These ten edtech tools are the secret arsenal for those steering the ship of learning experience design. We hope that as you explore these tools, you also envision the seamless, easy-to-use, and reliable platform experience that will define the future of learning for both teachers and students.

The future of classroom technology is promising and ever-evolving. Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to stay updated on these educational technology trends and think about ways to incorporate them into educational institutions to improve the learning process.

As technology keeps influencing education, adopting these innovations can lead to more engaging, inclusive, and effective teaching and learning. The classroom of the future is taking shape now, and these champions are leading the way in this exciting change!

Big announcements

At the show, we announced three key improvements to our Pearl family of products:

• New NDI|HX support for Pearl Mini and upgraded NDI support for Pearl-2
• Epiphan Connect for Microsoft Teams direct integration with Pearl systems
• New Q-SYS and enhanced Crestron control system integrations

Learn more about all the new enhancements available in the next firmware update in our product news post.

Transcontinental live event

We challenged ourselves to broadcast an event showing the world how Epiphan makes any space a studio. Live from the show floor, we pushed the boundaries of live content with seven participants and 13 cameras spread out across Europe and North America.

The most recognition to date

We were humbled to have our products recognized with six awards, including:

• Our AV.io+ Capture Cards were awarded the Top New Technology award from Commercial Integrator and Best in Show from Tech & Learning Magazine.
• Our Pearl family of encoders won several Best Of Show awards from AV Technology Magazine.
• Epiphan Connect also won a Best of Show award from AV Technology Magazine.

Thanks to all the customers who stopped by, and thanks to all the partners that inspired us! See you soon at NAB!

See you at ISE 2023!

What are you most excited to see at ISE 2023?

Send us an email, reserve your spot on Calendly, or pop by booth 5B250 to let us know your highlights of the show.

In addition to showcasing our Pearl line of products, including the H.265/HEVC-ready and 4K-capable Pearl Nano, we are also continuously running the demo for Epiphan Unify, our cloud-powered live production platform. Our booth-turned-video-studio features three cameras and completely remote switching for a polished live stream.

It’s amazing to see our booth visitors be as excited about Epiphan Unify as we are. As Multimedia Journalist and Content Creator Alesia Hendley put it: “The products and the level of creativity that [Epiphan] brings to the platform is so far-fetched from everything else here on the show floor! That’s how you continue to separate yourself, and I love it!”.

We were also honored to have won an SCN Installation Product Award for Pearl Nano as the Most Innovative Streaming Product. Thank you, SCN!

What a great start to the show, but this is just the beginning! Lots more excitement to come. If you’re at the show, we’ll be happy to see you at booth W2631! Please feel free to stop by and say hi!

Hey #infocomm22 peeps! Come say hello. #WearPinkOnWednesday @EpiphanVideo W2631 pic.twitter.com/JfKL84p7My

— Tobi Tungl, RCDD, CTS-D (@tobitungl) June 8, 2022

Day 2 Recap

Day 2 of InfoComm 2022 was fantastic! We hung out with a bunch of smart people and discussed our theme, Create. Check out our highlight reel featuring awesome folks from Shure, PTZOptics, BirdDog, Zoom, Audinate, TheSmoothFactor, KanexPro, and more.

InfoComm 2022 Best of Show Awards

After the InfoComm Best of Show Awards came in today, we learned that Epiphan Video received seven more awards!

Winner in the Tech & Learning Category:

• Pearl Mini

Winners in the AV Technology category:

• Pearl Mini
• Pearl-2
• Epiphan Unify
• Epiphan Connect
• Epiphan Cloud

Winner in the Sound & Video Contractor category:

• Epiphan Connect

We want to thank the committee for these accolades. The recognition would not have been possible without the incredible work of the Epiphan team. We want to thank and congratulate all the people who’ve worked so hard to make these amazing products possible.

As always, it’s such a pleasure to see so many visitors at our booth. We’re so excited about all the things happening in the AV industry today, and we’re always happy to chat about it with you. Be sure to stop by our booth tomorrow – or reach out virtually.

We love chatting with peeps about the disruption in our industry! Thanks for stopping in to check out some of our innovative streaming experiences. #infocomm22 #livestreaming @AVIXA pic.twitter.com/HRc0QBdvrT

— Epiphan Video (@EpiphanVideo) June 9, 2022

Day 3 Recap

Day 3 of InfoComm 2022 marked our third daily theme, Optimize, and the final day of this awesome event. We caught up with our partners about what Optimize means to them and gathered a lot of insightful responses. As always, here is our quick video recap for today:

Epiphan Video is proud to support the women of AV. Programs like Rosie Riveters and AVIXA Women’s Council are taking big strides to ensure women are better represented in the industry. As our own Chief Happiness Slayer (CHS) Tobi Tungl puts it, “By providing young women access to resources, mentoring and hands-on, experience-based STEM learning programs, we are not only making an investment in our community, but also an investment in our future.”

