Initial setup
Please install the Stream Deck software if you haven't done it yet and connect your Stream Deck device to the PC.
In order to use Stream Deck with Aximmetry, you have to install a specific plugin. Go to the Aximmetry Integration plugin at the Elgato plugin store, and click INSTALL. Follow the instructions.
Scroll down the action list of Stream Deck, you'll find a category named Aximmetry with a number of actions listed within.
General Actions
General actions are for assigning to any property or control board button in Aximmetry. They can have a custom title and/or an icon, and they can give two-state visual feedback of the Aximmetry property or control board button.
Setting Up the Action
Select the general action of the color you desire and drag and drop onto any slot on the keyboard.
Since it's not yet assigned to anything in Aximmetry it is in the dark state.
On the bottom, you can see a few properties.
If Aximmetry is currently not running you'll see the following warning. You don't have to worry about it. When you start Aximmetry it will connect to the plugin automatically and the warning will disappear.
Every Aximmetry action has a Button ID. This identifies the action toward Aximmetry. The ID of general actions can go from 1 to 300. When you add a new action a free ID will be automatically assigned, in this case, 1:
You can also specify a different one at will, e.g. let's give 35:
If you assign the same Button ID to multiple actions, it's not an error, but those actions will behave in sync: they will control and give feedback on the same thing in Aximmetry.
Similar to the control board buttons in Aximmetry you can choose if you want to add a text or a built-in icon. over the action. The text can be specified in the Title property:
Or you can choose an icon. The list of icons is identical to the one on Aximmetry control boards:
You can specify both the text and an icon, but in this case, it is recommended to edit the text position and perhaps the text size as well:
Custom Look
The default look of general actions makes them look like the Aximmetry control board buttons. But of course, you can change it at will.
For that, open the icon menu and select any way you want to change the icon.
Make sure that you also change the lighted version of the action.
Assigning the Action to an Aximmetry Function
Start Aximmetry Composer if you haven't done it yet and load a scene.
You can assign the action to a control board button. E.g. let's assign it to the Play button on the CAMERAS panel. Stream Deck controllers belong to the Game category in Aximmetry. So right-click the Play button and choose Assign Game:
The Assign 'X' Controller dialog appears.
Simply press the button on the Stream Deck device:
The assignment has been made. If you select the menu File / Properties and then go to Game Assignments you'll see that the Stream Deck Button 35 is assigned to the Play button. (Remember: we assigned the Button ID 35 to the Stream Deck action, and that is reflected here.)
Since the Play button on the control board is currently active it will also be reflected on the Stream Deck device by lighting up the button:
With the same method, you can also assign an action to the Stop button.
The state of the control board buttons is always reflected on the corresponding Stream Deck buttons. If you now switch to the Stop state either by clicking on the Aximmetry control board or by pressing the Stream Deck button you'll see this:
Similarly, you can assign an action to any logical or numeric properties of your scene modules by right-clicking on the property name:
In this case, the lighting up of the Stream Deck button will reflect the ON / OFF state of the logical property or the zero / non-zero value of a numeric property.
Controlling the Flow Graph
Using the Game Controller module you can implement an arbitrary control within the Flow graph.
To assign a Stream Deck action to the module, turn its Learn property on:
Then simply press the desired button on Stream Deck. E.g. press the Play button we created above. The assignment is made by automatically filling in the Device and the Controller properties. Also, the Learn switch is automatically turned off to prevent any accidental further assignments.
You can see that the aforementioned Button 35 is assigned to the module.
From now on pressing and releasing the button will emit 0 and 1 from the module. Please note that in the example above the Adjuster will only be active while the button is pressed. If you want an ON / OFF functionality instead use the Toggle module:
Custom Control of the Lighting of the Buttons
When using the Game Controller module the lighting up of the Stream Deck buttons is not controlled automatically. Instead, you have an explicit property named Backlight 1 on the module that can be set to Off, On, or Flashing which enables implementing any programmed feedback mechanism you like.
General Dual-Color Actions
Certain button controller devices in the studio world have the ability to have two different "banks" behind the buttons, meaning each button has two differently colored lights that can light up independently from each other. Aximmetry dual-color actions emulate this functionality on the Stream Deck.
Drag-and-drop the desired color combination action to a slot.
