Award Force provides various options to support video on entries—each have considerations you should be aware of.
Supported video platforms
The Award Force platform supports the following video platforms:
- YouTube
- Vimeo
- Wistia
- TikTok
- Twitch
Embed video with a URL field
The 'URL' field type accepts any correctly formatted URL. Additionally, if the URL is for a supported video platform, Award Force embeds the target video within the entrant's entry form, and the judging view for all judging modes.
You might consider using this option if your entrants are likely to have video for their entries already hosted on one of these platforms and in the public domain.
Embed video in a content block
All content blocks accept Markdown formatting which can be used to embed a video or image. Videos can be embedded using a variation of Markdown image embedding syntax:
- The number in square brackets defines the width to display the video at.
Note: this width is fixed for the homepage content block. - The video is embedded at 16:9 (wide-screen) aspect ratio. If the source video is a different aspect ratio, it will be letter-boxed / pillar-boxed in the player.
- Embedding is supported for Vimeo and YouTube URLs.
Embed video on an attachments tab
The attachments tab can include a button to Add link or video. With that button, entrants can attach any correctly formatted URL. If the URL is for a supported video platform, Award Force embeds the target video in the judging view for all judging modes.
A thumbnail of the video is automatically displayed in the attachments gallery on judging views. For programs that don't collect image file attachments, this video thumbnail will be used in galleries and voting pages. Clicking on the thumbnail displays the embedded video in the gallery overlay.
To add or remove the Add link or video button:
- In the Manage workspace, go to Entries and click Edit form
- Hover your cursor over the attachments-type tab and click the settings icon
- From the 'Attachments' section of the configuration tray, select or deselect the Accept links and externally hosted videos as attachments checkbox
- Save
Hosted streaming video
In many cases, entrants may need to include a video with their entry that is not already hosted, or there may be rights limitations that prevent their video being uploaded to a public service. Access to videos in this case is controlled by your account judging configuration.
- Videos can be uploaded via a file upload field type
- Videos can be uploaded as attachments on the entry attachment tab
In either case, once a video is uploaded, it is automatically transcoded to a format suitable for streaming playback, and is then embedded in the entrant's entry form, and the judging view for all judging modes.
Online video handling is a complex subject— if you will be supporting video uploads, you're recommended to read about video upload and transcoding.