By providing young women access to resources, mentoring and hands-on, experience-based STEM learning programs, we are not only making an investment in our community, but also an investment in our future. I am proud to support these programs! ????????#infocomm22 #avixawomen https://t.co/xRer3Pj68U

— Tobi Tungl, RCDD, CTS-D (@tobitungl) June 11, 2022

That’s a wrap!

That was InfoComm 2022! We are incredibly grateful to all who stopped by our booth to say hello. It’s been such a pleasure interacting with our current – and future – customers and partners and making connections. If you missed us at InfoComm, please feel free to email us at info@epiphan.com. See you next time!

What is a flipped classroom?

The flipped classroom is an instructional strategy that moves activities, including those that may have traditionally been considered homework, into the classroom. Here, students complete the instructional portion at home on their own time and work on problem-solving during class time.

Why? The pioneer of this style, Aaron Sams, believed that direct instruction is not the best use of class time. Instead, he argued, that time is better spent engaging in meaningful discussion, applying learned concepts, and collaborating with peers. In the flipped classroom learning environment, students learn new concepts pre-class and then check their understanding during various class activities.

Students consume the instructional material at home, primarily through video. The teaching staff prepares the video lessons in advance. These may include presentation slides, video clips, images, notes, a recording of the teacher, or voiceover narration.

Benefits of the flipped classroom model

The flipped classroom model holds the potential to positively impact student learning and development. How?

Flipped classrooms accommodate different learning styles and speeds

Each student is free to learn at their own pace and at a time that works best for them. With recorded lectures, students can pause, replay, speed up, or slow down the video as they see fit. Additionally, the flipped classroom model gives teachers more class time to address specific student questions, creating a more individualized learning environment.

They help build higher-level skills

Studies suggest that not only does the flipped classroom model aid student understanding of course material better, but also helps develop valuable life skills like leadership, problem solving, and critical thinking.

Because the flipped classroom approach provides more opportunities for in-class active learning, it exercises more forms of student engagement, including oral, visual, auditory, sensory, practical, and intellectual problem-solving. Additionally, students often work together during class, which encourages interaction and the development of communication skills.

They promote deeper understanding

The flipped approach offers more opportunities for hands-on activities, asking questions, and working through complex problems together with others. This gives students the opportunity to get a deeper grasp of the material compared to a more traditional approach (i.e., listening to a traditional lecture during class and completing exercises on their own at home).

They teach self-directed learning

The flipped classroom model expects a high level of participation during class. Students are expected to come to class prepared, otherwise they cannot fully participate. This encourages students to be more responsible when it comes to completing assignments on time.

Effective lecture capture and video management tools for flipped classrooms

As you can imagine, all this video can be a lot of content to manage. Perhaps for a single semester course we are talking about recording, uploading, and distributing a few dozen videos. But as you start multiplying that by the number of simultaneous flipped classroom courses, things can start growing exponentially.

Without proper video management tools in place, applying the flipped classroom model can become a logistical nightmare. If teachers begin focusing more on how they are going to create and deliver the video lecture to their students, the process may become a burden, taking away from the benefits of the flipped classroom model.

To maximize the effect of using video for flipped classrooms, the process of creating, distributing, and managing videos for teachers – and consuming the same videos for students – has to be as simple as possible. To do this, here are a few things your school should consider having in place:

• An infrastructure for lecture capture – This may include lecture capture software installed on every teacher’s computer, a separate lecture recording studio, or it could mean equipping rooms within the school for lecture recording.
• A learning management system (LMS) – An LMS is a web-based portal where students can access content for courses they’re enrolled in, submit assignments, see their grades, and so on. An LMS may include tools for managing and delivering educational video content. Examples of LMSs include Google Classroom, Acorn, Blackboard Learn, and Moodle.
• A content management system (CMS) – A CMS is a web portal used to store, manage, and distribute video content. Deploying one of these is a must for schools that create lots of video content. Many CMSs include features like screen capture, video editing, and analytical tools that provide actionable insight into how students are engaging with your video content. Examples of CMSs include Kaltura, Panopto, Opencast, and YuJa.

If you want a deeper dive into these tools and how lecture recording works, check out our lecture capture blog.

Record stunning video lectures for your students

For lecture capture, flipped classroom content, remote learning, or any other application for video in education, Epiphan Pearl Mini is a reliable hardware solution trusted by many professionals in the industry. Pearl Mini’s one-button operation and giant touch screen make it easy for anyone to understand and operate. The system also integrates seamlessly with Kaltura, Panopto, Opencast, and YuJa CMS, making your video production workflow even easier.

