Why Live Production Teams Rely on Stream Deck and Companion for Automation
By Stephanie R
During a detailed roundtable discussion, production experts highlighted how Stream Deck and Companion help automate repetitive tasks across live events, broadcast, and remote production environments. From controlling Zoom, vMix, and ATEM systems to managing cloud-based workflows and remote studios, the tools gave operators faster access to critical actions without digging through software menus. The conversation reinforced how flexible control surfaces and automation platforms are becoming essential for modern production teams looking to work smarter and more efficiently. Check out the setup:
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Read the transcript below:
Hey, hi everybody and welcome to office hours Tuesday focus day tide 260317. Tonight we are looking at architecting media production with stream deck and its companion software the cleverly named companion. We are joined alphabetically by last names. First off Jonas Doell of uh Base Camp Global BSMP Global and Biteive one of our favorite live streaming pros. Also, Justin James of Let Your Nerd Be Heard, creator and maintainer of Zoom OSC, Zoom ISO, Elgato Keylights, and more. Uh, also on the panel tonight, Jeff Keithley of Nimbus Control, the powerhouse of live sports arena stuff, as well as various online shows. Um, joining us from North Dade County, Florida, near Miami, our tour tech guy and host of our very own Thursday night show, The Rundown, Rabbi David Pasin. Uh, we’re moving down south to Raleigh, North Carolina. And let’s welcome Whiteboard Trading Academyy’s Muddy Schlaggel, who I’m told is celebrating tonight. More on that in a moment. And another old friend of the office hours community live events technical director Chuck Wojack, who is coming to us from Colorado tonight. All on our panel along with, as always, our reader Cindy Drosda. So that’s the state of our panel tonight. And we’re glad to have each and every one of you on board. Now, don’t forget this is a Q&A show. So, if you want to post questions for our panelist about anything relating to these topics tonight, let me toss up the QR code. So, you can shoot that. It takes you to ask office hours.global. If you hop on that website, you can put your questions into the show and we’ll get to them after kind of our introductions and the rest of what’s going on. So, askoffours.global. Jonas Dutell uh is is the person I think who probably introduced me to Stream Deck. So Jonas, talk to me. What are you excited about tonight? >> I got all the Stream Decks here. And what I really like is we have the widest array of experience and usage here from the native Stream Deck software companion deep custom integrations. We have some companion developers here that know how to build the plugins. We have Jeff who’s has central control. So, we have a wide variety um covered. And I also brought some hardware. We have the large stream deck, the small one, all of them. And I heard Muddy even brought his old uh version one stream deck. So, whatever stream deck you want to see compared to what we have it all here. >> We’ve got every single stream deck covered. That’s fantastic. When you held up the XL, we’ll we’ll save that for later. We’ll save that for later. Uh let’s see. Let’s keep going around and let’s say hello to Justin James. Justin James is the gentleman who taught me all about companion. How you doing, Justin? >> I’m doing fantastic, David. It It’s so fun to be here and talk about one of my favorite things, which is Companion and Stream Decks and how to make life easier. I remember when I first started, I didn’t have all this stuff and I had to push all the buttons and zoom and find all the things. And now I’ve got buttons to do things like I want to bring up a whole panel of four or five people. I push one button and they magically show up and all get unmuted and make sure their cameras are on all with a button and I don’t have to go push the 10 buttons, 20 buttons that it used to take. I love talking about this stuff. >> Yeah. And I have to ask uh that screen array behind you, is it real? >> It is real. All eight monitors of beauty, Justin. It’s real. >> That’s a thing of beauty. >> Uh Jeff Keithley, how are you, sir? >> Oh, I’m doing well. Doing well. Glad to be here. actually not working late on a night and uh glad to be here among friends and uh talking a little bit about one of my favorite things is simplifying life and that’s uh where string deck definitely comes in many times. >> Absolutely. I we were actually I was thinking about you the other night because we were having discussion about this new stream deck and I was thinking about the um where where Elgato has placed themselves in the consumer versus the proumer. And I was wondering to what extent these tools which to me feel a little consumerry are are also except for the the buttons one are actually used in in um in uh in your kind of work. It it surprises me every day that I run into people and they have never even heard of the stream deck and you’re still doing things I was just call it old ways or or in the hard what I would call the hard way you know it’s like why don’t you have a stream deck there’s a plugin for that there whether you’re using companion or you’re using just a stream deck app just to get things faster smarter easier uh I use a combination of like everything I can get my hands on software-wise even some really deep integrations, but uh my go-to is probably central control for a lot of our control applications. And so I’m making different commands happening in different places. It all depends on what’s supported and uh you know what we’re trying to do. >> Love it. That’s fantastic. Thank you so much. >> Uh let’s keep going around the bend. Uh Muddy, how are you, sir? >> I am doing great and uh happy St. Patrick’s Day to everyone. I got my lucky shirt on. Now, was that the celebration that Bill referenced earlier? >> No, it is also my birthday. What a fun birthday. >> Come on. >> You know the thing most people don’t get to do when someone wishes you happy birthday, you get to wish them something back. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. So, what a joy. And uh >> I feel like a rookie amongst all these pros on this panel tonight. I’m looking forward to our conversation. >> I’m I’m with I think you and I are you’re even more advanced than I am. I’m in in the same boat with you. Uh yeah, really looking forward to this and happy birthday, buddy. It’s so lovely to have you here. >> Thank you. >> Great to be here. >> Uh Chuck, how are you, sir? >> Doing great. Happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Um I use Stream Deck and just about everything I do. I was just on the road for 10 days and I brought the Stream Deck with me to be able to control multiple things for a live in-person event and it just makes my life easier in every way. >> Fantastic. Whereabouts were you? >> I was in Sedona for 10 days. We had a two or three day short mastermind event which means about 20 to 30 people and then transitioned into about 90 to 100 people for a 5-day transformational event. >> Fantastic. Wonderful. And finally, our fearless reader for today, Cindy Drosa. How are you, Cindy? >> I’m doing great and thank you for including me in the introductions. I’m a uh kind of a beginner Stream Deck and Companion user, so I’m hoping I’ll learn a lot tonight. >> Fantastic. And I see Bill is back in our gallery. Bill, are you with us? >> I’m actually hearing you, which is a nice change from the first part of this. So [laughter] >> So Bill, we’ve done the rounds and and we’re ready to dive in. Oh, >> okay. You’re ready to dive into Q&A. I just heard you announce Cindy. So >> whatever you want, whatever comes after the the hells and the how are you? [laughter and gasps] Uh well this will be the just a general discussion of what you guys do so that everybody understands you and I’m going around alphabetically as I said earlier. So Yonas, can you tell us a little bit about your experience with uh the tools we’re talking about tonight? >> Sure. I mostly work in uh remote production and cloud production. So most of the time the things I want to control aren’t even in the same country to be honest. So, a lot of the things that I do have to do with how do I get any of my stream decks up to the cloud and how do I make sure that works and then uh in my day-to-day I build a lot of companion presets for our TDS um be it custom integrations with web sockets or make sure that we have like a PT set that allows us to zoom in people on V-Mix. Um, I’ve developed a part couple companion plugins. So, I I know both sides of the equation and uh yeah, I uh I’m excited to share all of that and uh show all of these stream decks that I uh definitely use daily and was a worthwhile investment and hasn’t been uh collecting dust somewhere in [laughter] the box. >> Well, we’re very excited to have you here doing that. And I’m going to move on to Justin James. Um, you have an amazing uh resume. Nerd by Herd is a great great name for a