How it works
- Pick what to share in the window: a display, one window, or everything one app shows.
- Start sharing. The window shows the address to read out to the room and how many people are watching.
- Participants type that address into any browser and watch your screen.
Nothing is sent while your screen is still, so an image you leave up while you talk costs the room nothing. Half a second after you stop moving, a full quality frame goes out.
Screen sharing for photography workshops
Fifteen people crowding around one laptop is the problem Spectate was written for. Everyone gets the edit at full size on their own screen instead, close enough to read the panels. Spectate captures Retina pixels, so the sliders and histograms in Lightroom, Capture One or Phocus stay legible on a phone.
The stream paces itself to the airtime the room’s Wi-Fi can spare, measured every second, so the picture keeps moving as more people join. Plug the Mac into the router with a USB-C Ethernet adapter and each frame crosses the air once instead of twice, which roughly doubles the rate the room gets.
What you can share
- A display shares everything on it.
- A window shares that one window and nothing else, so an app’s floating panels stay out of the stream.
- An app shares every window that app shows, floating panels included, and none of the desktop behind them.
Switching the source while you are sharing restarts the stream on the new one. Some apps hide their floating panels from window and app capture; if a panel goes missing from the stream, share the display instead.
Participants send photos back
Turn Uploads on from the menu and participants open the upload page at the same address they are already watching. They type their name once and drop their files in. Phones work too, so a participant can send you a frame from the camera roll without finding a cable.
Files land in a folder on your Mac, named for the participant who sent them, or in one folder each. Nothing is overwritten, and a file appears only once it has fully arrived. Common RAW formats plus JPG, HEIC, TIF and PNG are accepted, up to 2 GB a file. The menu counts them as they land and names the last participant who finished, so you can tell the room you have theirs. Uploads are off every time Spectate starts.
Uploaded photos go to that folder on your Mac and nowhere else. Spectate has no server and keeps no copy.
Branded editions for workshop companies
A branded edition of Spectate carries your company’s name, logo, colours and typeface inside the app. Participants see your branding on the waiting screen before the session starts and while the stream reconnects, with wording you choose. The edition carries its own address, so participants type your name rather than ours, and its own update channel, so your Pros get a build when you release it.
Spectate updates itself
Spectate looks for a new version once a day and when it launches. Those automatic checks wait while you are sharing. When one is ready the Pro sees what changed and an Install button. Nothing installs until they say so.
No internet, no accounts, nothing to install
The stream never leaves the room. Spectate serves it from the Mac itself over the local network, so a workshop in a lodge with no signal runs the same as one in a city. Participants make no account and install nothing; a browser on the same Wi-Fi is the whole requirement. Spectate publishes its own address over Bonjour, so there is nothing to set up on the router.
There is no password on the stream: anyone on that network who has the address can watch. Keep the Mac on networks you control and never open it to the internet.
Questions people ask
Does Spectate need an internet connection?
No. The Mac and the participants’ browsers talk to each other over the local network, and nothing goes out to a server. A room with no signal at all works.
Can participants watch on an iPad, a Windows laptop or a phone?
Yes. Any device with a browser on the same network can watch, and nothing is installed on it. A few Windows laptops cannot resolve the .local address; the menu also shows the Mac’s IP address to hand those people instead.
How many people can watch at once?
Every viewer receives their own copy of the stream, so the room’s Wi-Fi sets the ceiling rather than the app. Spectate measures what the stream is using each second and lowers the frame rate as the room fills, so the picture keeps moving instead of stalling for everyone.
Is the stream live or delayed?
Live. Frames go out as your screen changes, over the same Wi-Fi everyone is standing in. Nothing is sent while the screen is still, and half a second after you stop moving a full quality frame replaces the lighter ones sent during motion.
Does Spectate work on hotel Wi-Fi?
It works on any network that lets devices talk to one another. Many hotel and conference guest networks isolate clients from each other, which blocks the address. Putting the room on an access point you control avoids that.
What does the Pro need?
An Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 26 or later (transcripts need macOS 27). Spectate asks for Screen Recording permission the first time it runs, and for Local Network access. A USB-C Ethernet adapter is worth packing.
Get Spectate
Spectate is licensed to companies that run photography workshops and to Pros who run their own. Write to me about the workshops you teach and the rooms you teach them in, and I will tell you what it takes to put Spectate in front of them.
I built Spectate because I needed it myself, showing my own software to a room of photographers, each watching on their own screen. A working Pro is running it in the field now.