To learn more about Pearl Mini and our other products and services, check out our dedicated page on Epiphan solutions for education.

Level1Techs – Insight from seasoned techies

On their channel, Level1Techs share their knowledge about technology, science, and design. With over nine years on YouTube and over 320K subscribers, the channel has a reputation for delivering trustworthy reviews with passion and a bit of dry wit.

They tend to go beyond simply listing the tech specs, offering rich insight based on years of experience. In this Pearl Nano review, Wendel shares his thoughts on using Epiphan Cloud for easy device management and configuration, API integrations, and Nano’s rugged physical design. He notes the device as a fool-proof solution for secure reliable transport (SRT) remote contribution:

Curtis Judd – Best indexed video

Curtis Judd is a filmmaker, photographer, and live streaming enthusiast. Curtis runs his own YouTube channel, “Learn Light and Sound,” where he gives useful tips on choosing audio gear, lighting, as well as live streaming setups. We were lucky enough to host Curtis on Live @ Epiphan. He gave some great insights into live video production – definitely worth checking out as well.

In his review, Curtis takes an in-depth look at Pearl Nano as a single-channel video encoder for corporate and education environments. He dissects every feature and use case in amazing detail, resulting in the most detailed video index we’ve ever seen!

Aaron Parecki – Short, sweet, and straight to the point

Aaron’s channel is all about helping his viewers improve their live video production skills. In just seven minutes, Aaron covers everything from Nano’s broad streaming protocol support to its streaming and recording functions. In Aaron’s opinion, Pearl Nano is the perfect video encoder for worship and education-type settings because it’s easy to use:

Geeky Nerdy Techy – A geeky, nerdy, techy review

On his channel, Shane covers many different technology-related topics, including live streaming. In just 14 minutes, he manages to go over most features of the Pearl Nano video encoder (including detailed video chapters for quick navigation). Shane points out that while Pearl Nano is not a solution for live switching, it is a great video encoding solution for those interested in using SRT or need CMS integration for streaming and recording.

Shane is excited to continue using the device as well as the upcoming 4K streaming support feature.

John Moore – Expert opinion from a Microsoft MVP

Cerner Lead Technology Architect and Microsoft MVP John Moore knows a lot about using Pearl Mini in a remote work environment. We chatted about it with him on Live @ Epiphan.

Now, John shares his first impressions using Pearl Nano. He gives an overview of the capabilities of the device, his personal setup, and a few ideas on how the device can fit into a live event production workflow.

VideoGuys – The unboxing video

Fans of unboxing videos rejoice. VideoGuys video production specialist Adam Noyes methodically goes through every item in the box, unveiling the included quick-start guide, cables, outlet adapters, and, of course, Pearl Nano itself. For exact device measurements, Adam brings out a measuring tape and demonstrates: it is really as compact as we say.

Holdan – Best visuals

Here is a review from Holdan, a pan-European technology distributor for the professional video, broadcast, and media industry. Holdan has built a reputation for a friendly and honest approach, and this video is a prime example.

The Holdan team prides itself on knowing the products they represent and understanding the customers that use the equipment. Holdan product demo videos are detailed and visual, yet approachable and easy to understand. Watch Kriss dive deep into Pearl Web UI and Epiphan Cloud UI features, and set up and show you how to configure an SRT stream in under a minute. Here is likely one of our favorite Epiphan Pearl Nano reviews from a visual standpoint:

HuddleCam and Pearl Nano – A powerful tech combo for education

This short, four-minute video presents Pearl Nano as the perfect companion to the HuddleCam SimplTrack2 Camera for use at schools and universities for automated, hands-off lecture capture, streaming, and recording.

In a bonus video, Paul Richards (HuddleCam, PTZ Optics, StreamGeeks) chats with Epiphan’s George Herbert, expanding on the possibilities of using Pearl Nano with SimplTrack2 Camera.

There we go! We hope you found these Epiphan Pearl Nano reviews helpful, informative, and resourceful. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions about Pearl Nano’s broad streaming protocol support, streaming and recording functions, or anything else.

What is Epiphan Cloud?

Think of Epiphan Cloud as your command center for everything Epiphan. It’s where you can go to get a birds-eye view of Epiphan hardware you own – Pearl-2, Pearl Mini, Pearl Nano, and LiveScrypt – with access to essential device statistics and a host of remote control and configuration features that’ll save you tons of time.

This is something customers who operate multiple Epiphan devices have been asking for, and it’s here. What can you expect from Epiphan Cloud? Let’s go over some of the biggest features.