company, but you’ve worked with Zoom OSC, Zoom ISO, Elgato, Keylights, and more. Tell us a little bit about what you’ve been doing lately. Yeah. So, one of the things that when I started in this whole production world is there wasn’t modules for a lot of the stuff I wanted to do and Zoom at the time was working on the OSC and ISO module but wanted to turn over to the community and open source it and I stepped up and I’ve been maintaining and updating that module as well as several other modules like Zoom tiles that I released recently. We’re working on the custom AV controller right now to release a module in there. And then when I’m not doing all that development work, I’m also producing events and doing stuff remotely, running studios remotely, all using companions, some satellite stuff, some cool stuff that we’re going to talk about. E, excellent, excellent. Um, up next on the round table, Jeff Keithley, an old friend of mine. We’ve been working together on this stuff for a long time. He’s coming. Uh, I mentioned as uh Yonas is from a foreign country. I sometimes consider Jeff is because he’s from Texas. Uh Jeff, how does the how do these work tools work for you? >> Uh they’re working really well. Really well. While we were doing introductions, I kind of expanded a little bit about it. So I’ll defer some more in my time to the next person, but but we’re we use them all the time every day. Every single version, including the big studio, which is the bane of my existence when it comes to stream deck devices. But the rest of them are fantastic and easy to use. But we’ll more about the studio later. >> Yeah, the problem with these great tools as we get more and more of them, it gets more and more complicated to connect them all together. Uh, next on our alphabetical tour, my dear friend and the person I turn to, as you can tell, I know uh as well as anybody here, my dear friend David Pasin, who uh has been an inspiration to me with the shows that he runs. Uh, by the way, if you haven’t tuned in, office hours Thursday evening is David’s playground, and he has a fabulous show called The Rundown that we all enjoy being around. So, what’s your take on these tools, David? >> Well, first of all, I want to know why the studio is the bane of Jeff’s existence. That’s really interesting to me. I’m I’m anxious to hear about that. But for me, I’m I’m I’m a monkey that just likes to press buttons like that. >> [laughter] >> And every once in a while, the buttons that I press do something fantastic and glorious. Um, I I uh I actually primarily use the Jeff’s going to not like this. The traditional Stream Deck software. Um, I’m sorry. Don’t make faces. >> Are you saying you’re companion free? >> No. >> No, I didn’t say that. [laughter] Um, but the reason I do that is because eCam actually has a really robust plugin um for Stream Deck. And so I that’s where I use it for that and then for everything else I use Companion. Um, what’s fun about Companion and and again it really was Justin that that taught me this um along with some other folks from office hours is um is how extensible it is. Is the the amazing things that you can create and automate in there. It’s just it’s profound. And when people ask about what is what, you know, what what is a stream deck? I always say to them, you know, it’s it’s it’s not much of anything. It’s a hunk of plastic with some buttons on it with LCD screens, but wow, is it powerful. >> Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know why, but it it always reminds me of motion. Uh when I got spent my $49 and got Apple’s motion, I thought, “Oh, this is a pretty simple thing. It must be at $49.” Then I got into the back end of it and went, “Oh my god, I can do 10,000 things in this.” And that’s kind of the same way I think about companion. Everybody who talks about it and everybody who uses it just realizes how much power you can add on. Um, only one panelist tonight is has a real special occasion. I don’t know if you mentioned it while I was knocked off temporarily, but our dear friend Muddy Schlaggel, it’s his birthday today. Uh, now those of you who watch office hours know that we have a tradition that I am not extending to this Tuesday’s show because it is glorious and terrible at the same time. We tend to sing happy birthday to people on the main show and we judge ourselves by how bad we are and we have achieved unbelievable heights of badness with that. So I’m just going to say muddy happy birthday. >> Thank you. And I received the uh I re I received that and I appreciate that probably more than singing. So I’ll spare [laughter] spare everyone the badness. And >> if you heard me sing, you would definitely think you appreciate [laughter] that more than singing. And it’s it’s been neat to hear the different way that people are using these tools with Stream Deck and different integrations with them. And I feel like I have a little bit of experience in kind of all of those areas. So I’ve used some of them with cloud productions. I use some of them in the productions that I am running here. And so using again whether it’s cutting between my own camera angles and managing my own studio with with uh stream deck buttons or with stream decks or whether it is building and running a remote studio being able to reach in and operate companion operate a stream deck remotely and we’ll talk a little bit more about how that can happen uh in addition to the stuff that Yonas is doing with kind of having VPN connections uh how Uh, I use these in a remote studio setting. So, a little little bit of a mix and I know I’m going to learn a ton tonight how others are using it, too. >> I believe we all are. And finally, out of Colorado Tech, director, Chuck Wojack. How are you doing these days, Chuck? >> Happy to be here, Bill. Thank you so much. Yeah, the the Stream Deck for me really changed my life back in 2020 when we first got those. And uh since then I’ve really kind of grown into not only using it to control more as a one-man sort of studio operator for the studios that I build. Um even going so far as getting the the pedal and and I’ll show that tonight a little bit of how my buttons are set up for the pedal so that I can actually switch and change cameras with my feet while I’m controlling other things. But I’ve also gotten really good at thinking about user um design and desire for how a talent would use the stream deck. So um I work for personal development coaches and a lot of times they want a studio to where they can do almost anything they want to do um from a button next to them. So, I’ll show some of that tonight about how they can play meditation music, duck their music so that they can talk over it, bring it back to full, bring up slides, bring up a interview next to them, all using Zoom without hands-on from me. Cool. Very cool. Well, let’s go around the home one more time and I want to ask a simple question. You can take this any direction you want to. What is the single most useful task you’ve automated via Stream Deck and or Companion? If you want to do a demo, you can. If you want to just chat about it for a while, let’s take a couple of minutes and go around everybody and say, “What has this tool set done for you?” That’s real cool. Yonas, you want to start us off? I think one of my favorite things is we did a production where it was really important that there’s no interruption if like we basically planned for a whole AWS region uh going down and uh I built this one button that if you clicked it uh it would fail over the whole infrastructure and mute uh Zoom rooms in the one meeting and unmute the Zoom rooms in another meeting. uh another Zoom room. So, we switched over. But the really cool thing since Companion is so extensible and I’ll break the format here. It’s not a stream deck that I used to build it with. They have this emergency stop button >> like a big red button, [laughter] >> a big red button that you could just slam and then it would fail over. Um, but the main thing with the stream that gets like so many small things like the native app being able to paste uh a long text as keystrokes has saved me on a couple gigs where we didn’t have a remote tool that allows you to copy paste uh commands. Um, and overall I I I think there’s so many things that uh we wouldn’t want to automate otherwise. Um, if I would have to say one, it’s um, in V-Mix, we have basically a virtual PT set using a stream deck that allows me to zoom in to any panelist and move them around. So, to make sure they’re all consistent in uh, the positioning and zoom levels. That’s probably my favorite use case for the stream. >> Nice. Nice. Justin, your thoughts? So my favorite use case for dream decks originally was all the zoom stuff. So I’m looking at this little on screen stream deck like this is actually a zoom meeting that I have running on another computer showing me all the host where I can click on them and I could actually spotlight them. I can mute them all the all the things I need to do to bring them to stage. Same thing for the bottom blue one. with all the people in the gallery. So I don’t have