FC FCX Security Team Jul 14, 2026 5 min read
The most common question we get is also the hardest to answer in one number: "How many detectors do we need?" The honest answer is that it depends on two things — how many people are coming, and how fast you want them inside. Here's the simple way we think about it.
A 5,000-person event doesn't need to screen 5,000 people evenly across the night. Almost everyone shows up in a tight window right before the main event starts. That surge — not your total attendance — is what determines how many lanes you need. Plan for the busiest 30 to 60 minutes and the rest of the night takes care of itself.
A single walk-through detector clears somewhere between 400 and 900 guests per hour, depending on how thoroughly you screen. To size your checkpoint, divide the crowd you expect in your entry window by that per-lane rate:
So if you want 3,000 guests inside within an hour at a standard pace, that's roughly 3,000 ÷ 600 = five lanes. Tighten the window to 30 minutes and you'll need closer to ten. It really is that sensitive to time — which is why the entry window is the number worth negotiating first.
First, sizing to the average instead of the peak. Second, forgetting that divestment slows everything down — the more guests have to empty their pockets, the fewer you clear per minute. Third, running with no spare: when one unit goes down mid-rush and there's no backup, the whole line stops. For anything above a few lanes, we stage a spare on standby.
If you'd rather not do the arithmetic, our detector planner does it for you — enter your attendance and how fast you want everyone in, and it estimates the number of units, the throughput, and the time to clear the crowd. It's a planning-level estimate; for a firm recommendation we factor in your venue layout, arrival pattern, and staffing.
Tell us the date, venue, and headcount and we'll confirm the exact setup — and whether you want to rent the units, add our operators, or both.
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