diff --git a/transcoder/.env.example b/transcoder/.env.example
index cfe34e02..b8772e54 100644
--- a/transcoder/.env.example
+++ b/transcoder/.env.example
@@ -26,4 +26,7 @@ POSTGRES_PASSWORD=
 POSTGRES_DB=
 POSTGRES_SERVER=
 POSTGRES_PORT=5432
-# (the schema "gocoder" will be used)
+# Default is gocoder, you can specify "disabled" to use the default search_path of the user.
+#  If this is not "disabled", the schema will be created (if it does not exists) and
+#  the search_path of the user will be ignored (only the schema specified will be used).
+POSTGRES_SCHEMA=gocoder
diff --git a/transcoder/src/metadata.go b/transcoder/src/metadata.go
index c1fd2edf..a382d8d3 100644
--- a/transcoder/src/metadata.go
+++ b/transcoder/src/metadata.go
@@ -24,21 +24,28 @@ type MetadataService struct {
 
 func NewMetadataService() (*MetadataService, error) {
 	con := fmt.Sprintf(
-		"postgresql://%v:%v@%v:%v/%v?application_name=gocoder&search_path=gocoder&sslmode=disable",
+		"postgresql://%v:%v@%v:%v/%v?application_name=gocoder&sslmode=disable",
 		url.QueryEscape(os.Getenv("POSTGRES_USER")),
 		url.QueryEscape(os.Getenv("POSTGRES_PASSWORD")),
 		url.QueryEscape(os.Getenv("POSTGRES_SERVER")),
 		url.QueryEscape(os.Getenv("POSTGRES_PORT")),
 		url.QueryEscape(os.Getenv("POSTGRES_DB")),
 	)
+	schema := GetEnvOr("POSTGRES_SCHEMA", "gocoder")
+	if schema != "disabled" {
+		con = fmt.Sprintf("%s&search_path=%s", con, url.QueryEscape(schema))
+	}
 	db, err := sql.Open("postgres", con)
 	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Printf("Could not connect to database, check your env variables!")
 		return nil, err
 	}
 
-	_, err = db.Exec("create schema if not exists gocoder")
-	if err != nil {
-		return nil, err
+	if schema != "disabled" {
+		_, err = db.Exec(fmt.Sprintf("create schema if not exists %s", schema))
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, err
+		}
 	}
 
 	driver, err := postgres.WithInstance(db, &postgres.Config{})