Summary

Videos are a great way to engage your audience through the workspace.

Now, before you get out your camera to start filming, and even prior to thinking about the content of the video you want to share, you need to be aware of the options that are available to do this.

This includes how you can share your videos with your audience, as well as what the requirements of those videos are for them to play properly in the app or web app.

Video options

There are two main options for your sharing videos during your event. The option you choose depends entirely on the the size and duration of the video you want to share.

Short videos directly added to a feed post

You can share videos that are up to 1 minute long as direct feed posts.

These are great for short messages or announcements, live updates from speakers or event organizers, or anything to generate a discussion before, during, or even after your event.

Tip: For more engagement, remember to personalize posts as much as possible. This can be done by sending on behalf of a speaker (with their photo included) with some catchy text on the subject of the post. Remember to also add a thumbnail to the post, this could be a catchy screenshot of the video for example.

Longer videos created and shared as documents

Uploading the video file to the workspace

You can share longer videos (up to 100 MB) that are created as documents in your workspace and linked to a post. They can also be linked to a session, a menu item, quick link, etc.

These are ideal for any longer presentations, updates, interviews, or simulive/on-demand content. These videos will always play directly within the app on mobile and on web app.

Note: you can compress videos that are above 100MB in order to be able to upload them to the workspace. More information on this is available below.

Sharing the video as a webcast document linked to Vimeo or Youtube

Instead of uploading a large video file to the workspace in Backstage, you can add the video to Vimeo or Youtube, and then create a document in the workspace, using document type: webcast, that points to the video embed URL.

Note: To find the video embed URL, click on the Share button for your online video, and copy the embed URL from there, for example "https://www.youtube.com/embed/xxxx".
You can also add "?autoplay=1" to the end of the URL for it to play automatically.

Important: Videos with embedded URLs such as youtube.com/emboded/xxxx will always play directly in the web app, however when played in the mobile app the video will not play directly in the app, but instead will play in the mobile device's browser. If the embed URL ends in .mp4 or .m3u8, then the video will play directly in the mobile app player and in the web app.

Tip: Keep in mind that you can also use notifications to point your audience towards the newly posted videos.

Now that you know what options you have for your videos, read on to learn more about how you can share videos via posts, the video format requirements, and some compression instructions for large videos.

Step-by-step approach for sharing videos

Using videos to engage your audience is a step by step process.

Here we’d like to share a simple step-by-step guide to posting videos, from creating your video to posting it on your event.

1. Check out the options available to you for your videos, as described in Video options.
2. Produce your video (create a script and record your video).
3. Edit your video format and compress it if needed so it is below 100 MB
4. Create a video thumbnail: Take a catchy screenshot that illustrates the content of your video nicely. This will be used in the feed post.
5. Upload the video as a feed post directly (short videos), OR
   For large videos, upload the video as an asset in the Documents module (via the Assets tab), then create a document that points to the video URL, and link the document to the feed post.
   Remember to upload the video on behalf of a speaker and to add the thumbnail and a text caption to your feed post.
6. Send out a personalized notification on behalf of a speaker that points to the feed post.

Note: Remember that you can also share larger videos as a document linked to a video uploaded Vimeo or Youtube.

Video formats and compressing

As mentioned above, videos will need to meet certain size and format requirements in order to play properly in the app or web app.

All format requirements are listed in the Document file sizes and recommendations article.

If needed, you'll also find guidelines on how you can compress your videos to get them below the 100MB size limit, while maintaining quality.