Trades and lab instructor
Needs an overhead detail camera on the work surface alongside the wide shot, so remote students see the hands, not a blur.
Education & training
Teach the thing, not a pixelated impression of it.
Anything taught with the hands — a weld, a suture, a lathe, a fretboard — collapses at 720p. 4K Chat lets an instructor run a wide shot and an overhead detail camera at once, each as its own full-resolution participant, so remote students see what's actually happening.
- 2–4
- Simultaneous angles per instructor — wide, overhead, and detail.
- $0
- Per-minute media cost, because there is no media server to pay for.
- Smart TV
- Install as a PWA on classroom panels, no cast box required.
- No account
- Students join from a link, which keeps IT and privacy reviews short.
Who this is for
Programme coordinator
Wants remote cohorts to get the same visual fidelity as students in the room, without buying a lecture-capture system.
Campus IT
Prefers a tool with no media server, no recordings sitting in a vendor cloud, and nothing to install on lab machines.
Why hands-on subjects resist remote teaching
- One webcam can't show both the person and the work surface.
- Detail work is exactly what compression throws away first.
- Instructors end up juggling a phone on a tripod, a screen share, and a separate chat.
Where normal conferencing breaks
- Platforms allow one camera per person, so a second angle means a second fake account.
- Shared video is capped and re-encoded, so the detail cam looks worse than the wide shot.
- Classroom displays need a native app that Smart TVs often can't run.
What 4K Chat brings to it
Multiple angles per instructor
Overhead, detail, and wide cameras join as separate participants — device cameras and capture cards today, with WHEP encoders coming.
How it works →4K and 8K detail
Students can see stitch spacing, bead profile, or finger placement, with a live readout of the resolution they're actually receiving.
How it works →Waiting room and host controls
Admit students individually, remove disruptors, and lock the room once the session starts.
Smart TV in the classroom
Install as a PWA on webOS, Tizen, or Android TV for a 10-foot layout that works with a remote.
How it works →Chat and reactions over data channels
Questions and reactions ride the same peer connections as the video — never a server.
Noise reduction for workshops
On-device filtering takes out fan and equipment rumble before your voice is encoded, without a cloud round-trip.
Setting up a session
- 1
Set the bench up once
Open a room on the instructor machine and add the overhead and detail cameras as extra sources.
- 2
Share the class link
Students join in a browser with one link. Turn on the waiting room if the cohort is closed.
- 3
Run wide and detail together
Students pin whichever angle they need and swap without interrupting you.
- 4
Let students record their own copy
Recording is local, so a student can keep a reference file on their own device.
Gear that works
USB overhead / document cameras
Add as a second camera participant so the detail view gets its own full-size tile instead of hiding in a corner.
Classroom panels (webOS, Tizen, Android TV)
Install as a PWA and use the ten-foot interface with a remote — no laptop tethered to the display.
Phones and tablets as roaming angles
A phone joins as an extra participant for close-ups around the bench, and drops out when it is done.
Existing lab cameras (coming)
Fixed WHEP or RTSP cameras in the shop will be admittable as participants once IP camera bridging lands.
Will this actually work for us?
Does it scale to a big class?
It's built for small, interactive groups on a direct peer-to-peer mesh. Large lectures are better served by one-way streaming.
Can we record the session?
Yes, locally on the recording machine. Nothing is uploaded, so the file is yours from the moment you stop.
What about student privacy?
Media never touches our infrastructure; only a few kilobytes of signaling metadata do. There is no cloud recording copy to govern.
Will it work on campus Wi-Fi?
Usually yes on STUN alone. Wired is better for the instructor's multi-camera side; adaptive bitrate handles the students' varying links.
Questions we get
How many students can join?
Rooms run as a full mesh — every participant connects directly to every other, with no media server. It's built for small groups where quality matters more than headcount.
Do extra cameras slow the class down?
No — camera feeds are budgeted from leftover uplink and marked low priority, so people's video is served first.
Keep reading
Recommended plan: Pro or Cinema
Pro covers a small cohort with a second camera; Cinema fits larger classes plus several angles at once.