By default, the button is completely dark. It is because its states are: Off, Color 1, Color 2, and the combination of the two colors.
Assigning the Action to an Aximmetry Function
The assignment is made in the exact same manner we described for the general actions. The only difference is that you can choose between two colors when the Assign 'X' Controller dialog appears. First, select the color by clicking the corresponding button, then press the desired button on the Stream Deck device:
Please note that this kind of assignment does not really exploit the dual-color functionality of the action, it simply chooses one of the available colors. This option was primarily added to serve other hardware, not Stream Deck.
Custom Control of the Lighting of the Buttons
In order to really exploit the two-color functionality, you have to use the Game Controller module. It has two separate Backlight 1 and 2 properties which control the two differently colored lighting independently from each other.
You can also choose Flashing independently for the two colors.
Camera Actions
Probably the most common usage of controllers is switching between cameras and camera paths. For this purpose, the Aximmetry plugin provides dedicated actions, 8 camera selectors, and 16 path selectors.
Drag-and-drop a Camera action into a slot.
As you can see a Button ID is automatically assigned:
The main difference compared to the general action is that the Button ID cannot be edited here. Cameras 1 - 8 are always assigned to Button IDs 301 - 308.
Assigning to the Control Board
IMPORTANT: You still have to manually assign the action to the CAM selector buttons in Aximmetry, since by default no controllers are assigned to any control board buttons.
Similarly, add Camera 2 and 3 actions and assign them to the CAM 2, and 3 control board buttons.
From now on you will have full control over your 3 cameras from Stream Deck, and also you have a clear indication of which camera is active.
Camera Path Actions
Camera path actions are a bit different, because after adding you also have to specify which camera they belong to.
Set the camera number between 1 and 8:
The Button ID assignment is automatic here as well.
Cameras 1 Path 1 - 16 are always assigned to the Button IDs 321 - 336.
Cameras 2 Path 1 - 16 are always assigned to the Button IDs 341 - 356.
And so on.
Assigning to the Control Board
Path buttons also have to be assigned to Aximmetry control board buttons manually.
After assigning multiple cameras and their paths to the Stream Deck the final view can look like this:
General Dial
General dials are for assigning a rotary controller of Stream Deck to any scalar property in Aximmetry that expects a value between 0 and 1. They can have a custom title, and they can give visual feedback of the Aximmetry property value.
Setting Up the Dials
Click on the Dials tab, go to the Aximmetry section, and drag and drop the General Dial item on one of the available spots.
Specify the parameters of the dial.
- Title: The dial will appear with this title.
- Slider ID: The unique ID for the dial, Aximmetry uses this ID to identify the Sliders (or dials) across multiple "game" devices. The value can be specified between 1 and 256.
- You can assign the same Slider ID to multiple dials. This way these dials will control the same property in Aximmetry. You could set different Value steps, Tap steps, or Default values for these dials.
- You can assign the same Slider ID to multiple dials. This way these dials will control the same property in Aximmetry. You could set different Value steps, Tap steps, or Default values for these dials.
- Default value: If you press the dial, it will be set to the default value specified here.
- Value step: One step of the dials equals the value change specified here.
- Tap step: Touching the left or right side of the dial's section of the screen will result in decreasing or increasing the dial's value with the number specified here.
Assigning the Dial to an Aximmetry Property
You can assign the dial to a property of a control board panel. According to its name, let's assign it to the Low Cut property on the KEYER 1 panel. Stream Deck controllers belong to the Game category in Aximmetry. So go to the BILLBOARDS control board, select the KEYER 1 panel, right-click the name of the Low Cut property, and choose Assign Game:
The Assign Game Controller dialog appears.
Simply rotate the dial on the Stream Deck console:
The assignment has been made. If you select the menu File / Properties and then go to Game Assignments you'll see that the Stream Deck Slider 1 is assigned to the property.
The current value of the property is immediately reflected on the Stream Deck.
From now on you can adjust the value of the property either by rotating or taping on the Stream Deck controller or by dragging the slider on the Aximmetry UI; the current value will be always displayed on the console.
Similarly, you can assign a dial to any scalar property of your scene modules by right-clicking on the property name:
Please note that the value will always be between 0 and 1. If you need a different interval use a Dash Scalar module, assign the dial to its In property, and set up the desired range:
