Applies to: WebinarJam and EverWebinar

You can use externally hosted videos in your webinar for playback during live or automated sessions.

External videos are used in different ways depending on the platform:

• EverWebinar - required as the primary video source
• WebinarJam - optional for video injections during live webinars

Before you begin

Make sure your video meets the following requirements:

• Supported formats: MP4 or MOV
• Hosted on a cloud-based server
• Recommended quality: 720p at 30 fps for smooth playback

For best results, optimize your video for streaming before uploading. Learn more about optimising video for webinar streaming. 

Choose a video hosting service

The streaming service you choose should provide a direct MP4 playback URL. 

Supported options include

• Kartra direct MP4 links (unlimited hosting on Starter and above)
• Vimeo direct MP4 links (third-party playback is available on select paid plans)
• Amazon S3 or a similar file-hosting solution
  • Similar solutions must offer a direct MP4 playback URL for the hosted video.
• YouTube (Available for use as EverWebinar source video only)

Hosting video with Kartra

Kartra third-party playback is available on all paid Kartra plans.

Access Kartra links:

1. In your Kartra account, go to Media center > Videos
2. Locate the video and click the three dots on the asset tile
3. Select Get video in the menu
4. Select Source file URL
   
5. Copy the complete URL from the Source file URL field
6. Paste it into your WebinarJam or EverWebinar configuration

Hosting video with Vimeo

Vimeo third-party video playback is available on select paid Vimeo plans.

Direct links to a Vimeo-hosted video allow MP4 playback with logo removal and the ability for EverWebinar to override the native playback controls.

Access Vimeo links:

• Follow the instructions in Vimeo's help center to open your video and access the video file links: Direct links to video files (Vimeo Help)

From the video links pop-up:

1. Select "Play the video" from the dropdown menu

2. Choose one of the MP4 options and click "Copy link" (the HLS and DASH formats are not compatible with WebinarJam)

3. Paste the link into the WebinarJam video injection field or as an EverWebinar source video and Save.

   

An example of how the final link appears in an EverWebinar external source file:

Hosting video with Amazon S3

To use a video hosted on Amazon S3 with WebinarJam or EverWebinar:

• Set video file permissions to "public"
• Copy the video's MP4 file path to paste into the WebinarJam or EverWebinar configuration

Upload the video file to Amazon S3 and use Actions > Make public to change the permissions:

Get the Object URL for the MP4 file:

Amazon S3 Notes

Some visitors may experience buffering with Amazon S3 video streaming. To improve streaming performance, host your video on Amazon S3 and stream it via Amazon's CloudFront.

1. Convert the S3 video file URL into a CloudFront URL to use it in your webinar configuration.
   • See Amazon's S3 to CloudFront conversion wiki article for conversion instructions.
2. Paste CloudFront URL into your WebinarJam or EverWebinar configuration to use it as a source file.

Hosting EverWebinar source video with YouTube

YouTube is a free video hosting option that is compatible with EverWebinar.

To use a YouTube-hosted file for your webinar:

1. Visit the dedicated page for your video on the YouTube website
2. Copy the YouTube page URL and paste it into the EverWebinar configuration
   • Note: The "share" link for the YouTube video will not work. You must use the full page URL.