Indoor tracking systems: find the right technology, then make it work
Indoor tracking tells you where equipment, stock and people are inside a building, where GPS cannot reach. Since 2011 we help hospitals, factories, warehouses, offices and venues choose and deploy the indoor location tracking that fits their site: a real time location system (RTLS) when the job needs a live position, a simple RFID gate when it does not. We build our own Bluetooth and video tracking systems, and we work with UWB, RFID, Wi-Fi and long-range positioning, so the recommendation follows your problem, not our catalog.
Talk to an engineer, not a salesperson. Calls in English, Italian and Spanish.
What is an indoor tracking system?
An indoor tracking system, also called an indoor positioning system (IPS) or RTLS, locates tagged objects or people inside buildings. GPS needs a clear view of the sky, so indoors the position has to come from infrastructure in the building: radio receivers that pick up small tags, readers at gates, or cameras. Software turns those signals into a position on a floor plan, alerts and data your own systems can use.
Tags or people
What you want to find. A Bluetooth beacon on a wheelchair, an RFID label on a pallet, a badge worn by staff, or nothing at all when cameras count people anonymously.
Infrastructure in the building
Nodes, anchors, readers or cameras that detect the tags. How many you need, and where, decides most of the cost and the accuracy of an indoor positioning system.
Software and data
A live map, geofences and alerts, plus an API and raw data so positions reach your maintenance system, WMS, ERP or BI tools instead of sitting in a dashboard nobody opens.
Indoor tracking solutions, by the problem you need to solve
People rarely search for a technology. They search because something keeps getting lost, a space is over or under used, or visitors cannot find their way. Start from the problem that sounds like yours.
Find equipment and assets
Infusion pumps, tools, carts, forklifts: indoor asset tracking to find equipment in seconds, with the accuracy the job actually needs.
Track pallets and stock in a warehouse
RFID gates, BLE or video: how to choose a warehouse tracking system, and why RFID is often enough.
Count people and measure occupancy
Anonymous people counting using the CCTV cameras you already have. No badges, no facial recognition.
Measure how offices are used
Desks and rooms you pay for and nobody uses: workplace occupancy measured on spaces, not on people.
Locate staff and visitors
Where a real time location system for people helps, where it is the wrong tool, and what privacy rules require.
Guide visitors indoors
Hospitals, airports, museums and malls: indoor wayfinding and visitor flow analytics for museums, venues and airports.
Indoor positioning technologies we work with
There is no single best indoor location technology. Each one trades accuracy, infrastructure and cost differently, and the right choice depends on what decision the position has to support. This is the short version: the full comparison is on our UWB vs BLE vs RFID page.
Bluetooth (BLE), our Beacon Tracker
Room and zone level location, 1 to 3 meters in 90% of cases, with small battery tags and receivers on the ceiling. Best for equipment and people across whole buildings. Not for sub-second or sub-meter needs. Bluetooth Beacon Tracker
Video, our Sentinel Video Tracker
Counts and locates people on existing CCTV, 98% counting accuracy and 20 cm position accuracy, with no tags to wear. Best for footfall, occupancy and flows. Not for identifying a specific asset. Sentinel Video Tracker
Passive RFID
Tells you that an item passed a reader, not where it is right now. Best for gates, docks and inventory counts, at the lowest cost per item. Not for a live position on a map. RFID asset tracking
Ultra-wideband (UWB)
Sub-meter accuracy and sub-second updates, with a dense network of anchors. Best for forklifts, robots and safety zones. Not worth it when knowing the room is enough. UWB tracking
Long-range positioning, with our partner Wheere
According to Wheere, a few gateways around a site can cover up to about one square kilometer. Best for large or multi-building sites. Not for a single floor or a small office. Long range indoor positioning
Wi-Fi positioning
Uses access points you may already own to locate phones and Wi-Fi tags. Best when installing new hardware is not an option. Usually coarser than BLE: we tell you on the call whether it is enough.
When you do not need an indoor tracking system
Many projects we are asked about do not need a real time location system at all. Saying so on the first call costs us a sale and saves you a budget, and it is why the rest of our advice is worth listening to.
You only need to know that something passed a point
If the question is "did this pallet leave the building", one RFID reader at the door answers it. An RTLS would be a more expensive way to get the same answer.
Nobody will act on the position
If no decision, alert or work order changes when you know where something is, the map will be admired for a month and then ignored. We help you find that decision first.
Signs or a process would fix it
Visitors getting lost is sometimes a signage problem, and equipment hoarding is sometimes a process problem. We will say when a cheaper fix comes first.
You need sub-meter accuracy everywhere
Very often only one aisle, one cell or one doorway needs it. Covering a whole building with UWB because one area needs it multiplies the cost for no benefit.
Why ask us first
Indoor tracking companies usually sell one technology. We make two of our own, and we work with the others, so we can compare them honestly for your building.
Technology provider and consultant
Our Bluetooth Beacon Tracker and Sentinel Video Tracker are our own patented technologies, each covered by several patents. For UWB, RFID, Wi-Fi and long-range positioning we work with partners.
