Add Surface Media: a picture, video or page in the scene - Help Center

The short answer

Surface Media puts a picture, a video, a web page or a block of text onto a flat spot in the scene, such as a screen or a poster on a wall. Open the Hotspots tab, click Add Surface Media, click the picture where it should go, choose a Content Type, give it a Media Source, then click Edit Corners and drag the four corners onto the surface.

Who can do it and what it needs

The owner, and collaborators whose role includes the Hotspots Tab and the Panoramrs Tab: Editors and Admins by default (what each tab does).
Add Surface Media is in the Advanced view (Basic and Advanced). A surface media hotspot that is already placed shows all its fields in either view.
Any plan.
On the live site, only some addresses load: see What the tour's page allows.

Add surface media

Open the tour, click the Hotspots tab and click a scene.
Click Add Surface Media. A message reads Click the panorama to place the surface media. Click the picture where it should sit. Enter puts it in the middle of the view, and Esc cancels.
A green box marked Empty Media URL appears in the editor (300 by 200 pixels), and Hotspot Properties opens with the heading Surface Media.
Choose a Content Type and fill in the source (next section).
Set Dimensions (px) and Media Fit, then pin the corners.

There is no Save button: a change is saved half a second after your last one.

Content type and source

Content Type	What to put in Media Source	What visitors see
Image	A picture's address, or click Browse	The picture. It does not react to clicks, so it never gets in the way of turning the view
Video	A YouTube or Vimeo address, or an MP4 file with Browse	YouTube and Vimeo: a frame set to start on its own, muted, and loop. A file: set to play muted on a loop, with no controls
iFrame / Website	The address of a page that allows being shown in a frame, in practice another tour's public page: Panoramr's other pages refuse it. For YouTube and Vimeo use Video	The page in a frame that visitors can use
Rich Text	HTML in Text Content (HTML Allowed), with Text Color (white by default; Color Override sets the same color) and Font Size (px) (16 by default)	The text, over the picture

When you leave the Media Source box, Panoramr looks at the address. If it contains youtube.com, youtu.be or vimeo.com, or ends in .mp4, .webm, .ogg or .mov, Content Type changes to Video. If it ends in .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .webp or .svg, it changes to Image.

Panoramr recognizes these YouTube addresses: youtube.com/watch?v=..., youtu.be/... and youtube.com/embed/.... For Vimeo use vimeo.com/ and the video's number. Other forms (Shorts, live, playlists, channel pages) are not recognized: copy the video's plain address instead. Embed a YouTube or Vimeo video has more.

Browse opens a picker of your files, with Upload new. It offers pictures for Image and MP4 files for Video. A file you upload is limited by the tour owner's plan: see Upload and manage files in the Asset Library.

Size, fit and corners

Dimensions (px) has a width (W) and a height (H) slider from 50 to 2000, with a number box beside each. The link icon beside the label, when switched on, makes a slider keep the other in proportion.
Media Fit (more on Media Fit) applies to an image and to a video file: Contain (Keep Aspect Ratio) (the default), Cover (Crop to Fill) or Fill (Stretch). YouTube and Vimeo frames, web pages and text fill the box and ignore it.
Leave Positioning Method on Transform. Perspective is not kept and the surface then ignores its corners: if you clicked it, click Transform again. Click Edit Corners: four white handles appear on the picture. Drag each onto a corner of the surface, then click Done Editing. Reset puts the corners back as a straight rectangle around the hotspot, sized from Dimensions (px).

The media is drawn in a box of the Dimensions size and then stretched onto the four corners, so choose proportions that match the surface (16:9 for a wide screen). Until you pin the corners the media is a flat box that keeps its size on the screen. With the corners pinned it follows the surface as visitors look around. To move the whole thing, select it and drag it while corner editing is off.

What the tour's page allows

On the live site the tour's page tells browsers where it may load things from. Frames may come from Panoramr's own addresses and storage, YouTube and Vimeo. Pictures and video files may come from Panoramr's own addresses and storage, and pictures also from a few map and Google services. Anything else stays empty: a web page from any other website does not load in an iFrame / Website frame, and pictures and videos should be uploaded with Browse. Fix embed problems has the background.

What visitors see

Frames and videos load when a visitor first enters the scene, whether or not they look at them. Leaving the scene pauses a video file and blanks a frame, and a frame starts again on return. A surface video starts muted, and a video file has no controls to turn the sound on. For a video with sound and controls, use an infotation with the Video variant.

A save refreshes the stored copy that visitors get, unless the tour has Draft Workflows on: then they see it after Publish Changes (my changes do not show).

Troubleshooting

The box says Empty Media URL. The Media Source is empty. The words show in the editor only.

It shows in the editor but not for visitors. Check that it is not hidden in this tour, that it was made in this tour or is shared, and that the change has reached visitors (Hotspot types).

A picture, video or page does not appear on the live site. Its address is on another website: see above. Upload a picture or video with Browse. A page in a frame must allow it: in practice another tour's public page. For YouTube and Vimeo use Video.

A YouTube frame stays empty. The address may not be one Panoramr recognizes. Copy the address from the video's page or its Share button.

Rich Text turns into Video by itself. Text that contains youtube.com, youtu.be or vimeo.com switches Content Type to Video when you leave the box. Leave those words out of the text.

The corner handles do not show. Check that Transform is selected under Positioning Method, and click Edit Corners.

The media looks stretched. The Dimensions and the corners have different proportions. Change Dimensions (px), then click Reset and drag the corners again.