to go hunt down people and as they raise their hand they pop to the first buttons. I don’t have to even touch Zoom for the most part when I’m actually running events and and the Stream Deck’s enabled me to actually do that. That’s really nice. That’s really lowering the cognitive load for the operator so that you have simple decisions to make that do complex things. That’s pretty powerful. At least it sounds like it to me. Uh Jeff, >> I’m going to take this a different direction. I’ll be honest. Um, my go-to there’s two things on the stream deck that I have one button turns on my whole studio logs in does a whole long list of things of getting me ready to go live. That’s that’s one. >> So, studio launch for live is a button push now instead of running around. >> I don’t have to click on a turn the lights off dim. I mean, my overheads are dimmable so they go to a specific level. my studio light comes on at a specific level. All those things are automated so that I have a consistent area at all times. My background goes on to whatever background I have programmed onto it. But my really most important button is got to be the make coffee button which fires up and runs a sequence on my coffee maker. And [laughter] >> so there are optional buttons and then there is dead deadly necessary buttons. >> Absolutely. Found one. >> Yes. Absolutely. Love it, David. >> So, for me, it’s um it’s something in companion. It’s it’s triggers. Um this is uh Oh, goodness gracious. Wrong screen. Um >> you’ve triggered yourself into space. This whole >> I know that always happens to me. So, um triggers in companion allow you to create an automation based on when something happens. And so um this is a very simple I ridiculously simple automation that um when a participant ends up in the number one spot which always happens when they raise their hand. Then a whole bunch of things happen. Um first of all they’re selected automatically. Um they get a chat message saying hey you’re up next. Get ready to unmute your your phone uh excuse me your microphone. Um, as soon as I uh press uh the button, a whole other bunch of things happen. They’re unmuted. They are um they’re spotlit. It’s being able to not just do all the automation, but to have it happen automatically is is really pretty pretty awesome. And I just I’ll I’ll second um I think it was something that that um Jeff or Muddy said. I or maybe it was Justin, forgive me. I never, it was Justin, I never touch my Zoom window anymore. I I never touch my ecam window anymore. I I never interact with those apps during a meeting because everything is routed through the stream deck. >> Nice. Uh, David. Oh, I said that was David. Excuse me. I’m I’m lost for a second. Muddy, you’re next. I >> I’ve been called a lot of things. So, all right. uh the uh [laughter] uh you know it’s interesting because a stream deck by itself is nothing right it’s just the buttons and it’s what you uh pair it with and in fact pairing it with something like Adam Ta’s mix effect not only gives me buttons that allow me to kind of cut different cameras but actually change super source scenes with a button like if you if you use ATM software you know what it takes to adjust a super source, but to be able to do that on the fly. So, even though it’s maybe not the most profound thing I do, it is often one of those wow things when I pull that into a meeting. It’s like, oh, hey, let me show you what I’m talking about. I just push the button and and have that on the uh super source. So, that’s my that’s my uh go-to. >> You bring up something really interesting and it reminds me of the first time I ever got an Apple phone book on one of my early Macs. I you know I went what does this do and and without any information and it does nothing [laughter] you had you could look up Apple’s phone number that’s all you could do and it wasn’t until I discovered that as you enter and enter and enter and enter or in this case we’re talking about as you discover things that you can do and program them in suddenly that thing that didn’t really do anything in the beginning does everything and you can decide exactly what you want it to do and that’s sometimes the magic of these tools Um, Chuck, what what’s what’s on your list? Oops. I think you’re muted. Zoom muted. >> He needs the stream deck. >> Either that or you’re doing an impression of me earlier in the meeting. Which [laughter] of it is there? >> Button. >> The problem was you could hear me through all of that. I’m still seeing Zoom muted. I’ve still got the little red microphone breaking and sneaking in. >> Well, I’m going to This is not the correct microphone. >> All right. And this is the correct microphone. All right. I said I wish I had a button to make me coffee like Jeff does, but I haven’t built that yet. For me, my most useful uh stream deck that I use it is is setting up step buttons so that I can save real estate on the smaller stream decks and give someone a button that gives them options. An example would be I have one sort of confidence monitor or one monitor for a person to view when they’re on their Zoom meeting. And I can toggle that going back and forth between gallery and speaker view so that they can see their people that they do on one-on-one. When I produce remotely, I actually don’t use Spotlight in Zoom um ever. And that’s mostly because I’m running through other equipment and and I have LED wall galleries and I have um extra galleries that I use to keep an eye on what’s going on. Spotlight breaks all that and you have to fix it. Um so I usually just rely on the uh raise hands, unmute the person, Zoom will handle the active speaker and that is routed to all of my Super Source boxes and it makes my life a little bit easier. >> Very cool. All right, we’re about to head into our off a audience questions. Uh, one little note beforehand though, if you haven’t gone into the original office hours.global website and signed up to receive all the information on coming guests and shows, I would suggest heartily that you do that. Uh, I’m sure there are some folks out here, this is your first exposure to office hours. Global and it is a big community full of all sorts of opportunities to volunteer and just learn. We’ve always been a community that prizes learning over everything else. And that’s why we do panels like this, so you can listen to some of the biggest experts in the world and uh get information from them. All right, time for Q&A. Cindy, what is our first question tonight? >> Starting us off tonight is Yonas DL on the panel today and from Stoutgart, Germany. I have a demo of showing how to use the the satellite module in Companion to do folders in companion. Oh, that that that requires a yes, please out of me as host. So, Yonas, dive in. Show us what you got. So, one of the common issues um especially with um the larger Stream Deck, the the rack mounted Stream Deck, the Stream Deck Studio, is it really is, and I have a virtual one here, it really is really long, and you often want different sections to be different parts. So in this case this is a routing interface for an Ael Kumo and what I want is I want the left side to be my uh destinations and the right side to be my sources. I don’t have my Ajacoma with me right now. So you’ll see a everywhere here. Imagine some beautiful uh input and output names there. And what I can do is I can now go into the routes here. What I’ll actually do is I’ll go to my sources here, sources one, and I’ll say, let’s see, one. So, you see that right now we’re on source one here. Um, going to do source two here as well. So, now you see it’s there. And if I change around here, nothing changes. And normally you would do that with page jumps. But then the problem is the right side of your panel would also jump and you need to like either copy around your buttons and then you forget to update that one button. So what you can do is everybody probably knows companion satellite which allows you to connect your stream deck to a remote companion but in the latest version there’s also something new called the um satellite API module within companion. So what this does is it actually connects to itself as a stream deck. So in this case I have right and left. So they show up here as satellites from itself. And then what I have here actually is studio base. So this is my studio base. And what this is is on the left here is these are all the buttons from satellite. This just shows satellite here and shows me all the different things there. And then on those two different satellite surfaces, I just set which um pages it should be able to use. And then you can just say, “Hey, jump this surface around.” So this way I have my left side does one thing and the right side does another thing. And this is a really simple way that you can kind of create a folder-like structure or split up an existing stream deck into two stream decks or four stream decks or whatever you might need so you can control what page that section of the stream deck is on separately. >> Very cool. David Pasin, you had either some thoughts or a follow-up. >> Well, I just wanted