Webinar "Allow panelist start video" setting

API and Webhooks
1

Hi,

Is there a way to have all webinars created through the API have the " Allow panelist start video" setting turned on? If there is an option to turn this on on the account level, I could not find it.

We would like to avoid the step where the webinar host has to manually enable the panelists start video option for each and every webinar, but rather have this enabled automatically.

Many thanks,
Ventsislav

2

Hello @v.hristov

Yes, in the Create Webinar API Reference docs, you will find in the settings object a property panelists_video that is a boolean flag that performs the exact action you desire sir.

Here’s a screenshot for your reference…

Screen Shot 2020-04-03 at 1.24.57 PM
Screen Shot 2020-04-03 at 1.24.57 PM702Ă—346 22.3 KB

3

Hi @bdeanindy,

Many thanks for this, I checked and this works.

However, the documentation is then not correct in terms of what this setting does. The API docs sentence of “Start video when panelists join webinar” is actually incorrect, as the panelist video is NOT started automatically. Similarly, the host video is also not started automatically if the host_video option is set to true.

Also, the more general documentation on how to schedule a webinar at the following link https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/204619915 states:

  • Host Video : Choose if you would like the host video on or off when joining the webinar. Even if you choose off, the host will have the option to start their video.
  • Panelist Video : Choose if you would like the participants’ videos on or off when joining the webinar. If you choose off, panelists will not be able to turn their video on unless you change this setting in the webinar.

Again, this documentation is not correct. It seems that it was correct at some time in the past, but I think Zoom made some changes whereas the video is never started automatically.

Can I please ask you to request the update of both the general documentation as well as the API docs to ensure they are unambiguous and correct? Also, the webinar details screen in the Zoom web portal also could be more descriptive about this setting, right now it really does not give any information about what this setting does:

image

Many thanks,
Ventsislav

4

Hey @v.hristov,

For support documentation change requests please reach out to support.zoom.us.

We will work on changing the developer documentation. @shrijana.g, can you take a look?

Thanks,
Tommy

1 Like
5

Hi @tommy,

Thanks, I’ve submitted a support request regarding the documentation article at https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/204619915. Hope this will be fixed so that everybody can understand what these fields actually do.

1 Like
6

Thanks @v.hristov!

-Tommy