1. Assess your devices at a glance

Remote accessibility is a big advantage of using an Epiphan Pearl or LiveScrypt system. Wherever in the world your connected Epiphan device is located, you can log in to monitor, configure, or control it. But until now there hasn’t been a convenient way to do the same with multiple devices.

Epiphan Cloud takes out the legwork of multi-device management with a sleek and comprehensive dashboard that displays key information about all your registered devices. You can see at a glance:

• Operational status: With a Pearl hardware encoder, quickly determine whether it’s idle, streaming, recording, or streaming and recording simultaneously. For LiveScrypt, easily tell if the system is transcribing or standing by.
• Device info: Serial numbers, IP addresses, and installed firmware version are easy to confirm with Epiphan Cloud.
• System health: Stats like system load, temperature, and uptime offer insight into the condition of a device.
• Available storage: With easy confirmation of how much storage space is left on a device, you can ensure you’ve transferred all the files you need and make room for another recording before your next event starts. Epiphan Cloud also shows activity in automatic file upload queues – how many files are being uploaded, their combined size, and how much longer a transfer will take.

If any of these statistics are more important to you than others, Epiphan Cloud’s customizable UI has you covered. The drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to rearrange elements to put your most essential stats front and center.

2. Control and collaborate in the cloud

Epiphan Cloud also offers control over Pearl systems’ encoding settings for live streaming and recording as well as a view of connected audio and video sources. You may still want to dive into Pearl’s web-based UI for more precise control, but having key encoding settings and input and channel previews all in one place can be a huge timesaver.

For any paired LiveScrypt devices, you get access to all the settings you need to start transcribing, a view of real-time transcriptions, and an audio meter for confidence monitoring and audio optimization.

Of course, managing a fleet of devices is a team effort. That’s why we built Epiphan Cloud with collaboration in mind. Anyone on your team who’s part of your shared Epiphan Cloud account will be able to monitor or interact with a registered Pearl or LiveScrypt system from any location.

3. Save time with batch actions

Epiphan firmware updates come packed with performance enhancements and even brand-new features like Kaltura/Panopto integration and SRT support. Naturally, you’ll want the benefits of the latest updates across all your systems. But it can take awhile to make that happen when you have dozens or even hundreds of devices. With just a few clicks in Epiphan Cloud, you can download and install the latest upgrades to your Epiphan solutions simultaneously. That’ll save some IT time.

That’s not the only batch action Epiphan Cloud offers. You can also start or stop streaming and recording on multiple devices – which complements yet another convenient feature: the ability to predefine streaming destinations and quickly apply these to any registered device.

4. Resolve production issues quickly

It’s a fact of technology: errors happen. A fast resolution is the best response. That takes awareness, and you can’t have eyes on everything at once or all the time.

But Epiphan Cloud is always watching. A refined alerting system will notify you of any issues so you can act quickly. The platform doesn’t just sound the alarm; it also dispenses enough detail to help you determine what the problem is, and even provides a list of probable solutions to support swift action.

You can fine-tune this system to alert you only to particular events, such as a change in device status from online to off, a lack of available storage, or a drop in uplink bandwidth. In any event, Epiphan Cloud logs every error. This way you can investigate issues and take action to prevent a repeat occurrence.

Epiphan Cloud and Pearl firmware update 4.13

Epiphan Cloud is a big step forward for our solutions. A lot of effort went into reworking Epiphan products to give users access to key device statistics and enable control over groups of systems. That’s why Epiphan Cloud requires Pearl firmware update 4.13 for full functionality.

There are plenty more reasons to install 4.13 for Pearl, even if you don’t own a fleet of them:

• Network diagnostics and troubleshooting tools via the touch screen or web-based UI – speed test, ping, trace route, and more
• File upload scheduling
• Support for DHCP Options 82 (FQDN) and Dynamic DNS (DDNS) support
• NDI resource discovery across subnets and external networks (Pearl-2 only
• SHA-256 and SHA-512 hashing algorithm support for HLS (push) and MPEG-DASH stream authentication

Manage Epiphan hardware in the cloud

Looking to learn more about how Epiphan solutions and Epiphan Cloud work together? Check out our Epiphan Cloud product page, or contact us. Our product specialists are always happy to answer questions about our solutions or arrange for a one-on-one demo.

Kaltura can record meetings and lectures from any office space or classroom. Multiple source recordings can be automatically published to LMSs. Uploaded content can be enriched with features like like captioning, video quizzes, and advanced metadata using the integrated Kaltura platform and products.

The Kaltura SaaS Edition video solution is hosted in the cloud with various licensing options. For high security applications, Kaltura also offers a full On-Premise Edition, which supports flexible hybrid SaaS/On-premise deployment options. A free, self-hosted version called Kaltura Community Edition is also available for developers willing to integrate Kaltura using the available open source code. In addition, there’s an API-based Video Platform as a Service (VPaaS) solution for developers and tech platforms to build their own video solutions using Kaltura’s APIs, SDKs, and developer tools. Of course, for anybody not wanting to invest in developing their own video solution, the out-of-the-box Kaltura SaaS video solution is the deployment option to go with.

