Panopto’s video platform is designed to make it a snap to record virtually any event. From classroom sessions to a keynote addresses, all you need to do is plug your camera into your laptop, click record, and present.

For schools, Panopto makes lecture capture possible without complicated hardware or expensive studio setups. For businesses, Panopto is the easy way to record town halls, meeting rooms, and other events and conferences. No matter what you’re capturing, you can record with any device you have on hand — from professional-grade camcorders to specialized industry recording tools, and even inexpensive webcams and microphones.

But what can you do if your USB cords are too short?

Go ahead and laugh, but it’s a serious question with real consequences to the video you produce.

Many schools would prefer to include a camera view from the back of the classroom for lecture capture videos — but short cables mean professors can only include a view from the front corner, near the laptop.

Businesses too, often prefer to include at least a view from the back of an event that can zoom in as desired. Short cables mean setting up your camera right in front of the presenter — which can be a distraction for the live audience.

In the past, your only option would have been hard-wiring rooms for a specific (and impossible to change) recording setup, or paying for expensive extended cables.

If you’re a Panopto customer, you could also work around the issue by using our distributed recording capabilities — recording using two separate PCs and allowing Panopto to automatically synchronize the feeds during upload.

For all those times when you just want to record with a single computer, however, we’ve found a better option for making in-room video easy to set up — and all it costs is $5.

The Sanoxy USB over Cat5/5e/6 Extension Cable RJ45 Adapter Set is a simple set of adapters that allow you to extend your USB cables with a common Cat5 ethernet cable. Just plug one adapter into your recording device, the other into your PC, and connect the two with any length cable you need.

Cat5 cables are the standard ethernet cables most of us already have lying around in storage, unplugged ever since we upgraded to wifi. And even if you don’t have any on hand, the good news is they’re affordable too — 50 feet will run you just another $7.

For teachers, this is often the fastest way to set up any room for lecture capture. And for businesses, this tool makes traditional event recording more flexible, giving you more options for how you set up your recording rig.

We included this convenient little tool in our Panopto Gift Guide of the Video Devices, Tools and Accessories We Love — but we hear so often from our clients that they’d love to find new tools to make setting up rooms for recording even more flexible that we wanted to share this tip again in a post of its own. For any recording use where it’s valuable to have the camera in the back of the room but the laptop up front with the professor or presenter, these little converters help eliminate serious headaches.

Panopto’s Flexible Video Platform Makes Video Easy — Anywhere

Panopto is a software-based video content management system that runs on just about any laptop and enables you and your team to record with virtually any device. And we don’t stop there — once you’re recording is complete, Panopto automatically uploads it to be shared on a secure, central library, transcodes it to be compatible with any video player, and indexes every word spoken or shown on-screen to be searched with the industry’s best video content search capabilities.

To learn more and see how Panopto can help you put video to work in your business or university, contact our team today for a free trial.