[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.

[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.

[15] An additional product capability called Unison was released in 2011 that allowed the uploading of existing video into Panopto's media library.

[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.

[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.

[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.

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).

[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.

[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.

[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.