Ensemble Video, a company that has its origins at Syracuse University (SU) in the mid-2000s, is now under the ownership of a Seattle, Washington firm. 

Panopto, a video-management system provider for education and enterprises, acquired Ensemble Video in a deal that closed on April 21. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms of their deal. 

For the time being, the Ensemble and Panopto brands and platforms will remain separate, but the companies are working through a “strategic collaboration that will open up a number of opportunities” for their customers, according to a spokesman for Panopto. 

In September 2022, after a transition period, the Ensemble Video brand will sunset. Efforts are underway to “take the best” of Ensemble Video and build it into Panopto’s platform. 

Panopto and Ensemble Video previously competed for customers, but “in many ways, [have] been working together since 2007,” the spokesman said. 

About the companies

In 2005, a small team of Syracuse University employees set out to make managing and publishing video content easy for the school. Their efforts led to what became Ensemble Video. The company originally worked from the CASE Center at Syracuse University after inventing the platform. Local employees are now working remotely for Panopto.

Ensemble has five full-time employees, and seven full-time contractors.  

The entire Ensemble Video team is now a part of Panopto, and its core team remains in Syracuse and surrounding areas. Some of its independent contractors work in Boston, Massachusetts and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Scott Nadzan, CEO of Ensemble Video and co-inventor, was a former director of technology services and adjunct instructor at Syracuse University. 

Andy Covell, founder, current COO, and co-inventor, was a long-time technology leader and adjunct instructor at Syracuse. 

Ensemble Video has dozens of customers, including more than 100 school districts and more than 20 universities in New York that Ensemble Video hopes to continue servicing. Its local customers include Syracuse University, SUNY Cortland, Hamilton College, Nazareth College, and the CNY Regional Information Center.

Besides its Seattle headquarters, Panopto operates offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Sydney, Australia; Singapore; and London, UK. Eric Burns is the CEO of Panopto.

Panopto has more than 180 employees. Panopto is used by every Ivy League school, 22 of the top 25 universities in the world, and a number of “prestigious enterprises,” per the spokesman.       

Regional startups in Central and Western New York will now have “100 percent virtual access” to resources that can help them succeed. 

Buffalo–based Launch NY will use a federal grant of $750,000 toward its Rebound and Innovate program, which also involves Cornell University’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement. 

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded the funding.

Launch NY describes itself as the “first and only” nonprofit venture-development organization that provides the 27 westernmost counties in New York with pro-bono mentoring and access to seed capital, per its May 18 news release.

The funding will help pay for Launch NY’s Rebound and Innovate program. It includes Cornell University’s distance-learning curriculum, which seeks to “to solve challenges to accessing entrepreneurship support and capital caused by coronavirus through a full transition to virtual mentorship and novel financing programs for technology-based startup companies, driving economic recovery and ensuring long term resilience in responding to similar threats,” as outlined on the U.S. EDA website.

Rebound and Innovate will support 200 companies with up to 50 mentors and staff. It will also bring together up to 250 investors, while also ensuring ongoing accessibility through a new Founders Go Big (FGB) Resource Center, for which Launch NY will reveal the details “soon.” 

It will build on the award-winning FGB program, which seeks to “enhance the engagement” of underrepresented, disadvantaged founders by creating high-growth potential businesses.

Among more than 250 active client companies, Launch NY has invested in 70, including 33 percent that are women-owned and 27 percent which are minority-led. These companies — along with businesses expected to participate in Rebound and Innovate’s new, long-term virtual programming — anticipate raising $25 million in new capital, generating $14 million in annual company revenues, and retaining and creating 600 jobs, per the release.

“If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected,” Marnie LaVigne, president and CEO of Launch NY, said. “Startups across Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and the Southern Tier will have access to all the tools they need in one virtual location — meeting space, virtual office hours, peer networking, and our powerful investor network that is already providing as much as six figures in seed capital to our most promising local entrepreneurs. Being prepared to support the progress of new ventures creating new jobs and wealth in our community, especially in neighborhoods that need it most, is essential to building an economy that can function in a variety of conditions.”

The EDA grant is part of a $29 million Scaling Pandemic Resilience through Innovation and Technology (SPRINT) challenge, which uses entrepreneurship and innovation to address economic, health and safety risks caused by the pandemic. Launch NY is among 44 awardees nationwide, and one of only three in New York state.

“We are eager to get our startup educational tools into as many hands as possible to help grow businesses and create more jobs in upstate New York,” Tom Schryver, executive director of the Center for Regional Economic Advancement at Cornell University, said. “By continuing our long-standing partnership with Launch NY and offering this multi-pronged program, startups will have a competitive advantage to set down roots in our region and a bounty of support resources at their fingertips — accessible any time they need them.”

Besides its headquarters in Buffalo, Launch NY also has co-locations with partner organizations in Syracuse, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Rochester. Since 2012, it has served more than 1,199 companies, has more than two dozen experienced local entrepreneurs-in-residence and its National Mentor Network of 2,000 industry, business and investment experts, per its release.