How to Plan a Hybrid Classroom: Lectures, Demonstrations and Discussions, With Remote Students Following Along

First, the terms: what is a hybrid classroom?

“Hybrid classroom” is not a standard term, and schools and websites use the surrounding words in different ways. These are the common ones; they overlap but are not identical:

In this guide, a “hybrid classroom” is a classroom where the teacher teaches in the room while students also take part online, live, the point where “synchronous remote” and “hybrid” meet in the table. Whatever your school calls it, the equipment is the same: online students must see the teacher and the teaching content, and hear everyone in the room.

Scene one: an ordinary lecture, the teacher at the front, students at their seats

This is the most common case. The teacher stands near the front and teaches with slides or the board, students sit in the room, and some students are online. Online students care about two things: seeing the teacher and the board, and hearing classmates’ questions. The teacher’s microphone is usually fine; what gets lost is what students in the room say, so online students hear the teacher answering but not the question.

Start with the S12+ and the P20i, which are enough for most classrooms. Both are PTZ cameras that you can steer left and right, tilt, and zoom remotely, and you can save common positions as presets, for example the front, the board and the wide shot, then switch with one button. They differ in zoom and in tracking:

• S12+: 1080p, 12x optical zoom, horizontal field of view from 72.5° to 6.9°, 255 presets, and a USB connection to the teacher’s computer with no driver to install. It suits small and medium classrooms and training rooms.
• P20i: 1080p, 20x optical zoom, 3.36° at the telephoto end, so a camera at the back of the room still catches the teacher’s face and the board. It has built-in AI person tracking, so when the teacher walks around or turns to write, the camera follows. It connects by USB, and also has HDMI, 3G-SDI and network output. It suits medium and large classrooms, and teachers who move a lot.

For sound, first see what the room already has: most classrooms already have a microphone at the front and a sound system, which is the most common combination and can simply be reused (see “Reusing the classroom’s existing microphones” below). If there is no pickup equipment, or you want to pick up what students say, put an SM-500 speakerphone on the desk. One unit picks up 360° within a radius of 4 metres, with built-in echo cancellation and noise reduction; in a larger room use up to four together, so there is a microphone and a speaker near every row. The units connect to each other wirelessly, so there is no cable to run and no installation work. It connects to the computer over USB, with no driver needed on Windows or macOS. In a very large room, such as a tiered lecture hall, the S12+ and the P20i may still show the teacher too small when fully zoomed in; then consider the P30i (30x optical zoom, 2.28° at the telephoto end, also with AI tracking). To make small text on the board and slides clearer, consider the 4K TX20i. These two are advanced options, not something every classroom needs.

Scene two: demonstration teaching, where the hands are what matters

In a demonstration class students are not watching the teacher’s face but the hands: pattern making and sewing, hairstyling, cooking, experiments. The teacher works and explains at the same time, and students need to see every detail. In the room, students crowd round the demonstration table and the back rows often cannot see; online, the camera used for a lecture shows even less of what the hands are doing.

The approach is to hang a PTZ camera from the ceiling above the demonstration position, aim it at the table and capture the hands up close, then enlarge the picture on the projection screen so the whole class sees; the same picture goes to the online students through the video software. A design department at a university of technology does this in several classrooms, including garment design and hair design: a P20i hangs from the ceiling above the demonstration position, and while teaching pattern making, sewing and hairstyling the teacher steers the camera with a K10 controller and enlarges the close-up on the projection screen, so the whole class sees the explanation clearly and understands the knowledge behind the demonstration.

• Camera: the P20i supports upside-down mounting and a ceiling bracket is included in the box. With 20x optical zoom it can zoom in on the work from the ceiling.
• Controller: the K10 finds the camera automatically over a network cable, and its joystick steers with one hand, so the teacher does not have to leave the demonstration table to adjust the camera. It can store 10 presets, for example the wide shot, the left of the table, the right of the table and a close-up of the hands, each recalled with one button.
• Picture: the P20i connects to the computer over USB, so the video software shows the online students the same close-up; in the room, connect a projector over HDMI or SDI.