The core Kaltura video platform manager

Video content management is the core of the Kaltura video platform. It consists of what you need to create, manage, and distribute video across your organization and beyond.

Kaltura Management Console (KMC)

The backbone of Kaltura’s video solution is the Kaltura Management Console (KMC). It’s an HTML5-based platform that enables content administrators to upload video assets in bulk, set the video thumbnail, trim, clip, publish, and distribute assets using the KMC. In-video searches across the entire library can easily be performed. Some of the many features available include support for unlimited automatic captioning (ASR), comment moderation, syndication management, analytics, as well as customizing the Kaltura video player. It’s even possible to schedule recordings and webcasts.

All the asset management functions you need are available from the KMC. You can change the video asset owner, limit who can access videos, assign co-publishers and co-editors, manage categories, playlists, tags, and metadata. The list of administrative functions goes on, like creating custom user roles, limiting entitlement to applications like Kaltura MediaSpace, managing Kaltura account settings, integrations, configuring ads, and assigning an asset’s viewing schedule.

There are built-in analytics that show statistics like top performing videos, number of unique viewers, watch times and bandwidth usage. You can even transcode and convert videos into multiple flavors to optimize viewing on various devices (more on analytics later).

Security features include SSO, SSL, DMR, HTTPS, and various encryption options to protect the content library and while content is streaming. Session control and tokenized expiring CDN URLs are also supported.

Analytics

Kaltura’s advanced analytics provides in-depth insight into content engagement and simplifies real-time Quality of Service (QoS) troubleshooting. The Usage Dashboard provides different report types, such as an overall monthly usage breakdown, as well as access to a host of other Analytics and a Services Dashboard. Analytics are certified compliant with the IMS Global Learning Consortium’s Caliper analytics standard. They also integrate with xAPI and can easily feed into Open LRS, Watershed LRS and any other open standards based LRS or BI systems, to analyze video analytics in the larger context of the overall organizational data.

Player Studio

The Universal Player Studio is a built-in tool used to create custom branded, cross-platform video players that also supports customizable CSS files. Accessible directly from the KMC header bar, player studio makes it easy to change skins, add monetization features, widgets, and more. You can create custom players that allow your viewers to do things like browse through Kaltura generated chapters, perform in-video keyword searches, answer quizzes, and switch between PiP, side by side, and single views.

Kaltura out-of-the-box products, features, and plug-in integrations

Here are the key out-of-the-box Kaltura video products with plug-in integrations that are available.

Kaltura MediaSpace (KMS) Video Portal

This is the main video library/web portal where video assets get uploaded and shared in categories, channels, and playlists – like a corporate YouTube. The portal is a customizable, responsive web-based interface. Users can do deep, in-video searches across the library for text in titles, descriptions, tags, subtitles, and text that appears on screen. Administrators can configure parts of the library as public or restrict it for authorized members only, as well as set role-based access with different entitlements. Single Sign On (SSO) and user authentication integration with existing management systems are supported. There’s also a free, mobile version called MediaSpace Go available.

Contributors can upload videos in bulk, as well as schedule recordings and webcasts directly from MediaSpace. The built-in Kaltura Video Editor can trim heads/tails of multiple synced video streams, create clips, and add interactive quizzes. Other in-platform video editing functions let you add/disable commenting, enable chaptering, add slides as part of the video content, manage captions, add attachments, and edit metadata for SEO optimization. You can even replace media to retain the asset’s original URL, metadata, and analytics. Posting comments, likes, and sharing assets can be done right from MediaSpace.

Recording from a laptop is easily done using the built-in Kaltura Express Capture without any additional software. For better quality videos, however, hardware encoders like the Epiphan Pearl Mini or Pearl-2 can be selected from MyCalandar for multiple-source, HD recordings and live streams. The Pearl family of encoders are fully integrated and allow login for unscheduled ad hoc recordings and live streams directly from the encoder’s touchscreen and recordings automatically uploading to MyMedia.

Kaltura Personal Video Capture

The replacement for Kaltura CaptureSpace, Personal Video Capture is a downloadable app that is fully integrated into MediaSpace. Use it to capture multple-stream recordings synchronized with PowerPoint presentations and screen captures from your laptop. Personal capture automatically detects slides, adds chaptering, and recommends tags. Personal Video Capture allows creators to add annotations, draw arrows, and highlight mouse clicks. Videos upload directly to user’s My Media folder and are available in MediaSpace, as well as any integrated Learning and Content Management Systems (LCMSs). You can also record content offline for future upload. Windows and Mac versions are available.

