Information Technology Services (ITS) is planning to migrate from the current Panopto On-premises setup (https://lecturecapture.hku.hk) to the Panopto Cloud in January 2026. This transition will maintain consistent user experience while offering enhanced system scalability. Additionally, the Panopto Cloud platform introduces the new Access AI features (https://www.panopto.com/product-add-ons/access-ai/).
Schedule of migration
- Video data will be migrated from Panopto On-premises to Panopto Cloud in the background. This migration will not impact normal use of Panopto service.
- From 23rd December 2025 6pm to 2nd January 2026 2pm, Panopto On-premises platform (https://lecturecapture.hku.hk) will be in view-only access and no new recording can be created. Any viewing data accumulated between 23rd December 2025 and 2nd January 2026 will not be retained due to the migration process. Data prior to and after this period will be available as usual.
- On 2nd January 2026 (after 2pm), the new Panopto Cloud service (https://hku.ap.panopto.com) will start service in production. New recordings will be uploaded to the Panopto cloud platform.
- Based on data retention policy, video data is kept for seven years.
After migration, there are no changes in the following aspects:
- All video data, folder hierarchy, user roles and permission, viewing count and statistics remain intact in Panopto cloud.
- In Moodle, video links in Panopto block and embedded video links in Moodle course have no change and can be accessed to view the videos as usual.
- Users can record videos using Panopto Recorder software as usual.
Notes of changes:
- After migrating to Panopto Cloud, users should access the URL https://hku.ap.panopto.com to manage and view the Panopto video.
- Recordings using the Panopto Recorder software will be uploaded to the new Panopto Cloud URL https://hku.ap.panopto.com in classroom computers in the University campus.
- Users who use Panopto Recorder software on their own computers need to either:
(1) update the uploading destination to the new URL (please refer HERE); or
(2) download and install the Panopto Recorder from https://hku.ap.panopto.com. - The retention period of videos is controlled by retention policy using the data retention tool in Panopto. Videos will be moved to Archive storage or deleted based on the retention policy as described in the retention policy section below.
Data protection considerations
The data stored in Panopto Cloud will be securely protected. Panopto Cloud is supported by AWS Cloud infrastructure, which complies with 143 security standards and global certification requirements.
User access to Panopto Cloud is managed and authenticated through the HKU Portal account via Moodle, using the same method as the current Panopto On-premises platform.
Retention policy for Panopto video data
Panopto videos are retained for seven years based on data retention policy.
