Beta program customers find improved Return on Investment of video and multimedia assets

SEATTLE, PITTSBURGH, LONDON – August 02, 2011 – Panopto Inc., an SIIA award and Red Herring 2011 Top 100 North America winner, announced today the launch of Panopto Focus 4.0 and Panopto Unison, the next generation of end-to-end video and multimedia capture and management web service solutions. Current customers, who include 3 million faculty and students at more than 400 schools worldwide, will see their cloud-based Panopto solutions upgraded. Both Panopto Focus 4.0 and Panopto Unison provide a state-of-the-art video and multimedia search, editing and viewing experience from any desktop or mobile device. Panopto Focus 4.0 brings next generation lecture capture to institutions while Panopto Unison improves asset management by enabling schools to upload existing recordings to their Panopto libraries.

Panopto Focus 4.0 and Panopto Unison are built on the same platform, and can be implemented separately or together for a unique, seamlessly integrated system. Panopto partnered with several key customers during their recent Beta user program. It is this type of opportunity that helps attract customers such as Babson, where Panopto Focus is currently in use by over 3,500 students and faculty in their undergraduate and graduate Business School programs. Matt McGuire, Senior e-Learning Developer in the Curriculum Innovation and Technology Group at Babson University, consults with Babson faculty to identify new and emerging technologies that will enhance the classroom experience. During the Beta program, he found several unique benefits in the new Panopto platform, such as areas for students to submit content, high frame rate and high definition capture, and an open Application Programming Interface (API) that will allow him to easily create custom integrations.

The functionality that most impressed McGuire was the new remixing technology. “Remix functionality is one of the things we’re most excited about,” said McGuire. “We have faculty that have been using Panopto not only for lecture capture, but also for desktop capture to create weekly wrap-ups for the blended learning program. Sometimes faculty want to swap out portions of content. They may have 8 slides that don’t change every year but they need to add 2 new ones. With remix capability, they can go in and swap in new content where needed.”

Improvements to the Panopto platform, which customers of either Panopto Focus 4.0 or Panopto Unison will enjoy, include:

• Remixing – The Panopto Editor has always allowed you to cut out unwanted sections of a recording, but now you can add in other recordings, sections of a different recording and combine recordings in various ways.
• Search – Panopto continues to provide leading edge search performance with dramatic improvements to the search engine.
• Editable Captions – Panopto has supported automated captioning services for years, and now users can easily modify those captions or create their own.
• DVR-like functionality – Never miss a minute of a live broadcast even if you have a scheduling conflict. Start at the beginning at any time, rapidly seek to any previous moment, or “go live” and follow along in real time.
• Social Media Integration – Panopto allows you to create posts on Facebook or Twitter about available recordings.
• Sub-folders – The new hierarchical folder structure makes it easier to organize, manage and browse a Panopto library.
• Easier sharing – Panopto has made several improvements to sharing using our management console.
• Record, Broadcast, and Archive in HD – Panopto now allows full HD recording, broadcasting, and archiving for all recordings. See our support site for more details and system requirements.
• Blackboard Building Block – Improvements include auto synchronizing course adds and drops, provisioning multiple folders, and Teaching Assistant accounts.
• Panopto – Moodle Block – Updates for compatibility with Moodle 2.0 include single sign on, automatic provisioning and publishing.

“With its high-definition recording and adaptive-streaming live broadcasts, Panopto Focus 4.0 is a huge leap forward for Panopto’s already industrial-strength lecture capture functionality,” said Eric Burns, Panopto’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer. “Combined with Panopto Unison’s ability to import and manage media from any source, Panopto now offers academic institutions an unparalleled level of integration of their media assets. Schools are tired of having to cobble together enterprise solutions built from systems that work well individually but don’t integrate well, and the Panopto platform provides the ideal alternative for those looking to deploy great video tools for everyone. Video capture, management, search, and delivery are no longer just the domain of AV experts – Panopto is an easy-to-use solution for everyone.”