Dahua IP Camera: People Counting Setup

People Counting tracks the number of individuals passing through a defined entrance or exit line and produces flow-rate reports by hour, day, month, or year. It is suited to retail, hospitality, and venue installations where occupancy figures matter — for staff planning, compliance, or commercial reporting.

Prerequisites

• Camera must support People Counting. Look for "People Counting" or "Flowrate Statistics" in the specification sheet.
• Best results require the camera to be mounted overhead or at a high angle looking down onto the flow path — side-mounted cameras at head height produce less accurate counts.
• The passage being monitored should be narrow enough that individuals pass through in single file or small groups. Wide open spaces reduce accuracy.

Enabling People Counting

1. Log in to the camera web interface.
2. Navigate to Setting > Event > People Counting.
3. Tick Enable to activate the people counting function.
4. Tick Enable OSD Overlay if you want the running enter/leave count to be displayed on the live image. This is useful during commissioning to verify the rule is detecting correctly.

Drawing the Entrance/Exit Rule

1. On the People Counting page, click into the Entrance/Exit tab.
2. Draw a rule line across the passage opening — click two points to define the line.
3. Set the Direction for Enter and Leave — this determines which direction of crossing increments each counter. Verify this visually by walking through in both directions during commissioning.
4. Enable Flowrate Alarm if you want an alert when the count of people inside (Enter minus Leave) exceeds a defined threshold. Set the maximum allowable count for enter, leave, and stranded totals.
5. Click Save.

Configuring Active Period

Set an Active Schedule to restrict counting to operating hours. Crossings outside the active period are ignored and do not appear in reports.

Generating Reports

1. Navigate to Event > People Counting > Report (or Setting > Event > People Counting > Report depending on firmware version).
2. Select Report Type: Day, Month, or Year.
3. Set the Time range — start and end date/time.
4. Select Flow Direction: Enter, Leave, or both.
5. Click Search to load the report. Results display as a bar or line chart.
6. Click Export to save the report data to your computer for client handover or ongoing records.

OSD Count Display

When OSD Overlay is enabled, the camera overlays the running total on the live image:

• The OSD position can be adjusted under Setting > Camera > Video Overlay (refer to the overlay/overlay section of the camera menu).
• The count resets according to the configured reset schedule (daily by default).

Commissioning Check

Walk through the entrance five times in each direction and verify:

• Enter counter increments on entry, Leave counter increments on exit.
• The direction assignment matches the physical layout — if Enter and Leave are reversed, swap the direction setting in the rule.
• Check the Event Log for People Counting events to confirm triggers are recording.

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This article was adapted from dahuawiki's original guidance: "EventPeopleCounting" — https://dahuawiki.com/EventPeopleCounting Habitech-edited for UK trade installer context. Original © Dahua Technology Co., Ltd.