Embed Media

If you'd like to show showcase a video or set up a livestream, you can embed video into an interactive object. The following platforms are great options for sharing video:

• YouTube
• Vimeo
• YouTube live (livestreaming)
• Twitch (livestreaming)
• Or really anywhere with HTTPS and a video embed link.

You can manage interactive objects through the Build tool while you're in your Space, or you can manage your objects while in Mapmaker mode. Either way, you will need the URL of the video you wish to embed.

Embedded Video Options

Using the Build tool in your Space, or the Object picker in the Mapmaker, select a tv or other object to interactively show your video. In the Object picker, in the Object interactions section of the right-hand panel, click Embedded video. 

In the Object picker, in the Object interactions section, click Embedded video.
(View from the Build tool)

Copy the URL into the Video field. In Activation distance, enter the distance (in tiles) at which the user can interact with the object.

After clicking on Embedded video, enter or paste the URL into the Video field. Enter the distance (in tiles) in which you can interact with video in Activation distance.
(View from Mapmaker mode)

Return to your Space and test interacting with the tv. The object should be highlighted in yellow when you are within activation distance. Press "x" on your keyboard to play the video on fullscreen within your Space. 

When interacting with an embedded video object, a preview displays in the left corner of your window. Any Prompt message you add displays above your center menu. Press "x" to open the video fullscreen.

Advanced Video Settings in Gather

You can fine tune settings for the embedded video from the Object picker by clicking Advanced options.

Select Advanced options in the Object details menu to view additional settings you can modify for your videos.

Prompt message - Enter text that displays at the bottom center of the page when walking within activation distance of an object.

Object image - Select a custom image that appears on the map when the object is not within activation range. 

Active image - Changes the image that appears when the object is within activation range. By default, this is a yellow highlight around the object. 

Synchronized start time - Select a time and date for the video to play to everyone within activation distance. 

Object active start time - Select the date and time when the object should appear on the map.

Object active end time - Select the date and time when the object should disappear from the map.

You can link any embeddable website inside of an object and have it open directly inside of Gather within an iframe. This includes individual Google documents, spreadsheets, and forms, but not Google Drive File Directories.  Almost any site can be embedded as long as the website administrator allows embedding.

To embed a website, select a object and click on "embedded website" under the Object Interactions.

An animation showing how to embed a document using the object picker. You can use any object in the object picker to embed a website. This example specifically uses the document object.

Embedded Website Troubleshooting

To make sure the website you want to use can be embedded, you must make sure that:

1.) It is an HTTPS site. Unfortunately, HTTP sites will not work due to security concerns.
2) The website administrator allows embedding. If they do not, you will get a message saying "refused to connect" or something similar. You can test this here: https://www.w3schools.com/tags/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_iframe 

A workaround for websites that can not be embedded would be to paste the URL within the object as a note interaction. This will allow the participants to see a URL when they interact with that object, like in the screenshot below. If they click the URL it will open the website in a new tab. 

To add a URL in a note, open the Object Picker, select an object, and under Object Interactions, click Note Object. Then add the URL in the Message field. 

To add a URL in a note, select an object, and under Object Interactions, click Note object. Then add a message and place the object in your Space.

When a user is within activation distance, they can press "x" to view the Note. They can click the URL to access the website.

A screenshot of what participants will see when they interact with an object that has a URL pasted as a note interaction.

In order to share your PowerPoint, you first need to upload it to a site that will create an embeddable link. 

One place you can upload your PowerPoint (.ppt or .pptx file) is to Google Slides. Once you have your presentation open in Google Slides, in the File menu, select Publish to the web. In the Publish to the web window, select Publish. Confirm that you wish to publish. A URL now displays for you to copy and paste, as seen in the screenshot below.

When you have published the Slides, text beneath the title of the window displays "This document is published to the web." Then modify and copy the URL and paste it into the Embedded website field of your interactive object.

