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Panopto

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Panopto
Panopto Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryComputer software, Enterprise software, Education software
Founded2007; 17 years ago (2007)
Founders
  • William Guttman
  • William Scherlis
  • Brad Winney
  • Eric Burns
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
ParentK1 Investment Management, LLC
Websitewww.panopto.com

Panopto is an American multinational technology corporation headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Panopto provides software primarily for universities and enterprise businesses. Panopto's software is commonly used for lecture recording, screencasting, video streaming, and as video content management software, and is often used in remote work, e-learning, and corporate Training and development environments.[1] The company was founded as a spinout of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in 2007 by two of its professors—William Guttman (current Executive Chairman) and William Scherlis—in addition to former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eric Burns and serial entrepreneur Brad Winney.[2]

In 2021, Panopto was acquired by K1 Investment Management, a private equity firm in California.

The Founders

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William L. Guttman is currently a partner with TL Ventures Inc.[3] and Special Adviser to the Provost of Carnegie Mellon University.[4] Guttman co-founded Carnegie Mellon's CyLab and has built several other companies (such as NASDAQ-listed Printcafe, now a division of Electronics for Imaging).[5] Eric Burns, also still with the company, was the co-inventor of the SlideCentric and CourseCast software at CMU that led to the founding of the company. Brad Winney who ran ClariFI (in which William Guttman was an early investor) raised the initial round of capital, recruited the initial core team and functioned as the company's CEO until 2010. Winney is currently the President and General Manager of HappyOrNot Americas and the co-founder of Conserve.io, an environmental technology, non-profit network.[6]

Company History

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According to Burns, the idea for the company came to the founders in 2002 as the cost of storing video images on computer became cheaper than storing the same footage on videotape.[7] Winney, as the founding CEO, and Guttman formally incorporated the company in 2007. Winney spearheaded the 'Socrates Project' whereby the company provided the software for free but charged for support. The company quickly signed up over 400 major universities (largely in the U.S.) allowing it to compete effectively with larger and better capitalized companies such as Echo 360 and Sonic Foundry. Panopto software has, since that point, offered the recording of university lectures and business presentations, the streaming of live events, the managing of video libraries, the capability of video search, and other knowledge management services.[8]

By 2008 over 100,000 lectures had been viewed via Panopto lecture capturing technology.[9] In 2009 the company announced that it had partnered with Moodle's open source project to provide its lecture capturing software to over twenty million users worldwide.[10] In 2010 Macmillan Publishers announced a partnership with Panopto to produce a software called Panopto Fusion, which allowed individual professors to utilize lecture capture software if their institutions had not yet partnered with the company.[11] In 2011, Pearson Education announced it would sell Panopto products to its customer base.[12] In addition to its lecture capturing software Focus,[13] the company also offers tools that allow videos to be searched, viewed, and edited on the Internet.[7]

In early 2011 Panopto raised $4 million from a consortium of 17 investors.[2] By the end of the year, it had signed licensing agreements with 400 separate universities globally.[14] In 2012 the company released an iOS app version of its software allowing students to utilize its media software on iPhones and iPads to record media and submit the recordings as assignments.[15] An additional product capability called Unison was released in 2011 that allowed the uploading of existing video into Panopto's media library.[16] The software is also compatible with IMS Global Learning Consortium cross-platform incorporation tools, specifically with the university standard software integration program Learning Tools Interoperability.[15] According to Professor Michael Weston of the University of Houston–Victoria, Panopto was helpful when it came to athletes or other students that were required to miss classes in order to take care of other responsibilities. Meanwhile, other professors have integrated the software directly into their courses in a process of blended learning.[17]

In 2015 Eric Burns became the company's CEO, as previous CEO William Guttman became the Executive Chairman of the company. Burns had served as Chief Product Officer since the company's founding.[18] Burns had led the Seattle office of Panopto, which eventually overtook the Pittsburgh headquarters of the firm as the company's main centre of business.[19] The company had about 500 institutional clients at this point, including universities that outfit each classroom with Panopto technology.[20]

