Initial Setup
Please install the Loupedeck software if you haven't done it yet and connect your Loupedeck console to the PC.
In order to use Loupedeck with Aximmetry, you have to install a specific plugin. Go to the Aximmetry plugin at the Loupedeck marketplace and click Install. Follow the instructions.
NOTE: The Aximmetry plugin does not come with any built-in profiles, since it can largely vary what layout you want to use Loupedeck with.
In the following tutorial, we'll start with an empty profile. Please check the Loupedeck documentation on how to create and handle profiles.
On the Plugins panel, you'll find the icon of the Aximmetry plugin. At first, it'll be in a red status saying "Aximmetry is not running". Don't worry about that, you can work with the profile without running Aximmetry. When you start Aximmetry later it will connect to the plugin automatically and the warning will disappear.
General Commands
General commands are for assigning a touch cell or a physical button of Loupedeck 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 Command
Click on the General Command option:
Specify the Parameters of the command.
NOTE: You can ignore the Name field safely, by default it will be identical to the specified parameters. On Loupedeck only the text part of parameters will be ever displayed.
Parameters consist of several tags separated by semicolons.
1;G;START - the first tag is always the Button ID. It is a number between 1 and 300 and identifies the command towards Aximmetry. E.g. if you specify 1 then you can refer to the command as the "Button 1" controller in Aximmetry.
If you assign the same Button ID to multiple commands, it's not an error, but those commands will behave in sync: they will control and give feedback on the same thing in Aximmetry.
1;G;START - the second tag is optional and specifies the color of the command. The available colors are R - red, O - orange, Y - yellow, G - green, C - cyan, B - blue, P - purple, and W - white. If you do not specify this tag it defaults to orange.
1;G;START - the last tag specifies the text that will be displayed on the command.
Click Save. By this, you have created a so-called "profile command". It is a custom command that belongs to the currently active profile and won't be available when you switch to a different profile.
Drag and drop the new command onto any cell of the touch surface.
Since it's not yet assigned to anything in Aximmetry it is in the dark state.
Icon
When you define a button on an Aximmetry control board you are allowed to add an icon from a fixed set.
The very same icon can be applied to Loupedeck as well. For that, you have to add a third tag after the color tag. It must be one of the icon names listed above.
Firstly let's create a command with an icon and no text.
2;R;Play; - the Button ID is 2 this time.
2;R;Play; - the color will be red.
2;R;Play; - we want the Play icon to be displayed. Please pay attention to adding the semicolon at the end! It designates that this is the icon tag, not the text of the button.
Click Save, then drag and drop the command to the surface.
Icon with Text
You can combine the icon with custom text.
3;C;Audio;CHAN 1 - the Button ID is 3 this time.
3;C;Audio;CHAN 1 - the color will be cyan.
3;C;Audio;CHAN 1 - the Audio icon will be displayed.
3;C;Audio;CHAN 1 - this text is added.
Click Save, then drag and drop the command to the surface.
Custom Look
The default look of general commands makes them look like the Aximmetry control board buttons. But of course, you can change it at will.
For that select any of the commands and click on the icon field.
Then select any icon from the Icon Library (), or your disk (
).
Please note that in this case, the command will only have one state. It won't reflect the status of the assigned button/property in Aximmetry anymore.
Assigning the Command to a Physical Button
You can drag and drop a command not only to a touch cell but to a physical button as well.
The button will light in purple on the Loupedeck console to indicate that it is assigned with a command. Of course, in this case, neither the specified text nor the icon won't be visible, and the command state won't be displayed.
Assigning the Command to an Aximmetry Function
Start Aximmetry Composer if you haven't done it yet and load a scene.
You can assign the command to a control board button. E.g. let's assign it to the Play button on the CAMERAS control board. Loupedeck controllers belong to the Game category in Aximmetry. So right-click the Play button and choose Assign Game:
The Assign Game Controller dialog appears.
Simply press the command on the Loupedeck console:
The assignment has been made. If you select the menu File / Properties and then go to Game Assignments you'll see that the Loupedeck Button 2 is assigned to the Play button.
NOTE: Remember that we assigned the Button ID 2 to the Loupedeck command, and that is reflected here.
Since the Play button on the control board is currently active it will also be reflected on the Loupedeck console by lighting up the command:
With the same method, you can also assign a command to the Stop button.