Video quiz creating wizard

Built right into the Video Editor in Kaltura MediaSpace, the easy-to-use quiz creating wizard lets you add multiple choice questions, yes/no or true/false questions, and add pauses for reflection or to point out something in the video. You can determine actions like showing users their scores, showing correct answers, and whether questions can be skipped. Results are automatically sent to your LMS gradebook.

Kaltura’s Multiple-view video player

You can customize the multiple-view Kaltura video player using Universal Studio in the Kaltura Management Console and embed the branded player on your corporate website. The video player has adaptive bitrates for multiple platform support and viewers can switch between picture-in-picture, side-by-side, and single views, as well as search keywords and jump to specific areas in the video. The player is interactive so viewers can answer quizzes or click calls-to-action using the player.

Enterprise content management video plugins

Enterprise content management video plugins integrate Kaltura with existing Content Management Systems (CMSs) for seamless access to the Kaltura video library and features – essentially turning your CMS into a VCMS. Employees can record, upload, edit, and publish videos directly from within their Content Management System environment. The Kaltura enterprise CMS plugins support existing user management, roles, and workflows. Plus it conforms to accessibility standards (VPAT). Free enterprise CMS plugins are available for: Sharepoint, IBM Enterprise Content Management, IBM Digital Experience, Drupal, and WordPress (at the time of writing this article).

Learning Management System (LMS) video plugins

LMS video plugins seamlessly integrate the Kaltura library and features with Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and virtural learning environments. Teachers, students, and administrators can record, upload, edit, add quizzing, and publish videos directly from within their LMS environment using Kaltura. Managing video assets using Kaltura plugins offloads all that video content processing from the LMS. Kaltura LMS video plugins are Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) certified, Caliper compliant, and conform to accessibility standards (VPAT). You can secure media files using LMS/VLE permissions. Free LMS video plugins are available for: Blackboard, Brightspace, Canvas, Moodle, and Sakai (at the time of writing this article).

Kaltura add on products and services

Value add on products and services are available to expand the functionality of the core Kaltura platform and products.

Kaltura Webcasting and Live Events

With the webcasting and live events add on, you can live stream to an unlimited number of concurrent viewers both within and outside your organization with eCDN options (see below). Video conferencing solutions like SharePoint, Zoom, Webex, and others are supported, as well as all the common streaming protocols. You can incorporate interactive features like moderated Q&A, announcements, and polls, as well as create a customized central events portal. Real-time analytics let you monitor and troubleshoot the Quality of Service. You can even track individual viewer engagement. Kaltura offers remote event production services to help with deployment, training, and event production. There’s also White Glove production services to provide professional, end-to-end production and streaming management as a complement to the existing platform support services with standard and premium-level options.

Kaltura eCDN

The Kaltura eCDN add on extends your Kaltura video portal and live webcasting solution into your enterprise network for scalable and secure video delivery behind the firewall. The secure Kaltura eCDN makes the video library available to an unlimited number of users locally and remotely without impacting the performance of your LAN/WAN network. It allows both internal and external audiences to stream over the eCDN and to a public CDN at the same time with entitlement controls based on location and entitlement. There are also plenty of advanced real-time analytics available to monitor Quality of Service and engagement with the live dashboard for live and webcasting events.

Kaltura REACH

Kaltura Reach lets you order captions, transcriptions, and translations for your videos from within MediaSpace or integrated LMS/CMS to comply with regulatory accessibility requirements. It has automatic machine generated transcription (ASR) capabilities that can transcribe from 22 languages, plus an editor to do it yourself. Ordered human captioning and translations can be automatically delivered within the Kaltura interface. A dashboard is available to monitor usage and billing. All captions, transcripts, and translations are searchable within Kaltura and are available in Kaltura’s unified applications and players.

Kaltura Interactive Video Paths

Create interactive videos using the Kaltura interactive video paths add on and let viewers “choose their own adventure.” This drag-and-drop application embeds interactive video paths within your videos and fully integrates into your LMS, MediaSpace video portal, or any other Kaltura Application Framework (KAF) application. You can create an immersive experience that can be tracked and then analyze your user’s choices from the dashboard.

Kaltura Pitch

Kaltura Pitch lets you create personalized video messages embedded in emails, then track exactly when your videos are watched using the customized player, attachments and custom thumbnails. Real-time alerts let you know who’s watching your video emails and track viewer interactions. You can collaborate with others on your team to create curated playlists using any video asset in the Kaltura libraries while using Kaltura’s built-in capture tools to create and edit the content. Pitch can also be used to automatically create branded landing pages.