The same approach suits other classes where the details of the hands matter, such as laboratories, cooking classrooms, technical demonstrations in beauty and nursing, and electrical and automotive workshops. In each, put the camera where it can see the hands clearly and let the teacher operate it.

See installation cases ›

Scene three: discussion classes, where sound matters most

In discussion classes, seminars and group reports, students speak a lot and sit far apart, so sound matters more than picture. If online students cannot hear what the students at the back say, they are not taking part in the discussion.

The microphone at the front only picks up whoever holds it, so what students say has to be picked up separately. Cover the whole room: place SM-500 units to suit the layout of the desks. A desk up to 6 metres long takes one unit, and a larger room takes two to four, with the circles overlapping so every seat is picked up. For the picture, preset the camera on the teacher, the board and the wide shot, and switch to the area of whoever is speaking when needed.

Reusing the classroom’s existing microphones: the most common combination

Most school and training classrooms already have a wireless microphone at the front and a sound system. The most common approach in a hybrid classroom is to reuse them rather than buy new pickup equipment: the teacher’s voice comes from the existing microphone, close to the mouth and clearest, and the teacher does not have to change microphones. The connections are:

1. Connect the existing microphones to the audio processor. Taking the CAVE DMA-702P as an example, the receiver of a wireless microphone goes to the WIRELESS input, and a mixer or other source goes to LINE IN. The room’s sound system keeps working as before.
2. The processor handles echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic gain, and connects to the teacher’s computer by USB; select it as the microphone and speaker in the video software.
3. The online students’ voices come out of the processor’s SPK-OUT and go to the room’s amplifier. The processor also has an echo-cancellation reference input (AEC-REF), so it knows which sound to subtract from what the microphones pick up, and the online students do not hear their own echo.

The benefit is that the teacher keeps familiar equipment and the lecture is clearest. There are two trade-offs: the existing microphones only pick up whoever holds them, so what students say needs separate pickup, either by passing a microphone around or by adding omnidirectional microphones such as the SM-500; and the mixer and the audio processor have to be set up by someone, so we suggest a professional team set them up in the room the first time.

Daily operation: do not turn the teacher into a director

However good the equipment, if the teacher needs ten minutes of setup before each class, or has to keep adjusting it during the class, it ends up unused. The aim is to make the daily routine as simple as possible. A common routine looks like this:

1. At the start of term, turn the camera to the front, the board and the wide shot (and for demonstrations the position for close-ups of the hands), and save each as a preset.
2. Run one trial class and check that every position is clear for online viewers and that the sound is heard.
3. For ordinary classes, the teacher only turns on the computer, connects the USB cable and selects the camera and speakerphone in the video software.

To switch between positions, add a K10 controller; an assistant or a student helper can operate it. To record the class or stream it, add an NSR-200 recorder: connect the camera and the slides computer (or two cameras) to make a “speaker plus slides” or “wide plus close-up” picture, with dedicated record and stream buttons on the unit. If the classroom already has microphones and an amplifier, run a cable from the amplifier or mixer’s recording output to the NSR-200 so the sound the room has already processed is recorded too; do not use the camera microphone to record the loudspeakers, which records echo and noise.

Read how to plan a recording system ›

How to choose: by how the class is taught

The SM-500 in the table is for a classroom with no pickup equipment, or for picking up what students say. These are common setups; adjust them to the room size, the seating and the ceiling height. You can also use the planning wizard on the products page: answer a few questions and get a planning sheet.

Start planning professional cameras ›

Summary: first ask how the class is taught, then choose the equipment

Equipment for a hybrid classroom depends not only on the size of the room but on how the class is taught: a lecture needs the front and the board, a demonstration needs close-ups of the hands, and a discussion needs every voice. Most classrooms need an S12+ or P20i, with the sound reusing the room’s existing microphones through an audio processor; add an SM-500 to pick up students, or when the room has no pickup equipment. For demonstrations, hang a P20i from the ceiling and steer it with a K10. A very large room or a need to see small text calls for the P30i or TX20i, and recording calls for an NSR-200.

If your classroom or the way you teach is unusual, tell us the room size, the seating and what you teach, and our team will get in touch to help you plan.

Contact CAVE about a classroom video setup ›

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