack.

View crowd ops

Industries Mapsted Flow serves

Visitor flow analytics, real-time occupancy intelligence, and predictive foot-traffic forecasting ship across every major enterprise venue category. Each industry below opens a dedicated overview of how Mapsted Flow applies to that venue type.

Retail Shopping Malls

Big Box Retail

Transportation Hubs

Hospitals & Healthcare

Higher Education Facilities

Multi-Event Facilities

Sport Facilities

Recreational & Leisure Facilities

Historical & Cultural Facilities

Corporate Offices

Industrial & Manufacturing

Natural & Conservation Areas

TECHNICAL DIFFERENTIATOR

Faster install and lower anchor density than legacy RTLS or camera DIY

Legacy people-counting requires ceiling-mounted cameras per zone or fixed-anchor RTLS arrays with calibration walks. Mapsted Flow installs roughly three Boost gateways per 10,000 sqft of venue floor area — a density baseline that covers the venue without per-zone camera procurement, without per-zone anchor density, and without per-zone calibration visits. One vendor for the gateway, the analytics, and the predictive layer.

Roughly three Mapsted Boost gateways per 10,000 sqft of venue floor area
No ceiling cameras, no per-zone people-counter procurement, no per-zone calibration walks
Privacy-first by design: aggregate density and dwell signal, no facial recognition, no individual visitor identity
Single Mapsted-native stack for gateway, analytics, and predictive forecasting

View Mapsted Flow

A venue ops manager reviewing the Mapsted Flow dashboard showing aggregate visitor density and zone-level occupancy, with Mapsted Boost gateway placement marked across the floor plan at the documented density baseline

UNDER THE HOOD

How Mapsted Boost gateways power Mapsted Flow

Mapsted Boost is the on-site gateway and analytics brain for Mapsted Flow. Boost nodes aggregate positioning signal across the venue, turn it into zone-level occupancy and dwell metrics, and feed the predictive forecasting layer that anticipates next week's foot traffic before it arrives.

Roughly three Boost devices per 10,000 sqft of venue floor area — the documented coverage baseline
Boost aggregates and processes positioning signal on-site — no per-zone hardware to procure
Same Boost gateway powers asset and personnel visibility on Mapsted's wider IoT stack
Indoor and outdoor zones measured on one platform — no third-party data bridge required

Boost in the stack

Mapsted Boost gateway nodes installed across a venue floor plan, with the aggregation layer that turns positioning signal into zone-level occupancy and predictive flow forecasts

What Mapsted does for you — from venue onboarding to predictive flow intelligence

You share your venue. We plan Boost gateway placement, turn your venue into a live flow analytics surface, then layer predictive forecasting on top of your venue's own flow history — you only add the pieces that fit your operations.

You onboard your venue

You give Mapsted your floor plan and zone definitions. Mapsted digitises your venue in Manage CMS and plans Mapsted Boost gateway placement at roughly three devices per 10,000 sqft of venue floor area.

Baseline flow is measured

Once Boost gateways are placed, Mapsted Flow measures aggregate visitor flow from day one — no per-zone camera install, no fixed-anchor calibration walks, and no waiting weeks for a usable signal.

Real-time dashboards go live

Venue operators see current occupancy, dwell time, path trajectories, and zone-level congestion on their analytics surface — ready for export to CSV or live feed via the Mapsted REST API.

Predictive layer activates

Once a baseline flow history has accumulated, the prediction model forecasts visitor volume, peak windows, and congestion zones — so operators can plan staffing, promotions, and resource allocation against expected demand.

View predictive

Frequently asked questions about Mapsted Flow and the Boost gateway

Explore the broader Mapsted family

Mapsted Flow is one part of Mapsted's location platform. Mapsted also delivers patented hardware-free indoor maps and wayfinding for visitor-facing surfaces, plus asset and workforce visibility for real-time tracking of assets, equipment, and personnel on the same Boost gateway stack.

Indoor maps

Asset visibility