You’ll get a URL like this: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSbaMdqLEgO0CjXPzEahfQm4mJIDhaGjU2waSy6DJz4m1hRXQNOBsRaoR74hYwH8s6atXylVla2ODM8/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

Delete everything from the original link that begins with "pub?" and replace it with the word “embed” so it looks like this instead: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSbaMdqLEgO0CjXPzEahfQm4mJIDhaGjU2waSy6DJz4m1hRXQNOBsRaoR74hYwH8s6atXylVla2ODM8/embed

Copy the modified link. In your Space, open the Object picker. Identify the interactive object you wish to use, then click Embedded website. Paste the modified URL into the field. Save the changes and test that you can view the slides. 

PDFs

There is not a quick uploader for PDFs like there is for images, but it can still be done. If you would like to add a PDF rather than a png or jpg, you must upload it to a public site (such as Google Drive). Then in your Space, open the Object picker, select the desired  interactive object (e.g., projector screen or file), and select Embedded website. Copy the publicly shareable file link from Google Drive, altering the URL to end in "preview". For instance:

Original link:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RlIH-FVz0BO_4G6ktrsbCTiBrqbaTEx2/view 
Embeddable link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RlIH-FVz0BO_4G6ktrsbCTiBrqbaTEx2/preview

You can also copy any public URL of a PDF and paste that URL into the Embedded website field of the Object picker (e.g., you can upload a PDF to a website you host, then copy the URL, like "www.example.com/file.pdf").

Google Forms

You can easily add a Google Form to your Space! First, create the form in Google. Within Google, select Send in the Top Nav Menu. In the Send form window, for Send via, select the link icon. Copy the link. 

Within your Google form, select Send. Choose the link icon for Send via, then copy the URL. From Gather, open the Object Picker (select Build in the Left Nav Menu of your Space, or select More Objects in the Objects panel of the Mapmaker). You can embed the form in any object, but we recommend using the Document or Bulletin object. Copy the URL of the form in the Website field. Add a helpful Prompt message to tell users what the object is or what you want them to do (e.g., "Enter a raffle!" or "Press x to win!"). 

Open the Object Picker and select an object. In the Object Interaction section, select Embedded website, then copy the form's URL in the Website field. Add a helpful Prompt message!

Select Select, and place the object in your Space. To test, walk up to the interactive object and select x on your keyboard. 

To test, walk up to the interactive object. The object glows yellow and your prompt message displays. Press x to open the form.

The Google Form will open within Gather. To leave the form, select x in the top right corner or press x on your keyboard.

The Google form will open in Gather. To leave the form, select x in the top right corner or press x on your keyboard.

Microsoft 365 Documents

You can embed Office 365 documents into Gather using the following process:

1. Open OneDrive in your file browser or in your web browser. ( https://onedrive.live.com/ )
2. Right-click the file you wish to embed.
3. Click Embed. 
4. In the panel that appears on the right, copy the text from the Embed field and paste it into a text editor.
5. Extract the embed link from the IFrame text. What the link will look like is highlighted below  (it's everything between the quotes that comes after 'iframe src=').

<iframe src="https://onedrive.live.com/embed?cid=[NUMBERS]&resid=[MORE NUMBERS]%[NUMBERS]&authkey=[NUMBERS AND CHARACTERS]&em=2" width="402" height="346" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

      6) Paste that embed link into the 'Website (URL)' field.

• Use a separate computer and sign in as a "DJ" to pipe music into the room by playing the DJ's avatar on a Spotlight tile.
• Use screen share on Chrome.  If you want to isolate the audio that you're sharing to a specific tab in your browser (e.g., Spotify or a YouTube channel), select Chrome Tab, and choose the tab you wish to share, and select the Share tab audio checkbox.

In Chrome, select Screenshare in the Bottom Bar. Choose Chrome Tab, then select the tab you wish to share, making sure Share tab audio is selected.

• Insert an object and embed a video, using the Synched TV option. You can broadcast a very long YouTube video, but guests will need to be within the object's Activation Distance to hear/see it. 
• Use a third-party application like OBS.