to throw something in. This is going to be the the uh not intelligent uh uh counterpoint to what Yonas just shared, but that is that he talked about sort of dividing up your Stream Deck. And one of the things that I think is really wonderful about the Stream Deck XL and the the absurd XL plus um Ultra Max or what I’m not sure what it’s called. uh is that you don’t need to use every button and that in fact what a lot of people do is intent very intentionally quadrant off different areas. You know, they’ll put the zoom controls up in this area and then they’ll very intentionally leave a a blank uh button or buttons uh to um to to to give you space. And that’s um you know I I I think a lot of us could probably get away for running basic things with the with the plain old stream deck, but being able to spread things out and as Jonas was saying really create different um areas and spaces on one stream deck is a really powerful use of of the tool. >> Makes perfect sense. Next question please. Coming to us from Phoenix, Arizona, Jack Cannon is asking, “When using satellite with a remote companion, how can I control my local comm’s app?” >> And Yonis is going to help you with this. be honest. >> This is actually the exact same concept cuz while right now um I use a local satellite, you could use a remote one uh over a VPN or a tail scale tunnel or something like that and connect through it that way. That gives you a satellite that you can place on your stream deck. That way, if you have two stream decks and you want one of them to be your local for your coms and everything like that, you can use that. And then the other one is your remote stream deck. You can even go one step further, which I do often on these events, is I have my stream deck Excel right here. And then what I do is I have eight different pages for that Excel that are actually eight different satellite connections. And then I have my stream deck studio that allows me to look at any of the stream decks that my operators are use. So let’s say I do a show with Maddi and he has to step away for a moment. I can just click TD1. My Stream Deck Excel jumps to the page for TD1, which is the satellite that connects to the companion in the cloud for that TD and I have access to it without needing to reconnect or any of those things. So this module is really so powerful and uh nobody really talks about it because it’s complicated to understand but it allows you to connect to companion from your companion and do all these things that in the past were really hard to do with just companion satellite. >> Sounds incredibly useful. Next question. >> This one comes to us from Zack Jefferson in Spokane, Washington. Minus the quote right tool for the right job end quote. What is your line for choosing the various options for software side of stream decks? How do you choose to use companion versus central control versus custom versus anything else? [laughter] >> A lot of complexity there. Jeff Keithley’s going to start us off here. Jeff. >> All right, Zach saw me on here. I know that I I know that word. Uh I I very often will say right tool for right job and and for me it comes down to what’s supported. Uh recently we were doing a uh an event and one of the things that we ran short on was some of the cameras could not be shaded by a certain uh platform and so I went searching around well what can talk to it and sure lo and behold companion could and it gave us the tools to be able to quickly and I overnighted actually it was Amazon same day delivery a plus they didn’t have the plus super dub big one yet but they had a plus delivered to him the same day and we had it programmed by the evening show that day with the companion uh controls that we need for him to be able to shade those specific cameras and it made all the difference in the world. I personally will go a little bit more towards central control as my starting point but central control can also pull in and call buttons from companion using basically like a satellite um interface. So now I don’t have to worry about which mode my stream decks are on or other surfaces is another reason I use central control is I can use a variety of surfaces and any button on that surface can trigger anything in companion also. So I’m not locked down to use a companion just with the stream deck. >> Yonas, >> I think it really comes down to what you’re using, what are your needs. Um, I find that as soon as you need to do something that isn’t actionbased, be it a button press or a turn left and right, which also just triggers a button press, um, that’s where central control really shines right now. It has faders, it has more different uh, controls than the stream deck and or just stream deck, which companion focuses on mostly. Um, so that’s how I would make the decision most of the time. I like companion more because I can um go in and fix things myself or screw up things for myself as well, which that’s kind of like your mileage might worry, but that’s how I like to uh live in live in the world of being able to fix it myself. Um, that’s a big plus for me. And if I don’t understand why a companion is behaving in a specific way, I can just look at the source code. >> Muddy, >> I appreciate this question, Zach, and it it actually makes me think so you say the right tool for the right job. And the thing that is inherent in your question is you know what the right job is. And I actually don’t want to make that assumption in general because when I have um helped someone new with Stream Decks and they’re like oh what can it do? It’s like that’s not the right question. The question is what do you want to in my opinion the starting place is what do you want to accomplish? And the more clear you can get about what you want to accomplish, then it becomes much easier to determine what tool is going to help you do that in the most reliable way, the most simple way. And so, uh, understanding what you want in my opinion is really the place to start. >> Let’s go to our next question. >> Our next one is from Andre Delay in Berlin. Are you using Stream Decks mostly with companion or with Stream Deck software and companion plug-in? What are the pros and cons? >> And I understand actually this question and the next one are very close and I think we’ve got some of the same things. So if you uh Cindy, do you want to read the next question as well? Then it’s the same. >> No, it’s not the same people. I’m sorry. So, uh, let’s just deal with this one. We’ll go we’ll go to the both. Jeff Keithley, start us out. I again I I probably go back and forth. Uh there there are certain things uh that I like in the regular stream deck app that are what’s the word I’m looking for? More visually ple uh pleasing. Um I I find that the companion is very ut utilitarian and very the buttons designs like you can’t drop really easily drop in graphics to support it. definitely can’t have nice little meters running. So, I I really I go back and forth between them all the time uh of which way I’m using it. It just really depends on what app or what I’m trying to get off of it. If I’m in production or if I’m just working at the desk, too, that that does matter a little bit, too. >> Justin James, you wanted to weigh in on this? >> You want to weigh in on this one? Stuff has changed in companion that’s made this actually less of a decision that we had to make. It used to be you either used companion or you use the stream deck app and you couldn’t pick and choose. Oh, I want this stream deck on this machine to use the plugin or the stream deck app and I want these ones to use companion. Well, the latest releases of both companion and the stream deck software. You can actually turn off certain stream decks and say this one doesn’t go to companion, this one doesn’t go to the stream deck app. You can actually mix them back and forth. The reason we end up mixing them is sometimes there’s just not a companion module. Like Zoom’s a great example. If you just want to be able to mute your mic, turn your camera off, raise the hand, there’s a there’s a Stream Deck plugin for that. There’s nothing in companion to do that. And so in that case, you’re back to the Stream Deck app. And then the nice part is you could choose if you only have one Stream Deck, this is where the plug-in comes in handy. You can now connect that up to your stream deck or to companion and get all the benefits in companion on a page install. Use the stream deck app. So just depends. Do you have everything in companion or do you actually need something on the stream deck app like the zoom thing or the ecam thing that David mentioned earlier? >> Marty, you want to weigh in? >> I do. I do. And I want to reinforce what Justin is saying that uh and in fact I was just looking at this a minute ago. I just took my stream deck plus device and what you is hard to see from this angle, but what I did is when I selected that in my surfaces here in companion, there’s a button right here that just or toggle that says enabled. And when I turn this off, companion no longer sees the Stream Deck Plus. And so now I can use the the whole