NEW STREAM DECK TIME! NEW STREAM DECK TIME!
I bet it has like 50 buttons or some dials or sliders or footpedals or a brain control
interface, I bet it's aw- oh. This is just a revision of the OG Stream Deck. You know what?
I'm totally fine with that. But is a Stream Deck still worth buying in 2021?
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I'm EposVox, the Stream Professor, and Elgato had EIGHT big announcements this
week regarding new products, resources and tools for streamers. I'm covering them all
in depth with a multitude of videos both already up and coming soon on my channel,
so make sure you hit the subscribe and notification buttons so you can stay informed.
This is the Elgato Stream Deck. The new one. The Stream Deck mk. 2. This is a slot-in
replacement for the original Stream Deck - a refresh that breathes a little quality of
life into the product without changing it too much or increasing its price. Elgato did the
same thing with the Cam Link 4K as a slot-in upgrade to the original Cam Link listing.
If you aren't familiar with the Stream Deck, it's a powerful tool for streamers and content
creators, or anyone who wants more automation or control over your system. On the surface,
it's a macro keypad - which you can make with any keyboard if you like - but it has a ton
of direct integrations with specific programs and services, plugins that expand that wildly,
and cool widgets for displaying system stats and other things.
The physical thing that stands the Stream Deck out from general macro keypad options is the
LCD screen behind the keys. Having built my own macro keyboards for a few years prior
to the Stream Deck, having instant icon changes - without printing them out and
taping over the keys - as well as different visual states to indicate when a toggle is on or off,
PLUS having infinite layers through pages and folder nesting is just... so much better to use.
The Stream Deck Mk.2 now has a detachable USB C cable with a right-angle cable
included in the box. This is a huge improvement as the original model had
a hilariously short cable that was constantly a problem to route properly - and something that
was addressed with a longer cable on the Stream Deck Mini and with a detachable USB C cable on
the XL. You get a longer cable in the box and the option to bring your own.
The original, floppy stand has been replaced with a fixed-angle stand
like the other two Stream Deck models. This is a better stand overall,
but will be a disappointment for those who actually preferred the adjustable angles. I
honestly had no major gripes with the original stand and have my other Stream Decks mounted
with these cool custom clamps anyway. Link below - though these aren't revised for the Mk.2 yet.
The new Stream Deck also has a detachable faceplate. You
can order from a set of pre-made (and an ideally continuously growing collection)
set of designs from Elgato's website, or just pull yours off and paint or decal it up to
make it yours. I'm all about customization so I absolutely love this decision. I haven't
figured out exactly how I want mine to look yet, but I'm *very* excited to get one made.
A side effect of having the removeable faceplate is that you can actually strip the Stream Deck
Mk.2 down to just its brain: the buttons and the mainboard for them. This produces a MUCH smaller
Stream Deck, which could then be embedded in custom projects a lot easier - pretty neat.
Comparing the new Stream Deck to the originals is a tad misleading if you're a long-time owner.
At a first glance, the new Stream Deck gets significantly brighter and seems a bit more
clear at first. However, this is due to age and wear. I leave my Stream Decks on pretty much 24/7
and have for years. Elgato actually introduced a screensaver and sleep mode to help deal with this.
If I open up an original Stream Deck that was sealed and unused until now - yes,
I consider the Stream Deck essential enough that I keep unused ones around for whenever I get
inspiration to build something - comparing the unused Stream Deck to the new one,
they are identical in brightness, clarity, color temperature, etc.
The same applies to the button feel, too. Newer Stream Decks feel a bit more clicky than ones that
have been used a long time, but the new one is still the same screen and buttons as the old one.
But otherwise, this is the same as the original Stream Deck. I really respect
the decision to do it this way: It's an upgrade over the previous product in terms
of workflow for those who are buying it new, but they aren't *really* trying to upsell
anyone who already owns a Stream Deck and convince them they have to buy this new one.
This also makes it clear just how solid of a product the original Stream Deck was. I
was SO hyped when it first released due to the potential I saw in it, and they have
completely revamped the software, injected it with a ton of functionality and customization,
and so many streamers and other content creators - even on the bigger broadcast
and production level - have come to rely on it for their workflow.