In August 2016, Panopto raised $42.8 million in new funding led by Sterling Partners.[21] In February 2017, Panopto expanded Seattle HQ with room for 100 employees after it set records for active users, revenue, and renewals in 2016.[22]

In November 2022, Jason Beem took the role of CEO.[23]

Current Software

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As of 2012, Panopto offered two units of software—Focus and Unison. Focus is software that records and live-streams presentations, lectures, demos, and so forth, and then stores them in the Panopto video content management system (CMS).[24] Unison is software that imports existing videos into the Panopto video CMS.[25] Both come with the web-based content management system, a web-based media editor, the ability to search within videos, and developer APIs for integrating Panopto with existing content- and learning-management systems.[24][25]

In 2015 Panopto upgraded its software to allow video capture and embedding in Salesforce.[26] It has also done research and development into video web search, including mass video search for university video libraries.[27]

The company introduced Panopto Express, a free online screen recording tool in May 2020. The tool was designed to make it easy for people to record lectures and presentations and upload those videos to YouTube or Google Classroom.[28][29][30]

In November 2020, Panopto's business meeting intelligence service is now connected with Cisco Webex Meetings.[31] Users can use it to browse and exchange records on a scale within companies and in both virtual and physical environments.[32]

In December 2020, Panopto announced new features that make it easy for users to discover and share knowledge through on-demand videos and meetings. These features include:[33]

  • Tags: Creators and administrators can now apply tags to videos to help manage the set of tags available on their site.
  • Sharing moments in a video: Viewers can share a specific point in a video right from the view interface. As long as the recipient has permission to view the video, they will find themselves in a specific moment the original viewer wanted to share.
  • Subscriptions: Viewers can subscribe to specific content creators, tags, and folders to create a custom homepage with the most important information listed.

The company announced that university students watched over three billion minutes of video on Panopto in fall 2020.[34]

Meaning of name

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The name of the company derives from the word 'panoptic', which is derived from Hellenistic Greek παν- (pan-), meaning 'all, wholly, entirely, altogether',[35] and ὀπτός (optos), meaning 'seen, visible'.[36][37]

Commentators have noted the similarity of the name to that of the Panopticon, a form of prison designed by Jeremy Bentham in which inmates would feel continually under observation, which became a prominent reference point in Michel Foucault's exploration of disciplining and power. The similarity of names has been seen as fitting, given the capacity of Panopto to facilitate an institution's surveillance of its employees.[38][39] In the assessment of Yasmin Ibrahim, Anita Howarth, and Ian Stone,[40]

Panopto, the brand name of one of the most commonly used proprietary systems, evokes the surveillance machinery of the panopticon. At a surface level, we could read [the name] as seamless remote access where students can view recorded lectures anywhere, anytime. However, the panopticon associated with surveillance has the potential to be used as a mechanism of control and discipline.