device that Stream Deck Plus just with the native Stream Deck app. The other thing that and so that’s super powerful, super useful. The other thing that you can do is actually, and I think Justin uh um touched on this, you can use both of them together. And this actually before you could toggle a whole device on or off, you can use them together. And in fact, the first time you open companion, it asks you, do you want to use it with the native Stream Deck app? And it just means that you can have certain buttons on pages that are coming from companion and certain buttons that are coming from the stream deck itself. Essentially in this native Stream Deck software, what you would do is pull in the companion button. So that that kind of becomes the driver. But you can use one device with both. You can use a device with one of the softwares and not with the other. And so both of those are really powerful ways to do this. And as Justin said, it keeps getting better and better. >> Okay. Um Justin just raised his hand and I want to make sure since we’ve got two questions were bouncing back and forth. Justin, you wanted to weigh in on this one? >> Yeah. I just want to throw one more thing in for the companion plugin for folks that had used it in the past. It used to be you could only do it on a local instance of Companion. In one of the updates over the last year, you can now actually connect it to a remote instance of companion as well. Al, which made it even more powerful. Well, that you didn’t have to make that decision of, oh, I can only do companion locally. Now you can connect remotely, which is great. >> Cool. And it looks like the question chain cleared up. We had pretty close to exactly the same question and everybody who was going to weigh in on that one weighed in on this one. So, let’s go to our next question. >> Here’s another one from Yonas Stout in Stoutgard, Germany. Why should you never expose your companion instance to the internet? >> Since Jonas asked it, I’m going to ask him to answer first and then Jeff wants to weigh in. So, Yonas, >> and this is one of those things that a lot of people will tell you, well, if you just do it for an hour or so, it’ll be fine and no one will no one will find it. And it’s a little uh fun game I like to play. And uh I sense the IP addresses because we don’t want to have 50 people >> [laughter] >> Don’t scan for the IP address and and there’s this website that’s often used for um IP security and IT security and making sure that you can find exploits. Um, if you just search for Bit Focus Companion there, I can find 150 instances right now exposed to the internet. And if I click any of those links, um, they’ll open up and you can find wild things there from houses of worship to small corporate venues to people running their Twitch live stream. Never ever ever ever expose it publicly. People will find it. If you end up with someone nice, they might leave you a nice little button there that says, “Hey, please never ever ever ever expose this again and then they still find it 3 weeks later there and add another ever.” But there might also be really bad people. Companion inherently is not secure to expose to the internet. Even if you enable the admin password, it is so easily bypassable. Um, and even if you enable that, your emulators are not locked behind the admin password. Someone could still click that uh make coffee button until uh just kitchen is flooded with coffee. Um, you know, Jeff would never expose this make coffee button to the internet. But this is just I want to make sure that everyone is clear. Never do that because people will find it and they might leave you a nice button or you’ll uh have a nasty surprise. Uh Jeff, do you want to expose what grind you have in your coffee maker right now and what is somebody else going to be brewing? >> Medium roast uh Colombian actually. I the the the thing that that uh I I guess maybe many many years of of uh Alex has rubbed off of me. But the the first thing when I saw that question that came off to me was never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever never ever ever leave it open because that was I’ve I’ve Jonas and I have seen that same site and we’ve had discussions about it and that’s it’s scary guys. It really is. So we were always working behind a secure platform. Our our our platform that that we designed as Nimbus control everything is behind the gateways. It’s it’s uh it’s single sign on protected with two-factor authentication. Um just because you’re doing a virtual event or you know you’re maybe you’re doing something for a nonprofit or something, don’t leave yourself open to liability. Make sure that you are secure and companion is not secure unless you put it behind a VPN or behind a a gateway like we do. >> Wise warnings. Something worth paying attention to. Next question. >> Here’s one from Ike Pter in Hanover, Germany. Windows PC users only, please. Elgato’s system requirements web page says Windows 11 is required for the Stream Stream Deck Plus XL. Does it work properly on a Windows 10 PC or is an earlier Stream Deck app version like 7.0 instead of 7.3 then required? >> I’m not sure we have anybody who’s running that configuration here on the panel. Nobody raised a hand on this. I Oh, there we go. Muddy’s going to help us out. Muddy, dive in. >> Well, the one thing I will tell you is that because this device is brand new, there are several things that need to be updated, including the Stream Deck software and the companion software. That being said, I was just reading a thread earlier today where Mac users were reporting that the Stream Deck Plus XL was working fine with Mac and Windows users, regardless of Windows 10 or Windows 11, were having trouble getting the computer and the software to recognize the Stream Deck Plus XL. So, I don’t know the specific answer, but I do know if you’re struggling on Windows, it may not even be the version of Windows. It may be the fact that the device is so brand new that the software hasn’t been updated enough to even recognize it yet. >> Yeah. Some missing handshake or something. Justin James, do you have some thoughts? >> One thing I would say that’s a little unfortunate is that Microsoft eolled Windows 10 in October of last year. So, we’re going to start seeing manufacturers when they come out with software not do any of the testing on it. And so, it might install, but it’s going to be a use at your own risk. I guarantee none of the Elgato people did any testing on it because why would we as developers test on something that the company’s eolled? So, that’s kind of the unfortunate state that we’re in a little bit when it comes to Windows 10. >> Seems sensible. Next question. Andre Delay in Berlin is asking, “Any idea why only the 15 button Stream Deck has scissor keys available? It’s a real bummer as the original buttons are not too reliable in my experience.” >> Jeff Keithley, are you looking for touch typing Stream Deck keys? >> I hate these keys. >> I do. Uh I don’t have any of the scissor keys uh myself. I but when it comes to doing the actual switching, video switching and stuff like that, that’s probably another reason I use central control as my as my go-to is because I can use real controllers. Uh some I’ve got probably 10 different tricastaster uh control surfaces that I’ll use uh and reprogram them to do all kinds of different things that I want them to do just like I can on my stream deck. Now, I don’t get the displays on my stream deck, but how many of you guys have seen this? And I I I know I’ve seen lots of desks. They have like four, six, sometimes as many as eight different stream decks up and they never change the pages. So, if that’s the case, then you might as well just using a piece of tape and writing on the on the on the top of the button what it’s doing, which is what we’ve done for decades in the the real uh production environment. It’s our white tape. I I had a roller on my desk. I moved it. But the white tape with a Sharpie, that’s how we labeled buttons and we still do to this day. So for me, the button >> what board tape supposed Absolutely. So for me, the actual button feel themselves drives me insane to use as a as a TD because I come from punching on Grass Valley at a real switcher. So I I like the scissors. They do feel better, but they’re still not as accurate as as a regular cherry switch that we normally use. >> Yonas, so having both, I find that there was a there used to be a lot of issues back a couple years ago when they came out. I haven’t found a lot of issues with the LA latest charges. Um there’s this rumor though that they’re still pretty bad and I have found that uh sometimes and everybody does a mis punch from time to time. It’s a little easier to say ah man the stream deck it just like that button [clears throat] I haven’t found especially with debouncing getting better and the firmware I haven’t found that issue. What I’ve heard on the scissor key specifically is when I talked to Elgato is it is a test product to see if it’s viable to have a more expensive stream deck. Um we haven’t seen