How To Get The Best Out Of Your Stream Deck

The Elgato Stream Deck is a powerful tool and after a microphone and a webcam, it's usually one of the first bits of dedicated streaming kit that most streamers buy. It's a staple piece of equipment that appears on the average streamer's desk so we though it would be good to give you some inspiration and ideas on how you can utilise it to its fullest.

What is the Elgato Stream Deck?

For those of you who don't know (have you been living under a rock?!) the Elgato Stream Deck, pictured above, is a USB plug and play device that can be programmed to carry out various actions at the push of a button. You can use it to launch programs, swap scenes inside your boradcasting software, mute and unmute you mic and just about any other function you can think of that can be linked to a hotkey, and more!

It comes in 3 different models, the only difference between them is the size of the unit and the number of buttons on it. The Stream Deck Mini has 6 buttons, the standard model has 15 buttons, and the XL model has 32 buttons. There is also a mobile version which you can download from the Apple or Google stores respectively. They are all functionally identical, but some provide you with more flexibility than others in that they have more buttons readily available.

How does it work?

When you get your Stream Deck, it's a simple case of unboxing it and plugging the USB cable into your PC. Head to the Elgato downloads page (link here) to download and install the Stream Deck software. Once the software is installed, go ahead and launch it. You should be presented with a window that displays blank squares laid out in the same arrangement as your Stream Deck. Each of these squares can be assigned an action, or a folder within which you can place even more actions. 

The Elgato Stream Deck comes preloaded with a set of buttons for you to pick from which can be found listed on the right hand side of the Stream Deck application. The buttons that are natively included with the Stream Deck are split into their respective categories such as OBS Studio specific buttons, Twitch Studio specific buttons, Twitter specific buttons and so on. To configure a button, open the relevant drop down on the right and drag the desired button description to a square on the left. 

We'll have a look at some of the most useful buttons here before we move on to some of the more specialised unique plugins which need to be downloaded and installed.

Basic Functionality

Once you've got your stream deck plugged in and the software installed, open the software up. You should be greeted by a grid on the left hand side which replicates the layout of your Stream Deck. This will vary depending on which model you purchased. On the right hand side you will have all of the functions that come natively included with the Stream Deck split into categories depending on their use, for example there's an OBS Studio category and a seperate Streamlabs OBS category. 

Within these categories are all of the buttons or functions that can be triggered from your Stream Deck. 

If you expand the OBS Studio category, you will see that you have 5 basic functions. They are Scene, Mixer Audio, Record, Stream and Source. If you drag each of these functions to a square button slot on the left you will be able to investigate them in more detail.

The Scene function allows you to select a scene from OBS. Upon pushing the button it will change to the chosen scene inside of OBS.
The Mixer Audio function allows you to select a source from OBS. Upon pushing the button it will mute or unmute the chosen source inside of OBS.
The Record function allows you to start and stop recording. 
The Stream function allows you to start and stop streaming.
The Source function allows you to select a source from OBS. Upon pushing the button it will reveal or hide the chosen source inside of OBS.

There are lots of basic functions that come included with the Stream Deck and it's not strictly limited to your Streaming software. The Stream Deck is also capable of communicating directly with your PC's operating system and therefore you can use it to launch applications, websites, videos and more. 

If you expand the System Category you will see various functions. We won't cover them all but the Open Function will allow you to select an application and will launch it when you press the button and Website will allow you to enter a URL and will open the chosen URL when you press the button. 

 

Advanced Functionality 

As well as the buttons that come natively inlcuded with the Stream Deck, there is an ever growing library of third party plugins designed to be used with your Stream Deck too. You can view these by opening the Stream Deck app and clicking 'more actions' in the bottom right hand corner. This will open a new window with a list of available plugins, sorted by popularity as default. 

We can't cover every plugin here, but we'll take you through the process of installing and setting up a plug in. It's very straightforward and will open up a whole world of possibilities with your Stream Deck. 

In the search bar type 'Twitch Tools'. Click the install button on the right hand side. This will install the plugin for you. Once the install is complete it will add a new category on the right hand side of the Stream Deck application called Twitch Tools. In this category you will see a number of new buttons that you can now use with your Stream Deck.

When you first drag a Twitch Tools button to your Stream Deck you will prompted to connect your Twitch accounts to the plugin. Go ahead and do that. Once connected you can start utilising some of Twitch Tools features. For example the Shout Out button, when pressed, will convert your other Stream Deck buttons into Shout Outs for unique individuals, with each button showing the profile picture of a viewer which you can then select to shout them out. 

Twitch Tools is just one of many powerful plugins available for the Stream Deck and I'd highly recommend that you take the time to check out some of the other plug ins available, including StreamFX, Windows Mover and Resizer. 

In Summary

The Elgato Stream Deck is a mighty piece of equipment that has been well thought out, properly procuded and has an almost endless lifespan as new and more impressive plugins are continously added to its library. Integrations are being added and improved all the time, and there's some very creative and interesting functionality being brought to life.

We can't wait to see what the future holds for the Stream Deck, and would highly recommend then you join us for the journey!