Know if the room is occupied. Don't guess.
Motion sensors guess from movement, then run a timer to be safe cutting lights on a guest reading in bed, or leaving HVAC running for hours after checkout. STEINEL True Presence® detects real occupancy, even when someone is asleep and completely still, so lighting, heating and cooling respond to what's actually happening in the room.
Every timer is a guess about how long someone stays still.
PIR and standard motion detectors only see movement. To avoid cutting lights on someone sitting quietly, they run a "stay-on" timer after the last detected movement usually several minutes. Set it too short and lights or air conditioning cut out mid-use. Set it too long which is what most installers do, for safety and energy is wasted running services in rooms nobody's actually in. True Presence removes the guess: it detects the person directly, including breathing-level movement while asleep or still, so the room only runs services when someone is actually there.
True presence detection enables climate control to respond automatically when rooms are unoccupied. Reducing the temperature by just 2°C can help properties achieve average energy savings of up to 12%, lowering operating costs and environmental impact without compromising guest comfort.
Measured project results demonstrate the potential for meaningful energy savings. Actual savings in Australian properties will vary depending on local energy tariffs, occupancy patterns and system settings. We can help model the expected savings using your property’s own operational data.
Proprietary detection, not just another sensor.
True Presence detects even the smallest signs of life including the subtle rise and fall of the chest while breathing while filtering out the vibrations and interference that can confuse standard motion sensors. That’s what allows it to recognise the crucial difference between someone who is "Asleep" and someone who has left the room not simply whether they are moving or still.
Click a state below to see how it compares to a typical PIR timer:
Same detection performance. Choose how the room connects.
Every True Presence model delivers the same highly accurate detection across an area of up to 64 m² recognising whether a room is genuinely occupied, even when someone is resting or asleep. The only choice is how you want it to connect, communicate and control the room. Select the option that fits your property and building systems, without compromising the performance at the heart of the experience.
Standalone, no bus required
True Presence can control lighting, HVAC and other powered services according to whether a room is genuinely occupied. Lights can switch off, climate settings can adjust and unnecessary electrical loads can be reduced automatically when guests leave. With standalone operation and no network dependency, it offers a simple, fast way to introduce intelligent room control into an existing property.
Best fit: single-property retrofits, remote sites, staged rolloutsStandalone Wiring
Full room bus, purpose-built
True Presence KNX brings lighting, HVAC and powered services together in one intelligent room-management system. Alongside precise presence detection, it monitors temperature and humidity, maintains consistent lighting levels and reveals how spaces are occupied throughout the day. These insights can support occupant wellbeing, improve room utilisation and help fine-tune energy use while flexible automation creates the right environment for every moment.
Best fit: new-build accommodation, full refurbishments, groups wanting complete room controlKNX
Network-native, no gateway
True Presence IP transforms every room into a connected source of real-time insight. Native REST API, MQTT and BACnet connectivity integrates directly with existing BMS and PMS platforms, providing central visibility of occupancy, environmental conditions and space-use patterns. With low-power PoE operation, it supports better comfort, wellbeing, energy performance and operational efficiency across an entire property without installing a separate control bus in every room.
Best fit: hotel groups with an existing BMS/PMS, IT-managed buildingsIP / PoE
The deployment path matches the site, not the other way around.
See how it plays out for your kind of accommodation.
Guests expect comfort to simply work. Yet conventional motion sensors can switch off lights while a room is still occupied, while heating and cooling continue running long after guests have left. Key-card systems are also easily bypassed, leaving HVAC operating in empty rooms and quietly driving up energy costs.
- Guests get uninterrupted comfort no lights cutting out mid-shower or mid-read
- Empty rooms stop costing you money the moment guests check out
- Housekeeping knows which rooms are occupied without knocking or walking in
- Works for a single property today, and scales across a whole portfolio
A full room-control build for new hotels and refurbishments, a centrally managed option for groups running several properties, or a simple retrofit for a single site we'll match the setup to what you're actually running.
Student rooms shift between busy routines and long periods of quiet throughout the semester. Clear, privacy-conscious occupancy insights help facilities teams understand when a room is genuinely occupied and identify unusual patterns such as a student not leaving for several days that may prompt a timely wellbeing check, all without cameras or intrusive monitoring.
- Know a room is genuinely occupied for welfare checks without installing cameras
- Energy costs scale down automatically across hundreds of rooms, not up
- Works in your existing buildings today, or built in from day one in new development
- One consistent system across the whole site, not a different setup per building
A simple retrofit for existing residential colleges, or a fully integrated build for new-build accommodation wanting complete room management from day one.
Mining accommodation operates around demanding rosters, changing occupancy and limited site infrastructure. With hundreds of rooms, unnecessary heating, cooling and lighting can quickly become a significant cost. Reliable room-level insights help reduce energy use, streamline maintenance and support worker wellbeing even where network connectivity is limited or inconsistent.
- Works reliably even where site network coverage can't be guaranteed
- Cuts energy and generator load automatically across every donga, without extra crew
- No compromise on reliability just because it's the simpler install
- Roll it out room by room as budget allows no need to do the whole camp at once
A standalone setup that doesn't depend on site-wide networking the practical choice for remote and temporary sites.
Coverage depends on wall material, not just room size.
True Presence detects through glass, timber and stud walls but not concrete. That means the right sensor count for a room depends on what it's built from, not just its floor area. This is the kind of positioning detail we work through with you before specifying a job, not after.
Concrete on all sides
- Mounting height2.8 m
- Radius4.2 m
- Scenario6
- Time delay5 min
Concrete + drywall
- Mounting height2.8 m
- Radius2.0 – 2.3 m
- Scenario6
- Time delay10 min
Drywall / stud on all sides
- Mounting height2.8 m
- Radius2.5 m
- Scenario6
- Time delay15 min
Reference configurations from Steinel's own commissioning guidance for a typical 4 m x 7 m room — a starting point for planning, not a substitute for a site-specific layout.
A sensor is only as reliable as its setup.
True Presence builds its detection profile in layers mounting height, detection range, an empty-room Noise Map, then a scenario selection matched to the space. Hotel and accommodation rooms typically start on Scenario 6, tuned for sleep detection, and step down to Scenario 5 only if air conditioning airflow causes false triggers. Skipping or reordering these steps is the single biggest cause of unreliable sensors in the field which is why correct commissioning is part of how we deploy this, not an afterthought.
No camera, no imaging, no identification.
True Presence is built on proprietary presence-sensing technology, not any form of camera or optical imaging nothing it captures can identify who is in the room. It answers one question: is the room occupied. It is not a medical, safety or fall-detection device, and shouldn't be relied on as one it's an occupancy signal for lighting, HVAC and room-status purposes.
Frequently asked questions
Talk to us about your rooms.
Whether it's a single-property retrofit, a purpose-built KNX new-build, or a portfolio-wide IP rollout — we'll help you specify the right tier for the job.