References

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  1. ^ "Police and Local Briefs". Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. November 19, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  2. ^ a b Malia Spencer (January 12, 2011). "Panopto raises $4M from investors". Pittsburgh Business Times. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  3. ^ "Panopto Completes $4M Equity Offering - cbl". City Biz List. January 4, 2011. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  4. ^ "List of Economists At Carnegie Mellon". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  5. ^ "Business-Combination Transaction Communication". SEC. March 6, 2003. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
  6. ^ "Eric Burns". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved February 14, 2012.[dead link]
  7. ^ a b John Cook (July 27, 2011). "Startup Spotlight: Carnegie Mellon transplant takes root in Seattle with Panopto". Geek Wire. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  8. ^ "Panopto Resources". Butler University. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  9. ^ David Nagel (January 8, 2008). "Panopto Makes Lecture Capture System Free for Educators". THE Journal. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  10. ^ "Panopto Delivers Leading CourseCast Lecture Capture Solution to Moodle Community". BusinessWire. August 12, 2009. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  11. ^ "Panopto Fusion Puts the Power of Lecture Capture Directly Into the Hands of Faculty". Macmillan Publishers. October 12, 2010. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  12. ^ Dian Schaffhauser (May 12, 2011). "Pearson, Panopto Collaborate To Deliver Lecture Capture Software". Campus Technology. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  13. ^ "SIIA Honors Promising New Education Technologies". SIIA. December 1, 2010. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
  14. ^ "Vendor Notebook: athenahealth launches real-time physician performance dashboard". Healthcare IT News. September 9, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  15. ^ a b Dian Schaffhauser (January 20, 2012). "New Panopto Adds Recording to iOS Devices". THE Journal. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
  16. ^ Joe Brockmeier (August 2, 2011). "Panopto Multimedia Management and Capture Tools Get HD, Social, and Remixing Features". Retrieved February 13, 2012.
  17. ^ "New software at UHV helps students connect to professor lectures". Victoria Advocate. February 12, 2011. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
  18. ^ Blair Hanley Frank (February 24, 2015). "Tech Moves: Trulia's Chief Economist Departs; eBay names new Seattle GM; etc". Geek Wire. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  19. ^ Brier Dudley (February 24, 2015). "Video startup Panopto names new CEO, cements Seattle presence". Seattle Times. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  20. ^ Gillian Shaw (April 2, 2015). "Business school uses technology to polish student presentation skills". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  21. ^ Cooper, Laura (2016-08-24). "Sterling Partners Leads $42.8 Million Growth Funding for Panopto". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-08-24.
  22. ^ "Enterprise video platform Panopto plans to expand Seattle HQ with room for 100 employees". GeekWire. 2017-02-22. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  23. ^ "Panopto Hires Strategic SaaS Executive Jason Beem as CEO". Panopto Video Platform. Retrieved 2023-03-27.
  24. ^ a b Tim Sohn (September 14, 2011). "Panopto Focus 4.0 Gets Moodle 2.0 Integration". THE Journal. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  25. ^ a b Healthcare IT News Staff (September 9, 2011). "Vendor Notebook: athenahealth launches real-time physician performance dashboard". Healthcare IT News. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  26. ^ David Roe (May 15, 2015). "Video In Salesforce? Panopto Can Do That". CMS Wire. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  27. ^ Eric Krapf (June 16, 2014). "How Close is Video Search?". No Jitter. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  28. ^ Schaffhauser, Dian. "Panopto Launches Free Tool for Recording and Sharing Presentations". 1105 Media Education Group. Campus Technology. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  29. ^ Stiffler, Lisa (June 8, 2020). "Panopto CEO sees video platform shift from useful technology to essential tool for remote learning". GeekWire. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  30. ^ Kucher, Daniel (May 5, 2020). "Free Video Capture Service From The World's First Internet Browser: Panopto Express". Somag News. Retrieved 21 December 2020.
  31. ^ "Panopto announces Cisco Webex integration". avinteractive. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  32. ^ "Panopto Upgrades Platform with Webex Meetings Integration". UC Today. 11 November 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  33. ^ "Panopto Announces New Collaboration Features for Rapid Knowledge Sharing". MarTech Series. 2020-12-18. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  34. ^ "University Students Watched Over Three Billion Minutes Of Video On Panopto This Fall". Valdosta Daily Times. Retrieved 2020-12-22.
  35. ^ "pan-, comb. form." OED Online, 3rd edn. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
  36. ^ "opto-, comb. form." OED Online, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
  37. ^ "Hi, My Name Is Panopto. Learn The Meaning Behind The Name". Panopto Video Platform. 2018-09-06. Retrieved 2020-06-16..
  38. ^ Caroline Bolam, 'VERSION.pdf Performance andpractice in higher education: an ethnomethodological study of everyday academic work' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2019), p. 111.
  39. ^ Martin Compton, 'Rethinking professional development observations of HE lecturers: Cases of the unorthodox' (unpublished Ph.D thesis, University College London, 2019), p. 64 fn. 5.
  40. ^ Yasmin Ibrahim, Anita Howarth, and Ian Stone, 'Lecture Capture Policies: A Survey of British Universities', Postdigital Science and Education (2020), doi:10.1007/s42438-020-00102-x.
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