How many P2P connections are possible?

SPChat allows peer-to-peer (P2P) connections to at most 3 other people at a time per user. More than four cameras can be active in the room. What matters is who is actually connected to whom. Operators can lower this limit to one or two connections in the admin panel.

Sending and watching share this limit. When two people watch each other’s camera, that uses one slot per person. An active camera without viewers uses no slots. Neither the local preview nor text chat requires a P2P connection.

Can separate video groups use the same room?

Yes. If person B watches A’s camera, each has one connection. Meanwhile, C, D and E can be connected to each other, using two connections each. All five people can use video in the same room because nobody has more than three connections.

Someone already watching three other people has no free slot for another viewer of their own camera. The limit counts distinct people connected to you, regardless of which direction the video travels.

How do I open or close a camera?

Select the camera you want to watch. Public cameras need no approval, but still open only after you select them. For protected cameras, the person sending video must approve the request. A pending request already reserves one slot at each end.

If you or the other person has no free slots, a message explains whose limit has been reached. Use “Close video connection” on the camera tile or in the viewer list to free a slot. This closes the connection between those two people in both directions. Other calls continue.

How much traffic do four cameras generate?

When four people broadcast their camera and watch the other three, each person sends three copies of their own video and receives three other videos. Each person uses all three slots. The table describes this fully connected group of four. Separate groups in the same room do not change its data usage.

These are example calculations, not fixed quality presets. They assume constant, equal video bitrates. Actual bitrates adapt to factors such as resolution, movement in the picture and the connection. Audio and network overhead add to these figures. Data amounts use decimal GB, where 1 GB = 1,000 MB.

Does each person need 24 Mbit/s of upload?

At 2 Mbit/s per video stream, each person needs 3 × 2 = 6 Mbit/s of upload. The 24 Mbit/s figure is the combined upload across all four people: 4 × 6 Mbit/s. Each person also needs 6 Mbit/s of download, plus audio and network overhead.

Even 6 Mbit/s of upload can saturate a connection. What matters is the upload actually available, not just the advertised download speed. A connection with 5 Mbit/s of upload cannot support this example. Allow additional headroom for other applications and changes in Wi-Fi performance.

Why does a TURN server not reduce this traffic?

A TURN server such as coturn relays the individual connections when a direct connection is not possible. Each person still sends three outgoing video copies. TURN helps participants connect, but does not reduce upload usage in P2P mode.

What works for larger video groups?

If more than four people need to see everyone else, or one camera needs more than three viewers, an SFU system is suitable. Participants send their camera to a server, which distributes it to the recipients. Camera upload usage therefore does not grow with every additional person. This requires an SFU server and matching integration in the video chat. Connection quality, devices and server capacity still matter.

See the TURN explanation and SPChat features for more details. Try the video chat in the demo with your own devices and connections.