Lightboard TR · Lab · Çoruh Şimşek

A lit glass board that teachers write on while facing the camera, sold by Lightboard TR as a one-button studio. I designed and built every part of it: frame, glass and lights, stands and lifting arms, the control cabinet and its code, the eraser and the packaging.

What it is

FIG. 1What the control cabinet does with the picture. The cabinet does live what would otherwise take editing software afterwards: flip the image, lay the slides beside the presenter, cut between cameras.
Source: Lightboard TR product videos (Jan and Aug 2021) and site FAQ

A lightboard is a pane of lit glass that a teacher writes on while facing the camera. Light runs inside the glass and the neon ink catches it, so the writing glows. Lightboard TR sold it as a one-button studio in 55, 66 and 82 inch sizes: press one button, a voice counts down from three, and the lesson records or goes out live with the image already mirrored. The product site shows it working.

What I built

FIG. 2Every part I made, by system. The studio kit around it (camera, reference monitor, lapel microphone, backdrop) is not on this drawing.
Source: Çoruh, chat 2026-11-05; career page; my interview notes, Oct to Nov 2026; product video, Aug 2021

All of it, from the 3D model to the packaging it shipped in.

The structure I designed in Fusion 360 and SolidWorks, then made: aluminium frame profiles, sheet metal I cut, bent and powder coated, CNC and lathe parts, down to the hinges, screws and countersunk bolts.

The glass is low-iron float glass from Italy, cut only from its flawless areas. I built the LED strip profiles that light its edge and the presenter lights by hand, and printed the gaskets on a 3D printer.

I made the moving stands. For the lifting mechanism I built prototypes, but with everything else on my plate I chose a ready-made one in the end and did the assembly myself.

The control cabinet replaced a unit imported from the US that nobody could get working; mine used only the parts the job needed. For the electronics I designed the circuits and hacked a capture card into doing things it was not sold for. An Arduino ran the cabinet's recording light and counted the presenter down before each take, so they knew when recording started.

The magnetic eraser took more than five prototypes, each driven by one problem: it did not wipe the glass well, the cloths had to survive washing, the magnets sat in the wrong place.

How it came together

In autumn 2020 a missed ferry took me to a friend's studio, where a lightboard prototype stood with that imported unit. I took on building ours, and the rest of the board followed until I was co-founder and CTO. Cabinet and board went through prototype rounds for safety, manufacturing efficiency and quality. I prototyped in an industrial zone beside the craftsmen there, took the design to CNC production with a team our manufacturing partner put under me, and installed more than twenty studios myself.

What I learned

FIG. 3One pane of glass, from Italy to the customer. Packing and transport sat between the last two steps.
Source: My interview notes, 1 Nov 2026

Glass was the hardest part: the smallest hairline scratch showed in the final picture, which is what the checks above are for.

I argued for renting studios out instead of selling boards: the product was expensive, and every buyer needed a room and a person to run it. We chose sales. If I had that argument again, I would push harder.