Master Remote Work and Productivity with the Elgato Stream Deck
If you’ve never heard of the Elgato Stream Deck, then you are in for the biggest surprise in your life. It is a customizable control pad developed for live-streaming. The Stream Deck includes physical LCD keys, which are fully customizable to switch scenes, launch media, play sounds, open apps, and much more on the fly with a single button press. The Stream Deck connects via USB to your PC or Mac.

The device is straightforward in its design with rows or plastic physical LCD buttons.

To get started, just plug the Stream Deck into your PC or Mac, and it is powered on. You will have to download the free software from Elgato’s site to use the Stream Deck — it is effortless and easy to use.

From here, the customization begins. You will find a list of pre-loaded commands, services, and software you may need for your streaming career on the right-hand side. Yes, the device is focused on live streaming. Therefore the main options are suitable for Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Never the less, the Stream Deck can be customized for everyone.

Stream Deck Software on Mac — Screenshot by the author

There are three different versions of the Stream Deck:

Stream Deck Mini ($99.99): comes with 6 customizable LCD buttons.

($99.99): comes with 6 customizable LCD buttons. Stream Deck ($149.99): comes with 15 customizable LCD buttons.

($149.99): comes with 15 customizable LCD buttons. Stream Deck XL ($ 249.99): comes with 32 customizable LCD buttons.

I recently discovered that Elgato also has a mobile app called “Stream Deck Mobile,” which basically turns your smartphone into a Stream Deck instead of buying a physical Stream Deck. The app is subscription-based and costs $2.99 monthly, with a free one month trial period.

Even though the Steam Deck is developed with a focus on live streaming, it can be used to elevate one’s productivity in general. The device can be used to program shortcuts for any software such as Photoshop, Lightroom, and Final cut Pro, and many more.

Elgato Stream Deck can even be used with Medium.

Now in 2020 that classrooms and meetings have gone online, I started using the Stream Deck Mobile religiously. I use it to launch my most frequent apps, control my Zoom and Microsoft Teams sessions. I’ll share with you the Stream Deck integration with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Medium in this story. I’ll share with you further tricks, which might be useful for teachers and lecturers, who currently have their classes online.
['Walid Ao']
['Technology', 'Remote Work', 'Productivity', 'Pandemic', 'Gadgets']