If you are a streamer, or are thinking about becoming one, you may have heard of the Stream Deck. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it is a device that you can use to control a range of computer software or other things such as Smart Home devices.
It can be difficult to understand how usefiul this device is until you use one, as I’m sure there will be lots of people who look at it and don’t see the potential. After all, it is just a small to medium sized panel (depending which model you go for) with some buttons on it. But this simple description doesn’t do the Elgato Stream Deck the justice it deserves.
I can say straight of the bat that I think it’s a fantastic device, and it really has made a huge positive impact on my workflow. If you are interested in streaming video games, or doing video podcasts or virtual theatre I’d say a Stream Deck is almost an essential device.
If you don’t have a Stream Deck you’ll still be able to do all the things that having the Stream Deck allows you to do. After all, the Stream Deck is just a bunch of customisable buttons. But having the ability to control several programmes at the touch of a button can make such a huge difference to the smoothness of a live streamed show.
Allow me to explain it’s benefits using a typical scenario from my own uses of the Deck.
I live stream multiple episodes of live improv comedy shows on the internet every week. To broadcast these shows I’ll use a combination of Zoom, Stream Labs OBS, Restream and social media platforms to share the shows. That’s a lot of different moving parts to attempt to manage all at the same time.
Add on to this that I stream different shows on different days, and that each show has it’s own unique elements including on screen graphics, overlays and ways that they are live edited.
I’ll admit that my shows are more elaborate than most others, and that for many gamers or podcasters a simple set up won’t take huge amounts to manage. But I can say that having the Stream Deck has allowed me to make ever more elaborate shows which feature many elements that controlling without the Deck would be a nightmare.
On SLOBS I have a list of all of the on screen graphics I may use in a show, and in total there may be between 25-50 different elements. If I need to quickly pull one up on screen I would have to scroll through a long list in a small boxed window in the software. In days gone by this was always fiddly and would often lead to time delays or clicking thr wrong thing by mistake.
With the Stream Deck I can assign each on screen graphic to a different button, and because each button has a built in screen behind it I can also customise each button with text and graphics that include either colour coding or images to make finding the right button a doddle.
The model of Stream Deck that I have and that I am reviewing today is the Stream Deck XL which features 32 buttons, and for my needs this is the correct model. You can also get one with 15 buttons or one with 6 buttons on it. Whichever model you can afford don’t worry as you can easily create folders to assign to a button to create multiple pages of buttons, so even if you have the 6 button edition you can still have an infinite number of buttons that you have assigned to various tasks, although you will have the extra steps of navigating back and forth through pages of buttons.
In this sense I should imagine that the 6 button model would be too few for most streamers. Because even if you create multiple pages of buttons, that 6 button set up would actually be reduced to effectively 4 buttons with the other two being used to move backwards and forwards in the menu of pages.
If you can afford to do so I’d say definitely go for either the 15 button or 32 button models, as the benefit of the device is making things smoother and more accessible, so if that’s your aim, why not go all the way?
Cost obviously. I get it, but honestly unless you really think you won’t find a use for the extra buttons they really are worth saving up for.
In addition to controlling the on screen graphics in SLOBS, I have buttons that have text assigned to them, so that when I’m sharing shows I can quickly paste in the info and send it out on a tweet or other social media post. This finally solves the age old computer problem where you would need to copy and paste two different pieces of text and find that you have to go back and forth between a word document and keep highlighting each part and copying and pasting it over and over again depending which piece of text you needed in the moment. With the Stream Deck you can have an unlimited number of pre-saved pieces of text which you can paste in to any text box with a press of a button.
Then I have more buttons which I can use to control my Elgato Key Lights. Once again, the benefit of being able to adjust my light mid show without having to get up and go over to it manually is great. This sounds lazy, but if you’re on a podcast and you need to leave the guest for even 20 seconds can lose the flow of the conversation.
Other buttons can also be used as displays and show the current time, or how much of the computer’s CPU is being used, or be used to launch programmes form your desktop. And whilst I have focussed this review and info on what I use the Stream Deck for when using streaming software it can be used with all sorts of programmes such as video editing software like Vegas Pro or Photoshop.
And of course there is a big benefit of the Stream Deck which I’ve not discussed, and that is that it can do ‘multi-actions’ What this essentially means is that you can assign a single button to do several tasks at once. Say for example you were streaming a game and wanted to switch from using one camera to another to show your face close up to brag when you did something good in a game. With one button press you could change the scene in the broadcasting software, add a voice changer, adjust the lights in your room and play some on screen graphics! All with one button!
As I mentioned earlier I think the Stream Deck XL is a fantastic device and I’d suggest anyone serious about streaming games, virtual theatre or podcasts to invest in one.
There may be chepaer alternatives out there, and you can certainly get an extra mini keyboard to assign tasks to buttons, but it’s having the screen which allows the Elgato device an unlimited number of uses. One super cheap option is that you can actually get official Elgato Stream Deck apps for your smart phone or tablet and use it in much the same way. This is a cheap alternative and there may be a few completely free smart device based solutions out there as well.
Whilst all these alternatives are useful options I’d still say to go for the Stream Deck XL as the combination of tactile buttons which you can start to touch type with from muscle memory and also quickly glance at to see full colour images and customisable text on each button really do put the device at the top of the deck!
Excellent!
