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Solutions — Space Management

Know exactly how your building is used.

Most buildings run on guesswork HVAC and lighting set for capacity that's rarely there, space decisions made with no real data behind them. Kadan's Space Management solution replaces the guesswork with accurate, anonymous occupancy sensing and live analytics.

Talk to our team See how it works

Steinel HPD3 one of the sensors behind this solution

The problem

Space is expensive. Most of it isn't used the way you think.

Meeting rooms get booked and sit empty. Climate control runs at full capacity for three people in a room built for twenty. Facilities teams make layout and leasing decisions with no real record of how space is actually used, day to day.

72%
of companies are actively looking for ways to use their office space more efficiently.
36%
of office space sits unused on a regular basis, with a further ~5% vacant outright.
30%
average rise in commercial office rents over the past decade — a real, ongoing cost.

Figures from international workplace research referenced to frame the problem, not presented as Australian-specific data.

How it works

Walk through what the system actually does.

Click through each stage the first one responds to your clicks.

Click into a room to add or remove people.

Sensors detect exactly how many people are in each part of the building anonymously, in real time. No cameras, no personal data. Click into any room below to seat someone, or click a person to have them leave.

Reception 0/1
Meeting Room 0/4
Phone Booth 0/1
Open Desks — North 0/6
Open Desks — South 0/6
Breakout Lounge 0/3
People
0
HVAC
Off
Lighting
Off
Illustrative simulation click into a room to add someone, click a person to remove them

The system sees the whole picture.

Every sensor and light on the network feeds into one live dashboard occupancy, temperature, air quality, noise. Instead of a wall of disconnected systems, one place shows what's actually happening across the building right now.

OCCUPANCY
64%
CO₂
Normal
TEMP
21.4°
ALERTS
1 open

Heating and lighting respond automatically.

A meeting room built for twenty with three people in it doesn't need full climate control. The system scales HVAC and lighting to real occupancy automatically no manual overrides, no wasted output.

HVAC output
↓ 42%
Lighting
Dimmed to 60%
Room
Meeting Rm 3B
Trigger
3 of 20 present

Every week, the picture gets clearer.

Usage data accumulates into real evidence which rooms are chronically underused, which desks nobody wants, where energy is actually going. That's what turns a sensor network into a facilities and leasing decision-making tool.

Mon Sun
See it in action

Space Management, in an office.

What the system can do

Three sensing tiers accurate counting, and separately, comfort.

Counting people and monitoring air quality are different jobs. Kadan's range keeps them as different products, so you specify exactly the capability each space needs.

HPD — optical, desk-level

Compares real-time imagery against a library of 150,000 positive and 7 million negative reference images to tell a person apart from a shadow the world's first optical presence detector that can count people, not just detect whether someone's there, moving or still.

  • Detection angle110°
  • RangeUp to 10 m (96 m²)
  • Zones per sensor5 (KNX) or 10 (IP)
  • Max mounting height6 m
  • IntegrationKNX or IP (REST/BACnet/MQTT)
Powered by Steinel HPD optical sensing

EO — infrared matrix, path tracking

Uses infrared-only heat-matrix detection no camera or optical imaging at any point to count people and trace anonymous movement paths through a space using temporary session IDs, on top of simple occupancy counting.

  • Detection angle360°
  • CoverageUp to 48 m² per sensor
  • Zones per sensor10
  • Max mounting height3.5 m
  • Power consumption~1.2 W in operation
  • IntegrationIP (REST/BACnet/MQTT), Bluetooth Mesh
Powered by Steinel EO infrared matrix sensing

Multisensor — comfort & air quality

A separate function to counting: this tier monitors the conditions people actually notice CO₂ build-up, VOCs, humidity and ambient noise feeding the same Capstone dashboard.

  • MeasuresCO₂, VOC, humidity, noise
  • PurposeComfort & IAQ, not occupancy counting
  • Feeds intoCapstone, alongside HPD/EO data
Steinel Multisensor range
Not sure which one you need?

Click what matters most to see the recommended tier.

This comes down to what you need from the sensor, not what kind of room it's in HPD and EO can both work in an open-plan office or a closed one, and it's common to run both in the same building.

Recommended: HPD

When you need to know exactly which desk or seat is occupied not just that someone's present somewhere nearby HPD's optical sensing gives that resolution within its 96 m² coverage per sensor. That need can show up in a closed office just as easily as in one zone of a larger open-plan floor; it's about the precision required, not the shape of the room.

Best forDesk-level precision
CoverageUp to 96 m² per sensor
Accuracy levelIndividual desk
IntegrationKNX / IP

Recommended: EO

When you want anonymous movement tracking through a space understanding flow and dwell time, not just a headcount or need a sensor with no camera-like optical system at any point, EO is the right choice. Its per-sensor coverage (up to 48 m²) and maximum mounting height (3.5 m) are both lower than HPD's, so it suits standard-height rooms rather than high-bay spaces, and it connects over IP with Bluetooth Mesh for setup rather than KNX.

Best forMovement & flow tracking
Zones per sensor10
Max mounting height3.5 m
IntegrationIP, Bluetooth Mesh

Recommended: Multisensor

If the priority is air quality and comfort rather than counting people CO₂ build-up in a packed lecture theatre, humidity in a plant room Multisensor is the right tier, and it runs alongside HPD or EO.

Best forComfort & IAQ
MeasuresCO₂, VOC, humidity
Also tracksAmbient noise
Runs alongsideHPD or EO
Built different

Hardwired, not battery-powered. Native BMS integration, not a bridge.

A lot of occupancy sensors on the market are wireless and battery-powered convenient to install, but with batteries to track and replace, and often a separate gateway needed to talk to a building management system. Kadan's range takes a different approach.

Typical wireless sensor Kadan's range
Power Battery — periodic replacement across every unit Hardwired via KNX or PoE
BMS integration Often needs a separate gateway Native BACnet & MQTT - no gateway needed
Update frequency Periodic scans, to conserve battery Continuous, real-time
Failure points Protocol translation adds a layer Direct integration, one less layer
Ongoing maintenance Battery tracking & replacement across the fleet None - no batteries to manage

A category comparison based on how wireless occupancy sensors generally work, not a claim about any specific competitor's product.

Two ways to deploy

Permanent installation, or a short-term rental study.

Not every project needs a permanent install straight away. A rental deployment can gather real occupancy data first useful for fit-out companies and space-planning studies deciding what to build.

For long-term building automation

Sensors are hardwired via KNX or PoE as part of the building's fixed infrastructure, feeding Capstone continuously and integrating directly into your existing BMS via BACnet or MQTT.

Talk to us about a permanent install
KNX / PoE sensors
Capstone
Your BMS

For a fixed-term data-gathering study

A temporary deployment collects real occupancy data over a defined period — without a permanent hardwired install — so fit-out and workplace-strategy teams can plan against evidence rather than assumptions.

Ask about a rental deployment
Temporary sensors
Capstone
Study report & insights
The intelligence layer

Capstone visualises every sensor and light on the network.

Capstone recognises and visualises every connected IP and Bluetooth sensor and luminaire with room, floor and building-level views and generates optimisation proposals based on what it's actually seeing. Switch views below.

Live
Level 3 East Wing · Zone occupancy
Meeting Rm 3A
8
of 12 seats
Meeting Rm 3B
3
of 20 seats
Open Plan — East
41
of 60 seats
Open Plan — West
52
of 60 seats
Breakout Lounge
6
of 16 seats
Phone Booths (4)
2
of 4 seats
Occupancy over time —
Selected
Occupancy
Temperature
CO₂
Lighting
Conditions
Avg. temperature
21.8°C
Within range
Humidity
47%
Optimal
Air quality
Good
All zones
Open alerts
1
Needs review
Open Plan West is running above 85% capacity for the third consecutive hour. Consider reviewing desk allocation.
Illustrative sample data for demonstration purposes shown to represent the kind of real-time view a Space Management deployment provides, not a reproduction of any actual software interface or a live building.
Privacy, by design

No cameras, no facial recognition, no personal identification.

HPD and EO count and locate people using optical and infrared matrix sensing never imaging that could identify an individual. Nothing captured by these sensors can be used to recognise a specific person. The system answers "how many, and where" never "who."

Where this applies

Built for spaces where usage is hard to predict.

See how it plays out for your kind of building.

Hybrid work means desks go unused on off-peak days — but until now, nobody's had real data on which desks or zones actually get used.

  • See exactly which desks and zones get used, by day and by team
  • Right-size your floor plan against real attendance, not policy assumptions
  • Employees find genuinely free space through an app, not guesswork
  • Back lease and fit-out decisions with hard occupancy data
Talk to us about office space
Desk utilisation by zone — illustrative example, one Tuesday
Sales team 4 / 10 desks
Engineering 8 / 12 desks
Marketing 3 / 8 desks
Hot-desk pool 15 / 20 desks

60% average utilisation across these zones — 40% of desks sit empty on a typical day.

Rooms get booked in the calendar and then sit empty. Ghost meetings waste some of your most expensive square metres.

  • Compare booked capacity against real attendance, live
  • Automatically flag or release no-show bookings
  • HVAC and lighting scale to who's actually in the room
  • Build the case for the room sizes you actually need
Talk to us about meeting rooms
Booked capacity vs. actual attendance — illustrative example, one week
Boardroom 7 / 20 booked
Meeting Rm 3B 5 / 12 booked
Huddle Room A 5 / 6 booked
Training Room 11 / 30 booked

Across these rooms, 59% of booked capacity went unused — seats reserved but never filled.

Lecture halls and tutorial rooms are usually timetabled against enrolment numbers, not real attendance or how a room is actually used across a semester.

  • Track attendance by room and time slot, across a whole semester
  • Spot lecture halls that are consistently over- or under-sized
  • Keep CO₂ and air quality in check in packed lecture theatres
  • Feed real usage data into future campus planning decisions
Talk to us about campus spaces
Enrolment vs. actual attendance — illustrative example, semester average
Lecture Theatre 1 141 / 220 enrolled
Lecture Theatre 2 92 / 180 enrolled
Tutorial Room 4 26 / 30 enrolled
Seminar Room B 22 / 45 enrolled

On average, roughly 4 in 10 enrolled seats go unfilled across these spaces each week.

Aged care and healthcare facilities need to know a resident or patient room is occupied and safe — without cameras, which residents and families rightly object to in private and clinical spaces.

  • Anonymous occupancy detection in resident rooms and common areas, with no imaging at any point
  • Feed presence data into nurse-call or care-management systems for faster response
  • Identify underused common areas and lounges to inform facility planning
  • Monitor air quality in shared spaces where infection control and comfort both matter
Talk to us about healthcare & aged care
Common area utilisation — illustrative example, one week
Main lounge 18% of hours occupied
Dining room 42% of hours occupied
Activity room 11% of hours occupied
Outdoor courtyard 7% of hours occupied

Anonymous occupancy data — never who was present, only how the space was used.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

No. HPD and EO use optical and infrared matrix sensing to count and locate people — neither captures imagery that could identify an individual. There's no camera feed involved at any point.
Yes — sensors support KNX or IP-based integration with native BACnet and MQTT, so they can connect directly into most existing BMS platforms without a translation gateway.
No — a rental deployment can run for a fixed study period without hardwiring, which suits fit-out planning or a space-utilisation study before committing to a permanent build.
HPD and EO both count and locate people, using different technology. HPD is optical, covering more area per sensor (up to 96 m²) and mounting higher (up to 6 m), suited to desk-level accuracy. EO is infrared-matrix only — no camera or optical imaging at any point — with a smaller per-sensor area (up to 48 m²) and lower maximum mounting (3.5 m), but adds anonymous path tracking through a space. Multisensor is a separate product measuring comfort and air quality (CO₂, VOCs, humidity, noise) rather than occupancy.
No — permanent deployments are hardwired via KNX or PoE, so there are no batteries to track or replace across a building's sensor network.
HPD supports mounting up to 6 m; EO's maximum is 3.5 m. Both suit standard commercial ceiling heights — for very high-bay spaces, talk to us about the right sensor for the mounting height involved.
Offices are a common use case, but the same sensing range is deployed across education, hotels and accommodation, healthcare and aged care, industrial and warehouse facilities, residential and apartment buildings, retail, and car parks — anywhere occupancy data can inform how a space is run.
Both, depending on how it's configured. EO can simply count people per zone, or trace anonymous movement paths through a space — useful for understanding how people flow through a floor, retail area or entrance. Path tracking uses a temporary, anonymous session identifier to follow a path frame to frame — it's never tied to a name, face or any personally identifiable information.
EO divides its coverage area into up to 10 individually definable zones per sensor. HPD offers a similar zone count — up to 10 on the IP variant, 5 on KNX — but over a larger area (up to 96 m² versus EO's 48 m²) and a higher maximum mounting height. The two sensors differ more in mounting height, coverage and detection technology than in raw zone count.
HPD and EO connect via KNX or IP, not DALI-2 directly. Steinel's separate DALI-2 LuxMaster range handles DALI-2 lighting control — talk to us if you want occupancy data from HPD or EO feeding into a DALI-2 lighting setup.

See what your building is actually telling you.

Talk to Kadan's team about a Space Management pilot from a single meeting room through to a full-building deployment.

Talk to our team Back to all Solutions