Types of Housing Units – Nobi

In this article, learn which housing unit types Nobi offers, what each one can do, and how to choose the right type.

What

A housing unit is a resident's living space in Nobi. It can hold several rooms, one for each device (Nobi light or Gateway) such as a bedroom, living room and bathroom.

In Nobi, there are four different types of housing units:

Single person
Multi-person unit
Jack & Jill unit
Common area.

For multi-person and Jack & Jill units, we prioritize privacy by applying the most restrictive user privacy, and housing unit settings. Smart monitoring has to be enabled for a resident before any smart feature works, fall detection and monitoring events included.

Two of the housing unit types have two set-ups:

A multi-person unit is configured by bed type: one double bed, or two single beds.
A common area is configured by device type: Nobi lights, or Nobi Gateways.

Why

It is important to know which type of housing unit to configure based on your resident living situation. What Nobi can do differs per type, and so does the way you configure it.

Choosing the type that matches the room means Nobi works the way your care team expects it to: each resident's data is attributed to them, escalations reach the team with the right information, and privacy is respected in shared spaces.

Differences in Types of Housing Units

The illustrations below can help you figure out which type of housing unit you have to configure. Then, read more about each housing unit type below.

Single person

One resident in their own space. Everything Nobi can do is available here, and the resident's own privacy settings apply.

Resident occupancy	One
Fall detection	Yes
Resident named in the escalation	Yes
Monitoring events	All five: in bed, out of bed, sitting on the edge of the bed, out of room, in bathroom
Night reports	Yes
Two-way audio	Yes
Live view and escalation images	Follows the resident's privacy settings
Compatible Nobi Lights	All Nobi lights
Peripherals	Yes

Good to know

In bathroom needs a Nobita in the bathroom, and out of room needs the whole unit covered by Nobi lights.

Multi-person

Multi-person housing units are for two residents sharing one room. Both residents keep their own privacy settings, but the most restrictive of the two is what Nobi applies to the whole room. So if one resident does not want images shared, that applies to the room, and to the other resident with it.

The housing unit can be configured by the bed setup, either both residents in one double bed or each in a single bed. The bed set-up then decides how much Nobi can tell them apart: with two single beds it knows which bed belongs to whom, with one double bed it does not.

	One double bed	Two single beds
Resident occupancy	Two	Two, one per bed
Fall detection	Yes	Yes
Resident named in the escalation	No	No
Monitoring events	In bathroom only	In bathroom, plus in bed, out of bed and sitting on the edge of the bed per resident
Night reports	No	Yes, per resident
Two-way audio	Yes	Yes
Live view and escalation images	Follows the most restrictive of the two	Follows the most restrictive of the two
Compatible Nobi Lights	Gen 2 or 2.1 only	Gen 2 or 2.1 only
Peripherals	Yes	Yes

Good to know

With a Gen 1 light the unit becomes a single person unit by itself and the residents are removed from it, leaving them without a housing unit assignment.
Housing unit settings apply to both residents and cannot be set per resident.
Out of room monitoring event is not available.
If a bed or the light moves, bed detection goes out of date and Nobi raises a technical alert until the bed detection image is retaken.
The unit cannot be changed back to a single person unit while two residents are linked to it.

Jack & Jill

Jack and Jill housing units are best for two residents who each have a private room and share one or more rooms, usually a bathroom. The unit is split into zones: one private zone per resident, and a shared zone for the rooms they use together.

Resident occupancy	Two, one per private room
Fall detection	Yes, everywhere in the unit
Resident named in the escalation	Yes in a private zone, no in the shared zone
Monitoring events	In bathroom only
Night reports	Yes
Two-way audio	Yes
Live view and escalation images	Follows each resident's privacy settings, except in the shared zone. In shared zones, the most restrictive privacy settings apply.
Compatible Nobi Lights	All Nobi lights
Peripherals	Yes, paired per zone

Good to know

A presence button in a private zone pauses that zone and the shared zone. One in the shared zone pauses the whole unit. Either one closes an open escalation.
A peripheral paired to the wrong zone reports against the wrong resident.
Two single person housing units can be transformed into a Jack and Jill via Nobi Support.

Common area

Common areas are shared spaces that belong to everyone rather than to one resident, such as a lounge, dining room or hallway. They can be covered by Nobi Lights, or by Nobi Gateways where you only need wearable calls and assistance calls to be picked up.

	Nobi lights	Nobi Gateways
Resident occupancy	None	None
Fall detection	Yes	No, wearable calls and assistance calls only
Resident named in the escalation	Location announced, not resident	Location announced, not resident
Monitoring events	None	None
Night reports	No	No
Two-way audio	Yes	No
Live view and escalation images	Off by default, a site can allow footage in common areas	No
Compatible Nobi Lights	Any Nobi light	Nobi Gateway, several for a large space or a long corridor
Peripherals	Yes	No

Good to know

A resident cannot be assigned to a common area, so there are no resident insights for it.
A private housing unit cannot be converted into a common area.
Gateways can be powered separately from the lights, so calls still get through during a short power outage.

To learn more about how to configure housing units, read our guides:

Still have questions? Contact Nobi Support.