Kaltura Enterprise Social Business Suite

Enterprise Social Business Suite adds the ability to search, watch, create, edit, publish, and share videos directly within your current social business environment. Users can easily create and share videos with synched slides and documents for media-rich presentations directly from the device of their choice. Interactivity features let viewers like, share, and comment. Analytics and access controls are also available. This add on has cloud and on-premise deployment options. Plugins are available for Jive, IBM Connections, and Microsoft Teams.

Kaltura Video Marketing Toolset

The Kaltura Video Marketing Toolset enables you to integrate videos from the Kaltura library directly on website landing pages and syndicated social media platforms, as well as add video to automated marketing campaigns and emails. Add in-video calls-to-action and forms, then gauge interest levels with video scoring. Deliver video emails with A/B testing and track viewer engagement using your email campaign system. Create video galleries and easily replace videos without having to change the embed codes. Use video SEO to help reach a greater audience with visitors watching on branded video players. You can even create a centralized video hub that plugs straight into your CMS. Marketing automation video integrations are available for Eloqua and Marketo. CMS video integrations are available for Drupal and WordPress.

What is Panopto?

Panopto is an industry-leading SaaS Video Content Management System (VCMS) / online video portal for businesses and educational institutions. It’s hosted in the cloud and supports elastic scaling, which adjusts as usage and storage needs change. Use it to record, live stream, edit, manage, and distribute video content securely across organizations and on the Internet. Features include in-video Smart Search of all video assets across the library, multiple-source recording, webcasting, customizable interactive multiple-view player, auto-synchronization and indexing of slide presentations, custom thumbnails, a video editing tool, quizzing, captions, analytics, bulk uploads, and more. Uploaded content is saved in Panopto’s secure servers where administrators can define content access rights and privileges. Panopto has built-in integrations for popular LMSs, CMSs, and CRMs.

Panopto is an “all-in” video solution that’s packaged as a single web-based application, whereas Kaltura offers a suite of “pick-and-choose” add ons for a customizable video solution. Free mobile apps are also available. There’s the Panopto Mobile app for iPhone and iPad, as well as the Panopto for Android app.

Panopto features out-of-the-box

Here are the key Panopto features included in the core product.

The Panopto VCMS

Panopto’s Video CMS is an end-to-end video platform solution that offers a secure, web-based video portal in the cloud where users can create, manage, and live stream video content. It features video creation and editing, in-video searches, drag and drop video uploading, transcoding, live streaming, interactive video players, quizzing, video analytics, captioning, and the ability to custom brand your video portal.

Recording video

Recording multiple video sources directly from within Panopto. Choose from an unlimited number of camera sources, slideshows, and capture a live computer screen in full HD. For all video recordings, a table of contents with video thumbnails is automatically generated for easy navigation. Content from slide presentations, notes and comments are also automatically indexed for search. You can schedule recordings or start unscheduled ad hoc recordings at any time. External hardware encoders like those from Epiphan Video are fully supported for better quality capture. When your session ends, recordings upload automatically to your folder in Panopto. Pre-built video conferencing integrations let you record and share video assets from these video conferencing solutions: BlueJeans, GoToMeeting, Skype for Business, and Zoom. Panotpo administrators can setup single sign-on (SSO) ID management to control access to the recorded content, including: Google Apps, oAuth, SAML, and Active Directory. Other integrations are also available for a seamless video recording experience.

Live streaming

Live stream multiple sources to an unlimited audience who can watch using any web browser. Panopto automatically synchronizes all sources and records the stream as it broadcasts. Webcasts are transcoded and made available for on-demand viewing in the library. All the common streaming protocols are supported, as well as secure streaming. Distributed recording of live streams from presenters in different locations is also supported. You can restrict access to specific people or groups in your organization, and require viewers to log in before watching the stream. Free integration with Hive Insights for real-time network monitoring during a live stream is available as a download to troubleshoot Quality of Service issues.

Uploading and automatic transcoding

You can upload existing videos and audio files to the Panopto video library using drag and drop, or upload assets in bulk. There are currently no file size limits. Videos are automatically converted for searchability and transcoded for multiple bitrates to optimize VOD playback on different devices and HTML5 web browsers. Supported upload file formats include: AVI, MP4, MPG, WMV, MOV, QT, ASF, 3GP, WMA, MP3, and M4V.

Panopto Smart Search

Smart Search lets you search inside videos across your entire library. Search for any spoken word or text on the screen. Words contained in PowerPoint or Keynote slide presentations are also indexed, including the presenter’s notes. Any notes viewers take while watching a video using the interactive video player are also indexed and can be searched. Smart Search indexes every video added to the content library using automatic speech recognition (ASR), optical character recognition (OCR), and slide content ingestion – so there’s no need for manual tagging. The Smart Search engine works seamlessly with systems that are integrated with Panopto. Nine languages can be indexed and searched: English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Dutch, and Polish.

