Tech Thursday: Elgato Stream Deck

One look at the Elgato Stream Deck, and most people would never guess the powerhouse behemoth contained within this small, roughly 4.6” by 3.3” black plastic box. For us non-technical types, the Stream Deck is a customizable control pad that can control multiple machines – think of it as the ultimate remote control - and for the techies among us, it’s a now essential piece of equipment that can make life easier on a show site.

Events By Image’s Director of Creative Development, Jesse Cole Guthery, first encountered the Companion software running on the Stream Deck while managing one of EBI’s international events in Spain. Although Elgato originally developed the Stream Deck for live streaming and it remains very popular with gamers, it was being utilized in a production setting and Guthery quickly realized the potential for the equipment to be used in a scalable fashion for all types of live productions.

Thanks to the open source software and a community of developers, the Companion software is constantly being updated and improved, allowing the Elgato Stream Deck to work seamlessly with a wide variety of presentation and playback software, as well as professional broadcast and event equipment.

“There’s a great community of open-source developers that is building and adding to Companion all the time,” said Guthery. “If Companion didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be able to use Stream Deck in the capacity that we do for our production purposes. When I saw it being used in Spain, I knew that it was a tool that I wanted to test out and incorporate into our existing workflow.”

For a live production, the Stream Deck replaces or expands multiple control surfaces or “desks” and allows technicians the ability to have one panel to control multiple devices at the same time or create a chain of action from multiple devices with one button push. Prior to introducing the Stream Deck into EBI’s toolbox, the manufacturer control units or surfaces were still used during event productions. These were master controls for individual pieces of equipment, but not an “umbrella” solution that allowed networked items to be managed simultaneously from one control unit.

Now, whether it’s a massive production or scaled back show with a minimal footprint, the Stream Deck allows teams to minimize mistakes and eliminate redundancies. It’s user-friendly as well, currently coming in 6, 15 and 32 LCD keys configurations that can be pre-programmed and customized for almost any piece of equipment and any situation. And as the software is open-source anyone with some programming skills can build their own extensions to a previously uncontrolled device.

“It offers such a high level of flexibility,” Guthery said. “I can customize buttons, colors, settings, program-pages, etc. For example, I can turn off all the projectors in a room at the end of a day just with one touch of a button. And when you’re in the middle of a live show, you’re also minimizing the chance for mistakes when you’re simply looking for a color on a button versus numerous keys on a standard keyboard.”

Our team is always on the lookout for equipment that can streamline processes without cutting corners or increasing costs. The Companion software integrated with the Elgato Stream Deck is a perfect example of using a cutting-edge piece of technology in a unique way to bring our clients the very best in production technology.

Customizable buttons on the Elgado Stream Deck.