Measured in your building, not in a brochure
Every project starts with a small pilot in a real area of your site, so you see the accuracy you actually get before you commit to a rollout.
Your software, your data
REST API, push callbacks and raw data exports. Positions flow into your own systems, and you are not locked into our dashboard.
Cloud or on-premise
A cloud subscription or a one-time on-premise license, for both of our systems, depending on your IT and security policies.
How an indoor tracking project works
The same four steps on every project, whatever the technology turns out to be. We can stop at the end of any of them, and sometimes we recommend it. Details on how we work.
1. Free 30-minute discovery call
What you want to locate, how many items, how precisely, in what kind of building, and what should happen with the data. You leave with our honest read.
2. Site assessment
Floor plans, structure, ceiling height, metal, existing Wi-Fi and power. This turns a technology choice into a realistic plan and a real number.
3. Pilot
A measured deployment in a real area. For Bluetooth, at least 6 nodes covering about 300 m2.
4. Rollout and integration
Full deployment sized on what the pilot measured, integration via API, training and support.
Indoor tracking by industry
The same technologies solve different problems in different buildings. These are the sectors we work in most.
Healthcare
Hospital asset tracking for pumps, wheelchairs and beds, patient flow and staff safety. RTLS for healthcare
Manufacturing
Tools, work in progress, forklifts and safety zones on the plant floor. Manufacturing asset tracking
Warehousing and logistics
Pallets, docks and vehicles, from RFID gates to live forklift tracking. Warehouse tracking
Retail
Footfall, store heat maps and queue analytics on existing cameras. Retail foot traffic analytics
Offices and smart buildings
Desk and room utilization, measured anonymously. Workplace occupancy
Museums, venues and airports
Visitor flows, queues and indoor navigation. Visitor flow analytics
How much does an indoor tracking system cost?
Projects start at a USD 5,000 minimum commitment, which includes the pilot. The discovery call and the site assessment are free. Above that, the price of an indoor positioning system depends on a few factors you can estimate before talking to anyone. See our pricing and engagement models.
Area and floors
The surface to cover and the number of levels decide how much infrastructure goes in.
Accuracy
Zone level needs far fewer receivers than meter level, and meter level far fewer than sub-meter.
Number of tags
Tracking 50 assets and tracking 5,000 are different projects, mostly in hardware and installation.
Integration
Connecting positions to your existing software is often the part that creates the value, and it is scoped from the start.
Frequently asked questions
What is RTLS?
RTLS stands for real time location system: tags, infrastructure in the building and software that together report where tagged assets or people are, continuously and in near real time. RTLS is one kind of indoor tracking. Knowing only that an item passed a door, which is what passive RFID does, is not RTLS, and it is often enough.
What is the difference between RTLS and RFID?
Passive RFID records that a tag passed a reader, at a gate or a dock. An RTLS gives a continuous position on a map, using Bluetooth, UWB or video. RFID costs less per item and needs readers only at the points you care about. RTLS needs coverage everywhere you want a position. Our RFID asset tracking page explains when RFID is enough.
How accurate is indoor positioning?
It depends on the technology and the building. Our Bluetooth Beacon Tracker gives 1 to 3 meters in 90% of cases, UWB reaches sub-meter, and Sentinel Video Tracker resolves people to 20 cm within the camera view. We measure the accuracy in your building during the pilot, because a datasheet number from another site does not tell you what you will get.
Why does GPS not work indoors?
GPS needs a clear view of the sky. Roofs, concrete and steel block or reflect satellite signals, so indoors a phone loses the fix or drifts between rooms, and it cannot tell which floor you are on. Indoor tracking takes its position from infrastructure inside the building instead.
Can indoor location tracking use the Wi-Fi or cameras we already have?
Often, yes. Sentinel Video Tracker works on existing CCTV, and Wi-Fi positioning can use access points you already own. Our Bluetooth receivers send their data over Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Whether your existing infrastructure is good enough is one of the things the site assessment answers.
Does it work across several floors and buildings?
Yes. The Bluetooth Beacon Tracker supports up to 30 levels, from -10 to +20 plus the ground floor, with one floor plan per level, across several buildings. For very large sites, long-range positioning can reduce the infrastructure needed.
How much does it cost to roll out indoor tracking across a warehouse or a campus?
It is driven by the area, the accuracy you need, the number of tags and the integration work. Every project starts with a USD 5,000 minimum commitment that includes a pilot, and the pilot gives you a measured basis for the rollout price instead of an estimate.
Do you track people with facial recognition?
No. Sentinel Video Tracker counts people and measures occupancy and flows without identifying anyone: no names, no profiles, no facial recognition. When a project needs to locate specific staff, it uses badges that people know they wear, under the rules that apply in your country.
Not sure which indoor tracking technology you need? That is normal.
Tell us what you want to locate and why. In 30 minutes you will know which technologies are worth evaluating, which are not, and whether you need a system at all.