the 32 one yet and I guess you will know by how well the um smaller one is selling if they add a 32 or not. Um, I don’t think there’s a big enough market for it because you either migrate from a stream deck to something with NKK buttons or similar thing or you stay with a stream deck and then it’s just a marginal improve improvement um on the scissor keys. And the main difference is that what can feel weird with the um normal stream deck is that you have if you hit it not in the middle but on the edge, it can have a double fire and it can feel a little mushy there. Um with the stream deck scissor keys, there is just one way it can travel down as the whole key. So that prevents some of those issues. But, uh, I found that if I hit my stream deck keys in the middle of the button, they work really well. >> David Pascin. >> So, I’m going to um argue with Jeff uh because I’m one of those crazy people that really never uses the pages on my stream deck and I fully understand that I’m missing out on the point. Um, I when I’m doing a production, when I’m doing a show, I would rather have three or four stream decks in front of me with everything that I need visible than have to press buttons and change pages. The reason I don’t use tape and and static buttons is because the buttons give me feedback. So, especially when I’m using Companion, I can see who’s in what space in Zoom. I can tell whether I’m muted or unmuted. So, that’s that’s my argument for um uh for for having the the the LCD screens and why they’re so powerful. But, yeah, I I don’t use I don’t get the most out of it because I like to be able to have everything in front of me. >> So, you don’t want essentially a changeable controller. You want a dedicated controller that you know that that button where you’re expecting it always does the same thing. Am I reading that right? >> Yeah. Yes. And I I mean, I do use pages. You know, if I have a show coming up, I I will dedicate a page to that show, but I will always put the mute button. I’ll copy the mute button to that page and put it in the same spot. Um, generally speaking, >> okay, Muddy, >> I actually the point I heard Jeff making was using a controller that doesn’t have the LED screens but has better buttons. If you just label those buttons, that is just as useful as not but better buttons. And I guess the one thing I would say is one of the things that I use my stream decks for is controlling the ATM mini. And I found those buttons to be squishier and more problematic than the Stream Deck buttons. So partially because how I have my Stream Deck set up, I can rest my hand uh so I’m not kind of hovering in midair, but I can kind of rest my hand and then be able to make a more positive button. But I have made a miss button even with the stream deck in the past. So it’s point well taken. >> Makes me want to shout build a better button buddy. Uh Jeff Keithley. >> All right. So I’m g circle back to this and David. Yes, I I understand what you’re saying. It it is really interesting from the different ways people work. For me, I work in in field. So I don’t look at the buttons. I don’t look down at the displays. I do it by muscle memory of where my buttons are. And so I have these things called video screens in front of me that have all the variables and all and somebody else mentioned it’s like well you don’t see the variables and feedback. It’s like I don’t need to see it on a button because I have it in the software that’s in front of me. So that’s that’s just a different way of of working and what you’ve gotten used to. But you’ve gotten used to it. It’s like I would never look down I don’t look down at the button to find out where I’m at. It’s my fingers know where I’m at already. So I guess that’s kind of the difference. >> Next question. >> This is my question. Cindy Drosda in Erie, Colorado. Being I’m able to control V-Mix on my stream deck with either companion or the stream deck software. What are the advantages and disadvantage of the two apps for V-Mix specifically? >> And Yonis Donald is going to help you out. to be honest. >> From my understanding, cuz I haven’t used it a lot, the V-Mix app for Stream Deck is built for local control and it uses shortcuts. What I don’t like about that is that you have two places where you need to configure things on your stream deck and then also in V-Mix what that shortcut does. Um, with companion you can also integrate more things and I found that the feedback and the specific like you can be very specific on what it should do and you can for example bring in additional values. Um, we have one show where we have a Google sheet where you type in uh all the names of the different people that then gets reflected on your buttons so you know who is where that then gets sent to V-Mix or other solutions as well. So I think it’s if you’re just using V-Mix and you’re fine with keeping some of the complexity in V-Mix, I think the stream deck plugin is fine. Otherwise, I would go to uh companion. So, you have one location where all the complexity is and if your V-Mix profile changes or you need to control another V-Mix, you can easily do that without too much rework. >> Next question. Here we have Zack Jeffers in Spokane, Washington asking, “Can you share some of the complexities and solutions for local control versus remote control versus having to satellite into an existing system or remote system?” >> Chuck WJack’s going to start us off here, Chuck. >> Yeah, I use this a lot. Um, being able to have the local control. Well, originally started with some of the older ATM equipment where you were limited to the number of network connections you could have to those devices. So I started using a companion instance for the entire studio, three switchers, uh a lot of um routers and every stuff there. So whenever I needed another stream deck, let’s say for talent or for a um operator in the wings, I would use satellite on local premise like that just so that I wasn’t excuse me creating a new network connection to those devices. I was actually um having it talk back to the main companion and use that. Now, when I started connecting to remote studios and this Jonas and and Muddy are probably better to answer this than I am, but it first started with VPNing in. So, we would VPN establish a connection to that network, type in the address of that companion instance, and then I could use a a stream deck locally to talk to all those network devices connected to that companion. with satellite now and I think Justin touched on it earlier now you can connect to satellites across the across the web. So that allows you a little bit more flexibility to be able to have control of a remote studio and it allows you to do someone like me who builds studios for these um teachers and course creators and people who teach online. I can set this up for them but I can also check on them if they have a problem. Hey, can you can you take a look at my setup? One button isn’t working. I can actually access it pretty easily. >> Jeff, I I would have to say that I mean having everything behind uh VPNs are are without a doubt the first step, right? And that is complex to a lot of people. Uh Zach, I know it’s not one of you. It’s not you. So, I would I know you’re well above a lot of that. Um, I prefer the the aspect of having the companion, especially when we’re doing cloud production stuff. Have the companion local in the cloud or, you know, in virtual uh world in the cloud and then using the satellite to talk to it. That’s pretty much our standard workflow. Now uh instead of a local local like you know setting on my machines talking to an IP address in the cloud uh that’s a little bit trickier to make um always reliable. So I I prefer to do the satellite into it as it myself. >> Yonas >> there’s a couple things that come into play there. Um, if you have your companion locally, you now need to expose all the IP addresses of all the tools you want to control, right? And especially for me, like I said, most of the time things I’m controlling aren’t on the same continent. Let’s add 100 milliseconds of latency from Germany to the US. Um, for example, I want a really responsive feedback on what’s live on air with V-Mix. So, I set the um refresh rate to 200 300 milliseconds. And now I already lost uh a third of my latency budget for processing all of the V-Mix um data that comes back to latency across the ocean. That’s why we put companion in the cloud. That way there’s a single IP address that your operator need to know that they need to expose. Um there’s some ways now that you don’t even have to use TCP anymore. Um, a while back there was this uh super Saturday that we produced on office hours where one of the things we did is we had companion in four different people’s kitchens controlling uh the cameras and I had a master companion that was talking to those companions over Cloudflare tunnels and it was this whole complex mess. Um, you don’t have to do all of that anymore because satellite can also connect over HTTP now. Um the main complexity is up until uh when companion added the satellite module in