There's a weird idea that goes around about gear that once a streaming product has been out for a
few years it's "old and outdated". But that's incorrect. That's not how gear works at all.
If you go on any film set, go behind the scenes of any broadcast production, photography gig,
radio studio, etc. - you will see pretty much ONLY gear that has been out for a few years,
some of it likely even decades. Cheap, unsupported gear gets outdated. Gear worth buying *matures.*
There's a HUGE difference. Many of the best microphones used today have been based on designs
as old as I am. The lights you see on set are usually staples that were established years ago,
and many professionals' lens kits are decades old.
Hell, audio mixing boards are often kept around for... ever.
Had the Stream Deck been released as it was in 2017 and had no further support or changes
to it or the software, yes it would have probably become
outdated. Competition would have made things that were better
or cheaper and Elgato's little toy would have become irrelevant. But that didn't happen.
The software continued to get updated with quality of life improvements, new features,
new integrations, plugin API, customization, and so on. And where Elgato has failed to deliver
what someone wants, various communities have stepped up to add even more to
its offering: From unofficial Linux support, to full macro and hotkey
packages for major production apps like Adobe Creative Cloud and DaVinci Resolve
via SlideShowFX, to control for dozens of high-end professional gear companies with
BitFocus Companion. And again, all the plugins being developed by genius minds like BarRaider.
While I fell in love with the Stream Deck in 2017 and knew its potential would be much bigger than
it was delivering at the time, it's still shocking to see how far its come since launch. If anything,
I think there were reasonable arguments in favor of "holding off" on buying a Stream Deck
originally - much like I posed about the AVerMedia Live Streamer NEXUS recently - that are no longer
a concern. There's never been a better time to buy a Stream Deck. The platform and software
are in a better place than they've ever been, and there's just so much functionality here.
This is similar to whenever Linus kits out the LTT editor's den with hardware upgrades:
He specifically doesn't choose the latest and greatest because he wants the most stable
and mature platforms for his daily grind editors to get the most work done - gear
like this which has matured more will continue to be a good value, even multiple years later.
I think this poor mindset runs rampant in the streaming scene because of the
inherently toxic affect streaming viewership has on gaming in the first place. The whole
idea of if a game doesn't have enough "hype" on Twitch, it's a "dead game" and games moving
towards drip-feed content release cycles to keep streamers and stream viewers glued to it
more has had a very frustrating impact on the gaming industry overall,
and I really don't want to see that applied to tech. Something doesn't have to have a
new hype-building campaign every few months. The Stream Deck isn't "dead" or "irrelevant"
because there isn't new hype around it 24/7. Tens of thousands of people (or more, I have no idea)
use them in their setups - often multiple - for all sorts of work, streaming-related or not
completing hundreds of millions of actions per month - and just don't have a reason to constantly
hype up the tools they use. They're just tools. Gear is not a lifestyle or a philosophy.
The same can be said for the GoXLR - which is still acting as a work horse
for tons of creators - and many other products.
There is competition to the Stream Deck, however. Touch Portal lets you use any phone or tablet you
own - for free to start with - and seems to be getting more and more integrations as they can.
StreamLabs has a mobile-specific control deck app for mobile.
Elgato themselves have a Stream Deck for mobile app, though it's more limited
than Touch Portal. Plus, general Websockets control of OBS allows for so much.
Should you buy a Stream Deck in 2021? Probably. If it's not in your budget right now or you're
not sure you'd actually get use out of it, I'd say start with something like
the free run of Touch Portal and see how useful it can be in your workflow
and decide from there. If you've just been on the fence, I'd say 100% go for it. It's
in the best place it's ever been and this new version is a nice little improvement to make it
more worthwhile. I have a whole playlist of Stream Deck content linked below if you need some ideas.
Product links will be down there, too, as well as our merch. Hit the like button if you enjoyed,
come get help with your stream or chat about nerdy tech on our Discord and remember: Be Kind, Rewind.