StoryMaps Map Tour Video is Muted

1585
6
Jump to solution
01-12-2021 05:47 AM
nspittlemeister_LCFPD
Occasional Contributor

Hello,

I am working with a Map Tour block in the StoryMaps builder and I loaded a video from a file (MP4) as my media for one of my tour stops. The video loads in great and the video auto plays (which is perfect), but the video plays without sound because the sound in muted in the video player. Is this by design or is there a way to have the video be unmuted in that block?

Our StoryMap has artists reading poems and short stories that they have written for Black History month and I think readers of the StoryMap may not realize the audio is muted as it's currently setup.

See attached screenshot of the video in the StoryMap. Also, here is the link to the story (which is in progress): https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/c6da83ca3e8e4121ac98efc40a3b14fb. The video is loaded at stop 4 in the map tour. 

Thank you all for the help.

Nick Spittlemeister

0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
OwenGeo
Esri Notable Contributor

@nspittlemeister_LCFPD - The post @DavidPike shared covers some specific information about one of our classic storytelling templates, but the underlying reason for this behavior is the same: browsers do not allow video with sound to be autoplayed. So the behavior you are seeing is by design, and unfortunately there is no other option right now. The only recommendation I can make at this time is to add a note to the story text to prompt readers to unmute the video.

We have discussed providing authors with an option to not autoplay videos in map tours. This would require readers to click on the video to play. In that case, since the reader chooses to play the video, it can be played unmuted (we recently added this for uploaded videos that appear in the main narrative portion of the story). Would that option be preferable for you, or would you still prefer autoplay even if the video must be muted?

Owen Evans
Lead Product Engineer | StoryMaps

View solution in original post

0 Kudos
6 Replies
DavidPike
MVP Frequent Contributor
OwenGeo
Esri Notable Contributor

@nspittlemeister_LCFPD - The post @DavidPike shared covers some specific information about one of our classic storytelling templates, but the underlying reason for this behavior is the same: browsers do not allow video with sound to be autoplayed. So the behavior you are seeing is by design, and unfortunately there is no other option right now. The only recommendation I can make at this time is to add a note to the story text to prompt readers to unmute the video.

We have discussed providing authors with an option to not autoplay videos in map tours. This would require readers to click on the video to play. In that case, since the reader chooses to play the video, it can be played unmuted (we recently added this for uploaded videos that appear in the main narrative portion of the story). Would that option be preferable for you, or would you still prefer autoplay even if the video must be muted?

Owen Evans
Lead Product Engineer | StoryMaps
0 Kudos
nspittlemeister_LCFPD
Occasional Contributor

Thank you, David and Owen for you replies. This makes sense to me now, why it works like this.

Owen-I would definitely like to have the option to not autoplay the videos and have the user click play. In our use case here, where the the video is basically audio over an image with no visual movement, it's hard for the user to recognize the video is autoplaying and they could missing the artist read their content. So I would prefer to have the user play the video manually. 

Also, I will take you advice and put in some text to alert the user to unmute the sound.

Thanks for the help!

Nick

JenMcRuer
Occasional Contributor

Hello, 

I have a similar question:

I have designed a map tour (guided, media focused) and have linked it to a feature service (existing survey). When I view the tour on the storymap page, only jpgs attached to survey submissions are visible, not videos (they are within the size limit). How can I make them visible too?

Thank you for your help, 

Jen

 

0 Kudos
OwenGeo
Esri Notable Contributor

@JenMcRuer - At this time, only images are supported in map tours created from feature services. If you need to use video in a tour, you will need to create the tour places in the story builder. You can also take a look at the Attachment Viewer instant app to see if that fits your needs.

If you'd like ArcGIS StoryMaps to add support for videos in the future, please create an idea on the Ideas board so others can comment and for it.

Owen Evans
Lead Product Engineer | StoryMaps
JenMcRuer
Occasional Contributor

I have resorted to attachment viewer. Thank you @OwenGeo 

0 Kudos