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Member’s Only – Exploring the Access Control Capabilities of a People Counter

November 8, 2018

Updated 5/5/2022

Anti-Tailgating Access Control System for Gyms and Fitness Centers

anti-tailgating access control system

You’ve been a member at your local gym now for almost 10 years. Your loyalty to the gym runs deep. Your spouse who you begged to join is now signed up and does cardio with his pals four days a week, and your two kids take martial arts and gymnastics lessons while you relieve stress during a yoga session. Yes, when it comes to memberships, yours makes the gym most proud – your dedication to your exercise regimen, your effectiveness marketing the gym to your family and friends, and of course your prompt payment of your monthly membership fee.

The membership fee, which all must pay to experience the great offerings of the gym. The membership fee, which keeps both your body and the gym in business. The membership fee, which some tend to abuse.

You see it quite a bit…someone swipes their card to get through the gym doors while their freeloading partner quickly slides on in behind them. Look, we all wish we could work out for free, but we know the membership fee comes with the territory. It’s the one thing that month after month allows you to say, “I’m a member here”, but now you watch in frustration as your favorite pieces of gym equipment get used by a person who didn’t even have the decency to buy a day pass. If you think you’re upset about this non-member using your elliptical, then imagine how those who run the gym must be feeling.

Day after day, month after month, and year after year the gym will continue to lose out on new membership opportunities. Lost revenue and profit dollars walking in and out of the door each day with no end in sight. Let’s say your gym charges $35.00 per month, which is $420.00 per year to be a member. If your gym has 15 people cheating the membership system, this is a loss of $6,300 for the year. That could be the difference in getting some new equipment, or adding that kickboxing class you’ve heard so much about. Dishonest entry is now hindering the gym and the services they provide which is now inconveniencing you, the consumer. So, how does it stop? Can there be an end to these shady events?

Tailgating and Access Control

Here at SenSource we call these events, tailgates. Tailgates are supposed to go unnoticed and undetected…until now.

Currently, an access control system alone can determine an entry based on a swipe or scan of a badge or card. What that access control system cannot do is determine those who do not abide by the rules of entry.

An anti-tailgating access control system utilizes a people counting sensor paired with an existing access control system to detect and alert tailgating events.

SenSource’s anti-tailgating access control system uses 3D stereo video tracking and counting sensors to integrate with access control in order to detect a tailgating event. There are two primary factors the system monitors to determine a tailgate. The first is a threshold put on the time from a scan/swipe, to the actual entry into the facility. The second factor is the number of individual counts that occurred within that timeframe. Once these parameters are set, the sensor can properly signal to indicate a tailgate and action can then be taken.

Now gym and fitness center owners can keep their facility secure, stop losing money on unpaid tailgate users and offer their true gym members the best experience by implementing an anti-tailgate access control system.

In addition to gyms, anti-tailgate access control systems are used at corporate and government facilities and other physical access control applications. Contact us to learn how an anti-tailgating system will make the most of your existing access control system.

Guest Contributor
Brendon Badway, Senior Account Manager