Playing video from storage folder without symlink set-up... anyone?

I've created a training site with multiple levels of access that allows users to access course videos to help them pass a course exam. I'm serving them through a specific route and controller which checks a users subscription and allocation - it returns the video content.

I'm using video.js to play the content.

I'm allowing videos to play from the storage public folder and all works perfectly well... until I activate my SSL certificate and then no videos play in safari or on mobile devices.

Removing the SSL allows everything to work perfectly fine...

Has anyone else come across this scenario? If so, is this a storage access issue or something potentially server related?

My server is Digital Ocean.

Thanks in advance.

2017-10-05... Anyone? I'm still pondering on this.