Hey Crowdpurr team!
So the way our system is set up, we open a projector view that is displayed on multiple screens for the guests to see, but then we also open another projector view next to our controls so its easier to read the questions, since we cant always see the screens. ( I will try to add a picture to show what I mean) . Anyway, whenever we have a question with a youtube video embedded into it, they both play and Its never in sync so there is this crazy echo. Is there a way to have the host hit play to start the video?
This way only one will play. Also this would be useful in our “Name that tune” quizzes where we would want to ask the question first, like… who is the artist of this song…THEN we can trigger the playing of the song. Right now the way its set up, the song starts to play as soon as we advance to the next question and we have to wait to read the question after the video ends.
Any solution or suggestions would be appreciated.
Hi Ben!
Sorry you’re having trouble with the Projector View, I’ll bring up your suggestion to the rest of the Development Team later today.
Without changing your setup that much, you can use Safari’s built-in Mute Tab feature to stop the Projector View from playing audio. While the Projector View is active and a YouTube video is playing, open the Window menu at the top of your screen and select Mute This Tab.
That will silence any audio playing on that specific Projector View until you close it or select Unmute. Here’s a screenshot of what that would look like:
Hey Kyle, this is pretty cool to know, but that is def a mac feature - I’m using a PC but at least I can search to see if that is a feature available in windows as well - Thanks!!
Now, just the option to start the video when we want - just like the option to reveal the answers to be automatic or host controlled - would be awesome!
So i just searched it on Chrome - sadly you can mute “the site” so again if i have 2 separate tabs open because they are the same site, chrome mutes BOTH of them - not just the one tab. Figures! lol
There is a chrome extension that will let you mute a single tab instead of an entire site.
Here ya go…
AWESOME! that worked - thanks Dan - still would love to control when it starts but at least now the echo effect goes away!
Part of the issue is that youtube will not let you control the starting of videos on other devices. There is just no way for the host to hit “start” and then have the players devices start the video. At least through youtube embeds.
Glad the chrome extension worked. 
Since the web client is obviously in direct communication with the server in real time (web sockets? javascript-based AMQP? I don’t know what tech they’re using…)…
Since the server sends a message to the web client (mobile or projector view) that tells them to switch the page to the next question…
You would think the server could instruct the client to switch its page and load the video at a later point in time, rather than when the earlier page loads…
It might be implemented based on a per-question checkbox setting: “delay media”
if delay_media == true
- “next question” shows question
- “play media” shows media
- “activate question” shows the choices and starts the timer
else
- “next question” shows question and plays media
- “play media” is grayed out
- “activate question” shows the choices and starts the timer
This seems feasible to me, since the servers have the ability to synchronize other aspects of the game… controlling the clients centrally regarding when to load the actual youtube content seems doable.
But what do I know? I’m on the outside looking in.
Thanks everyone for chiming in. Good stuff.
We could add a switch to manually start YouTube videos on the Projector View. They would then load and await the host to click them to play.
Mobile browsers have their own rules. A YouTube video (or any video) can either do one of the following:
- Autoplay muted, with participant clicking to unmute (what we do currently) (this likely also includes triggering it remotely to start after it loads - but we’d need to check)
- Await to start unmuted, with participant clicking to play
We could possibly sync up the playing of the YouTube video on the participant Mobile Views with the host-triggering of the video on the Projector View, but on the Mobile View the players would still need to click to unmute.
We do have an update coming that will allow you to set if you want Question Media to appear on the Mobile View, Projector View, or both. As some hosts just want things like YouTube videos to only appear on the Projector View (in this use-case it’s assume all players can see the Projector View either live in-person or in a virtual meeting with the Projector View shared via window/browser).
So, perhaps adding just an Autoplay Video? switch when adding YouTube videos would help add some flexibility? If Autoplay Video? is disabled, the host must click to start the YouTube video on the Projector View(s) and for players, it would switch to the second allowed mode for embedded videos, where they must click to play an unmuted video. This then opens the question, can participants click to play the YouTube video before the host manually starts it? Or must it be locked until the host clicks play?
Then combing this with the Show Question Media on Mobile View? Projector View? switches could add a lot of flexibility and solutions for users.
Love the idea of the switch to start projector view youtube videos.
BUT if you are going to update to allow video and audio clips into the question, then no need for youtube videos, we would input the clips directly into the questions. We prefer this idea better because some of our locations have crappy wifi and it takes forever for the youtube videos to load.
Ross, I can’t commend you enough on the job you guys are doing there at crowdpurr. We love the product and so do our guests!
Keep up the great work!!
Have a great holiday!
Ben Minelli
OH - my team just asked - what about having notes somehow export with the questions? any chance? LOL
This is late but, I just wanted to throw out a technical suggestion. If possible, I’d recommend splitting your projector view between the projector (or video system) and a 2nd display next to your computer. That way you only run the one projector view, and see exactly what everyone else is seeing.
HDMI splitters can be pretty inexpensive, and work great for this use. The second display can be whatever you want to use, just make sure it’s compatible with the resolution you need to send to the projector.