companion is that you can’t pick and choose what devices to use. Um and that your config is still in the cloud, right? So you couldn’t use your local coms. Um the one thing I would love for companion to do is like a remote module runner. that is the companion core talking to modules remotely um because I found it’s best to have the processing of the module being done very close to the software that’s being controlled >> you know one thing to keep in mind >> go ahead >> we are talking about quite some bandwidth sometimes because satellite instead of sending the data it does send the bit maps um that’s just something to keep in mind like if you’re in a super um bandwidth restricted environment, you might find that controlling V-Mix directly has a lower bandwidth impact than using satellite, but most of the time it’s not that noticeable. Um, but it is a difference. Uh, I was just going to say we have such an incredible brain trust for everybody who’s using uh Stream Decks and Companion. This is a rare opportunity to get this much expertise. So, we are running a little bit late. We’re going to go over maybe 10 minutes or so just to see if we can get all the rest of the questions in. So, let’s go to our next question >> from our panelist Yonas Dal in Sutgart. Muddy, how are you using the stream decks for controlling remote studios? >> Uh, and I got this backwards. I promoted Justin before Muddy, but it’s a question for Muddy. So, Muddy, you want to take it first and then we’ll go to Justin for a second and hope that the uh Chironss are the right. >> Yeah, sure. And and it’s funny because Justin and I often collaborate and so I think we probably do this and and one of the things I’m going to share is something I learned from Justin. So good. All right. So you may know that in companion there is this option to have these interactive buttons. And so you can pull up for instance an emulator. So one of the ways that I do this is I actually remote into the computer. Right? So on the in a client studio I will generally have remote access software. So I’m whether it’s splashtop or jump desktop that I’m actually logged into that computer. And so now the question is how do I control a stream deck from the computer when I don’t have the physical. So this is the use case. One of them is being able to use a web page emulator. There’s two versions of this within bit focus web buttons and the emulator. Uh and that’s fine. And this is just a web page that I’m showing on the screen. But the thing I learned from Justin is there is another software which is called screen deck. Not stream deck but screen s cn screen deck. And what screen deck will do it’s a free software. It will allow you to have this floating window. So now if I brought that web page back down you would see that that floating window stays over top of this. So I can actually have multiple kind of onscreen heads up screen decks pinned which is similar to Elgato’s own native virtual stream decks with that which they have come out with recently but it gives you that functionality be able to have something pinned on the screen and be able to click and push the buttons remotely. So that’s one way. >> Justin money stole my thunder a tad bit. Z is going to show the same software because that’s what I I actually do is remote in and use that same screen deck software. But I wanted to touch on one thing he mentioned within companion with the emulator and the web buttons. I suggest never using the actual web side of it and to use the emulator side. And the huge difference and reason why is emulator will actually navigate pages. The web buttons don’t navigate pages. So most of us have set up buttons to go to various pages and it doesn’t actually really navigate well in there where the emulator really acts like the stream deck itself. So if you’re going to use the emulator or use it within the browser, use the emulator. And one last thing, the extreme screen deck that Muddy mentioned, one of the other great things is you can actually speck a button in the settings for it to make it always on top so you don’t lose track of where it’s at where it never fails. Your browser window gets hidden behind something right at the moment you need to find the buttons and you can’t find your browser. Never have that happen with the screen deck. >> All right, next question >> coming in from Zack Jefferson in Spokane, Washington. For someone wanting to build their own custom plug-in for control with a stream deck, how would one jump into the world of plug-in development and publishing for companion or central control? >> And we’re going right back to Justin James for this. And Justin, for developing modules for companion, they’re written in either JavaScript or TypeScript. And thankfully, they’ve got templates for you. And they’ve got lots of documentation to help you. If you go to URL companionfree, you’ll notice right up at the top menu, there’s our four developers link. That’s all the developer documentation that will walk you through getting your machine set up, how to actually start creating the module in there. There’s also a Slack channel that you should join if you’re going to develop modules. That’s where the Bit Focus team sits, all the core developers, all the people that review modules, as well as tons of other developers in there. And that’s the primary place that you get support as well for doing bons development. >> Yonas, what I would say is even if you’re not familiar with Typescript, use TypeScript to get started. They have great starter templates. What this gives you is that your VS Code or whatever editor you use will tell you, hey, actually, um, I think you forgot that thing that is really important there. Um, I also know that some of you might remember this a little hurtful time of migrating Companion 2 to Companion 3 where all the developers had to redo their plugins. It’s also great because now you no longer need to like install a special build of Companion. You can actually just clone your repo, clone an example repo, and then um I can show you on my screen real quick. Did we lose your mic or are you just looking for something there? >> Yeah, I you actually go into the advanced settings here now with Mike and you specify the folder that you’ve cloned it to and now your module is already being loaded into companion. The other really cool thing is if you build internal um modules, you can distribute them very easily now between people. And the last thing I’ll say is it doesn’t always need to be a companion plugin. There’s lots of good reasons why you should do a plug-in because of feedback, advanced actions, triggers, all of that. But what I always had a lot of luck with as well is use the generic um websocket plugin to connect to Node.js JS or some form of server that then does whatever you want it to do. I built myself a little tool for V-Mix controlling. Um, you can build other things with that. A companion plugin is still somewhat limited in what dependencies it can pull in just because you wouldn’t want to have like another 5 gig download of a companion plugin, but it got a whole lot easier. Um, what I would say is if you’re into VIP coding, don’t start by telling it create me a new companion plug-in. Download the example, write out what actions you want, and then the and that’s where TypeScript is really important because then the AI can check, hey, does this make sense? Should it be like that? Is there an error? Then you can go from there. But like I’ve and I know Justin has also seen it on the Slack the amount of hey I developed this great companion module and people are really enthusiastic about it and it’s like it does 20 different things and turns companion into the best broadcast control system and it doesn’t install because they use one dependency that claude code only installed on their local system. So just keep that in mind. Start with like a base setup and then use AI if you want to use AI. Let’s go to the next question. >> Our next one is from Dan Brady in Charleston. I’m a religious Stream Deck user in the event world, but I’m wondering how many members of the panel have started to use Stream Decks for home automation and IoT control. What is everyone’s thoughts on using the decks outside of the event world? >> This comes to us from the QR code. Yeah, internet of things control. Uh, Chuck Bojack, help us out. >> Yeah, well, Jeff already talked about it at the be top of the show when he said that he uses it to make coffee for himself and turn on his studio lights. I’ve helped a lot of people set up their studio light control and then even just getting these smart plugs. TPLink works well and there’s some others. I got these on Amazon for cheap and using that to be able to control lights similar to like you would with an Alexa or a Google, sorry to say the name. Um, I will say that the Roku >> triggered a thousand responses. >> I did. That’s okay. >> I will say that the Roku TVs actually had a pretty good integration. And for a while there, when I didn’t feel like finding my remote or before I got the remote I could talk to, I used my stream deck to