Home / Environmental Sensors

The places a camera cannot go.

Vape and smoke detection, air quality, noise and occupancy — multi-function sensors for toilets, changing rooms and classrooms, alerting in real time and tied to the nearest camera.

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What they measure

One sensor, several jobs

These started as vape detectors and turned into the most useful device in a school or an office, because the same unit answers questions about air quality and occupancy that nobody could answer before.

Vape and smoke

Detects the aerosol signature of vaping, including THC, and alerts named staff instantly.

Vape and THC detection
Smoke detection
Real-time alerts to a rota
Tamper and obstruction alerts

Air quality

CO₂, PM2.5, TVOC, temperature and humidity — the numbers behind stuffy classrooms and headaches after lunch.

CO₂ as a proxy for ventilation
Particulates and TVOC
Temperature and humidity
Trends, not just snapshots

Noise and occupancy

Noise level without recording audio, plus motion and occupancy, so you can see how a space is really used.

Decibel level, no audio recorded
Occupancy and motion
Useful for space planning
Alerts on thresholds you set

How it works

How an install runs

Placement decides whether this works. Everything else is a bracket.

Survey

Where incidents have actually been reported, what the airflow is like, and which camera covers the way in and out.

Design

A sensor schedule and alert routing agreed with the safeguarding or facilities lead who will receive them.

Install and commission

Fitted, paired to the nearest cameras, thresholds tuned so the first week is not all noise.

Handover

The people who get the alerts are trained on what to do with them, which is the part that decides whether it works.

The hardware

One unit, several measurements

No camera and no microphone in the sensor — which is the reason it can go where a camera cannot.

The range: SV23 · SV25 — vape, smoke, air quality, noise and occupancy in one housing

Where this earns its keep

Vape detection in schools

This is the single most requested thing on this page, and the reason is simple: modern e-cigarettes are discreet and odourless, so the traditional method — a member of staff happening to be there — does not work.

Sensors go where a camera cannot: toilets, changing rooms, boarding house bathrooms. They detect the aerosol signature rather than record anything, alert the safeguarding team in real time, and pull up the camera covering the corridor outside so an incident has a time, a place and a context.

Two live examples. Cranleigh School runs it across a 280-acre boarding campus with 961 pupils; Pipers Corner runs a deliberately targeted deployment in the senior school of a 605-pupil day school. Both are on this site.

Cranleigh School Pipers Corner School

What a school usually asks

Does it record in toilets?

No. There is no camera and no microphone in the sensor. It measures the air.

Can it tell who it was?

Not on its own. It tells you where and when, and the nearest camera shows who was in the corridor.

Is it proportionate?

That is your call, and it is worth making deliberately. A targeted deployment where incidents have actually been reported is easier to defend than a blanket one.

Does it deter, or just detect?

Both, in practice. Both schools report the deterrent effect as the bigger result once pupils know it is there.

A Verkada SV23 sensor on a ceiling as vapour drifts past — The SV23 measures the air — no camera, no microphone. This is the sensor doing its job.

Why us

What makes this different

Targeted beats blanket

A deployment focused where incidents were reported is cheaper, more defensible and just as effective. We will say so even though it is a smaller order.

Tied to the cameras

An alert with no context is an annoyance. Every sensor is paired with the camera covering the approach, so staff see the situation, not just a notification.

Thresholds tuned, not left at default

Aerosol from a deodorant can look like vaping until the thresholds are set. We tune them before handover.

No cameras, no microphones

It is worth being able to say this plainly to parents, staff and unions: the sensor measures air and sound level. It does not record anything.

FAQ

Common questions

Does it record audio or video?

No. It measures noise as a decibel level and does not record audio, and it has no camera. That distinction is the reason it can be used where a camera cannot.

Where should they go?

Where incidents have actually been reported. In schools that is usually senior toilets, changing rooms and sheltered outdoor spaces. We will resist putting them everywhere.

Can it tell vaping from an aerosol deodorant?

With the thresholds tuned, largely yes — it looks at the signature rather than just the particle count. Expect a settling-in period in the first fortnight.

What do we do with an alert?

That is the important question and it is a policy one, not a technical one. Typically it goes to a duty rota, staff check the adjacent camera for context, and it is dealt with pastorally. We will help you write it down before go-live.

Do we need to tell people they are installed?

Yes, and you should want to. The deterrent effect is most of the value, and quietly monitoring air quality in a toilet without telling anyone is the sort of thing that ends up in a complaint.