Interactive & customizable video players

Panopto includes interactive HTML5 video players that you can custom brand and embed on websites. For multiple-source VOD recordings, you can choose which content stream to watch and the layout. All content is synced. Panopto’s interactive, embedded, and mobile video players support full HD and 360⁰ video playback. Adapative playback rates adjust the output based on factors such as available network bandwidth capabilities. Other features of the video player include:

• In-video searches on any spoken word or text shown on-screen.
• In-video navigation using the Panopto generated table of contents with thumbnails.
• The ability to take time-stamped notes that are saved as personal bookmarks for review later.
• Variable playback speed controls.
• Interactivity to participate in quizzes, and polls.
• Multi-language caption support.
• Rating and sharing videos via email and on social networks.

Built-in video editor

The online video editor lets you do basic, non-destructive edits so the original recording is preserved. You can trim heads/tails, create clips, switch between different video sources in multi-camera recordings, show machine-generated transcripts as closed captions and edit them for accuracy, and create new video assets by combining different recordings. The editor lets you sync additional slides, embed quizzes, polls, and surveys. It’s even possible to embed links to web-based content like a Google Doc, as well as videos and clips from YouTube.

Interactive Quizzing

Using the built-in online video editor, creators can add quizzes to their videos like multiple choice, checkbox, and true/false questions to their videos. Enable options like displaying results and correct answers, including explanations, and whether viewers can retake quizzes. The Panopto video players support all interactive features and enhancements.

Integrations and APIs

Panopto offers free, pre-built integrations for Learning Management Systems (LMSs), CMSs, and video conferencing systems with the ability to integrate with any LTI-compatible LMS. At the time of writing this article, Panopto LMS integrations included: Blackboard, Bridge, Brightspace, Canvas, Cornerstone, Moodle, SABA, Sakai, and SAP. Pre-built video conferencing integrations are also available for BlueJeans, GoToMeetings, Pexip, Skype for Business, and Zoom. Other integrations include Hive Insights for managing live events, SharePoint, Salesforce, and InPlayer to monetize your videos.

Security

Panopto includes security protocols to protect video assets and live streams. There’s login security, access controls within the video library, and secure live streaming. The login credential types supported are OAuth, SAML 2.0, Active Directory, plus some integrated LMS ID providers. Panopto also offers their own single-sign on (SSO) feature. Panopto administrators can set role-based access rights and privileges to video assets, folders, and playlists for groups and individuals to control who can view, record, live stream, upload, publish, and schedule sessions. Other security settings include strong password enforcement, password expiration, two-factor authentication with SSO, and session timeout. Panopto is hosted on a redundant cluster of networked Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers with state-of-the-art security for their data centers. Panopto also complies with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regulations.

Analytics

With Panopto, you get video analytics and detailed reports for audience engagement and viewing behavior. From the dashboard, you can monitor the health and size of your video library. You can also connect Panopto with Google Analytics. A free integration with Hive Insights provides dashboards to monitor the quality of your live streams and audience participation. It’s also possible to use Panopto’s API to integrate with any existing analytics system. It’s also possible to export Panopto analytic reports as spreadsheets.

Panopto vs Kaltura cost

The cost of both Panopto and Kaltura solutions are tied to the number of users and the cost decreases as the number of users increases. For actual pricing, it’s best to contact their sales teams.

Panopto vs Kaltura final word

Both Panotpo and Kaltura offer features people want in a VCMS solution. The biggest difference when comparing Panopto vs Kaltura is Panopto’s “all-in” architecture. Kaltura’s suite of “pick-and-choose” add ons for a customizable video solution is flexible, but also adds a layer of complexity. Simplicity in this regard weighs in Panopto’s favor, along with a slightly more intuitive user interface. But if you need something other than what comes pre-packaged in the Panopto solution, then Kaltura definitely offers more options.

Both solutions offer 24/7 online support and an online knowledgebase of documentation and video tutorials. Panopto offers in-person training, as does Kaltura as part of their package. Kaltura also offers a range of training packages including on-site sessions, remote training, and weekly office hours. In terms of the documentation and knowledge base, Kaltura did have the advantage. I couldn’t find pdf user guides for Panopto and had a “hit and miss” experience searching their knowledge base. I felt more confident with the level of detail and scope of the Kaltura user guides.

I hope this comparison of Panopto and Kaltura features and capabilities helps you navigate the breadth of features these video solutions offer. If you’re looking for a hardware encoder that’s fully integrated with Panopto and Kaltura that deserves top grades for easy recording and live streaming, see the Epiphan Video line of Pearl all-in-one video production systems.