control my TV, turn it on, um, change channels, change volume and stuff like that. So, I really enjoyed using it like that. I’m sure that there are many other things. And if you look in the repository, there’s so many plugins with Companion now. There’s more being added all the time thanks to people like Justin. >> So, there’s lots of uses you can use it for. >> Jeff Keley, >> pretty much anything that has ability to send a web hook to it uh is definitely open for for game. Uh we are using it uh in some very elaborate I mean it’s sort of slidy sort of AV but it’s like churches for instance that just needs simple buttons to press. The stream decks are fantastic. Mount mount them in a 3D printed uh wall mount or uh there are some actually already out there that are even CNC cut that are just gorgeous. Etsy is my h I I I spend so many hours on Etsy sometimes. I just go down the rabbit hole looking at all these cool ideas that people have to mount them to to use them and it just helps you just think of other ways of using it. But it’s definitely without a doubt just a button. Yes, but it’s a button with a display and that makes it very attractive to use in a lot of different avenues for sure. Yonas. >> So, there is actually someone that made a thing that you can uh put into where you would normally put your light buttons. Um, so if you go to deckra.net, they have the stream panel that you can uh replace your household light switch with. Um, then run companion through your whole house and uh I guess also replace all of your lighting with a stream deck or the Elgato key light strip. Um, they have a lot of stands here. Some people might like the deck rack Euro that uh puts it into a Euro rack. >> A Euro rack. I love it. [gasps] Muddy. We put a similar device like that on the wall in our church outside the control room. So, if people need to control the lights, it’s now a wall-mounted. It actually runs companion satellite with a little pie uh kind of nested in a junction box. But what I wanted to uh say is that when it comes to smart home control, one of the things that I have found is there can be a difference between what companion can do and what the Stream Deck native software can do. And and a lot of my lights here are amaran lights. And so I can turn them on and off from companion using kind of smart switches like Chuck, smart outlets like Chuck talked about, but there is kind of a fully integrated amaran app. And so again, having devices where you’ve got one stream deck that is running, you know, the native Stream Deck software and can do, you know, different things than whether an iPad running the emulator or a stream button. So again, knowing what you want to do and finding the right tool comes into play when it comes to uh home home automation as well. >> And we’ve made it to our last question, Cindy. >> And this last one is from me, Cindy Drosa, in Erie, Colorado. I’ve heard that you can get live video onto the backgrounds of buttons on the Stream Deck. How is this done? >> Are you watching TV on your Stream Deck? That’d be awesome. Uh Yonas, thoughts? So, there’s a couple tools that can do it. I think Central Control can do it, the native V-Mix plugin, um, Universe Control. I’ll let you in on a little secret. All the Stream Deck is, and I sadly didn’t have the one that I disassembled, it really is a touchscreen. It really is a big touch screen. And why that’s important and why I wanted to mention this on this question is one thing to keep in mind is it isn’t a couple buttons with an LED. It’s one big LED that is being driven over USB. You might have wondered why can’t I use my crappy USB 2.0 cable. And why does it need to be USB 3? Well, it’s almost a full HD video that you’re transmitting over there. Um, as a developer, you can often decide, do you want to do the full thing or just a button, but in general, I would not put too much live video on it, cuz it does really strain the connection. And then you have a lot of download over that connection that might start hampering your upload as well if your cable isn’t well and it needs to um get around that. >> David Panskin. So, uh, when Muddy when you were talking about screen, uh, what was it called? Screen deck, uh, I immediately went and, uh, searched that and the first thing that came up was a screen deck in the Elgato marketplace. And, um, this this is it. It’s it’s how do you put uh video on your It’s clearly not what you were talking about, but [laughter] this is a this is a plugin from uh the Elgato marketplace called Screen Deck, and you can So, if you want to put video on your uh on your stream, >> you have money on a football game and that’s on your desktop. We do not take responsibility for that, people. I’m just saying right out front. Let’s let’s not go there. Hey, it’s been a joy having each and every one of you there. I love these shows because we have so much depth of talent here and I don’t know where anybody else in the world would go who really needs to solve problems with these tools which are amazing for solving to problems without being able to get the expertise that makes it so much easier. So, thank you each and every one of you. I’m going to go through the panel really quick just to make sure that you have a wrap up if you want people to get in touch with you. Where would they get in touch with you? If you want to talk about what you’re doing now or whatever, I’m going to give each of you about 30 seconds to go through it. We’re starting with Yonas. Yonas. Yeah. Um, I really enjoyed this and if you uh want to learn more about what I control and talking about cloud uh going to steal Bill’s uh talking point, come back next week when we’re going to have a whole focus hour on how to get started with cloud production and cloud flex. You did and I’m happy you did because I’ll do it twice. Justin, >> so we talked a whole lot about decks and companion. The one thing we didn’t talk about is support. The spot that you can find me me is in Facebook. There is a companion user group. And in Slack, if you’re doing module development, there is I will also be in there to answer questions along with other people and that’s the best place to reach out if you’ve got questions around the stuff we talked about today. >> Excellent. Thank you so much for being here, Jeff. >> Oh, you’ll see me around. I’ll be around sometimes. >> [laughter] >> Most of the time we’re not working too hard, but like you can always catch me on the office hours discord. If you have not joined office hours officially, please do be part of the community and volunteer and learn and uh get to meet these great people that we have around us right now. It’s a great time >> all the time. Great, great message. David, my friend, thank you so much again for backstopping me tonight in the middle of my small storm. >> Hey, my pleasure, my honor. Uh come back. In fact, you guys are going to be sick of me this week. You just stuck with me tonight. I’m with Tony tomorrow night. Then we got the rundown on Thursday. So I >> more David is more better. I’m just saying. Great. Uh Muddy, good to see you. >> Well, what a joy to be here. I feel like I’m talking at a user level, but the thing if you’re with me, some of the stuff that Yonas and Justin were talking about was just right over the what a what a neat opportunity. So, I’ll be hanging out in the Discord. Uh, and if you want to ask about how I use it, happy to answer that. If you want to ask about how I build it, no idea. So, glad to be here tonight. [laughter] >> And finally, Chuck, you’re close. >> Yeah, I’m also in the office hours discord, although I’m not there often. You can mostly find me on Facebook, Chuck WJack. Uh, and then I’m also moderator of the Blackmagic A10 Mini Extreme new user group, and I’m happy to answer any questions there. >> Very cool. All right, that’s going to do it for tonight. Uh, thank you everybody who was involved, all of our amazing panelists, I also have to say to all the crew in the back end of this show, um, they did an amazing job. You know, I literally had a a massive tech problem, you know, in the first two or three minutes and I thought, what am I going to do? What, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to toss it to David. I’m going to go talk to somebody in the back end. They’re going to fix it. It turned out I needed to reboot my machine for some reason. It lost the ability to hear probably something that I had changed quite recently. But the handholding, the expertise, the ability to work together to solve problems unmatched in the entire across the entire office hours community. And I don’t think we could do anywhere near what we do without them. So we traditionally close with the TLA traversal. This is episode 2184. We’ve done 2,184 of these shows uh without a without a pause since the pandemic uh hit. So if you had gone around to get the expertise you got on the show show, you would have traveled 37,000 miles. That’s 59,000 kilometers. 292 million bananas for scale. We’ll see you next time on one of our shows. Tomorrow’s audio day on the main show in the morning. See you there.