The state of the control board buttons is always reflected on the corresponding Loupedeck commands. If you now switch to the Stop state either by clicking on the Aximmetry control board or by pressing the Loupedeck command you'll see this:
Similarly, you can assign a command 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 Loupedeck command 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 Loupedeck command to the module, turn its Learn property on:
Then simply press the desired button on Loupedeck. E.g. press the Play button we created above. The assignment is made by automatic filling of the Device and Controller properties. Also, the Learn switch is automatically turned off to prevent any accidental further assignments.
You can see that the aforementioned Button 2 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 Loupedeck commands 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 Commands
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 commands emulate this functionality on Loupedeck.
To enable it you have to use a dual-letter specification in the color tag.
5;BR;DUAL - the Button ID is 5 this time.
5;BR;DUAL - the dual color specification. Available values are BR - blue-red, CP - cyan-purple, and GO - green-orange.
5;BR;DUAL - the text to be displayed.
(Of course, an icon also can be added after the color tag.)
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 Command to an Aximmetry Function
The assignment is made in the exact same manner we described for the general commands. The only difference is that you can choose between two colors when the Assign Game Controller dialog appears. First, select the color by clicking the corresponding button, then press the desired button on the Loupedeck console.
NOTE: This kind of assignment does not really exploit the dual-color functionality of the command, it simply chooses one of the available colors. This option was primarily added to serve other hardware, not Loupedeck.
Custom Control of the Lighting of the Commands
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 Commands
Probably the most common usage of controllers is switching between cameras and camera paths. For this purpose, the Aximmetry plugin provides dedicated commands, 8 camera selectors, and 8 x 16 path selectors.
We start with a new empty Loupedeck workspace for this.
Open the Camera category and drag and drop the Camera 1 command into a touch cell:
NOTE: All Camera commands have an automatic Button ID that cannot be changed. Cameras 1 - 8 are always assigned to Button IDs 301 - 308.
Assigning to the Control Board
IMPORTANT: You still have to manually assign the command 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 commands 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 Loupedeck, and also you have a clear indication of which camera is active.
Camera Path Commands
You can add Camera Path commands for each camera in a similar manner.
Note that all Camera Path commands have an automatic Button ID that cannot be changed.
Camera 1 Path 1 - 16 are always assigned to the Button IDs 321 - 336.
Camera 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 Loupedeck the final view can look like this:
General Adjustments
General adjustments are for assigning a rotary controller of Loupedeck 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 on the Aximmetry property value.
Setting Up the Adjustment
Click on the General Adjustment option:
Specify the Parameters of the adjustment. (You can ignore the Name field safely, by default it will be identical to the specified parameters. On Loupedeck only the text part of parameters will be ever displayed.)
Parameters consist of two tags separated by semicolons.
1;Keyer 1 Low C - the first tag is the Slider ID. It is a number between 1 and 256 and identifies the adjustment toward Aximmetry. E.g. if you specify 1 then you can refer to the adjustment as the "Slider 1" controller in Aximmetry.
1;Keyer 1 Low C - the second tag specifies the text that will be displayed on the adjustment.
Click Save. By this, you have created a so-called "profile adjustment". It is a custom adjustment that belongs to the currently active profile and won't be available when you switch to a different profile.
Drag and drop the new adjustment onto any rotary control.
Default Value
If you press the rotary controller vertically the adjustment resets to a default value. It's zero by default. However, you can change this value by adding a second tag to the Parameters when creating the adjustment:
2;0.92;Keyer 1 High C - the Slider ID is 2 this time.
2;0.92;Keyer 1 High C - the second tag is the desired default value. It is any number between 0 and 1.
2;0.92;Keyer 1 High C - the third tag specifies the text that will be displayed on the adjustment.
Assigning the Adjustment to an Aximmetry Property
You can assign the adjustment 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. Loupedeck 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 rotary controller on the Loupedeck console:
The assignment has been made. If you select the menu File / Properties and then go to Game Assignments you'll see that the Loupedeck Slider 2 is assigned to the property.
NOTE: Remember that we assigned the Slider ID 1 to the Loupedeck adjustment, and that is reflected here.
The current value of the property is immediately reflected on the Loupedeck console as a horizontal bar:
From now on you can adjust the value of the property either by rotating the Loupedeck controller or by dragging the slider on the Aximmetry UI; the current value will be always displayed on the console.
Similarly, you can assign an adjustment 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 adjustment to its In property, and set the desired range:
Controlling the Flow Graph
Using the Game Controller module you can implement an arbitrary control within the Flow graph.
To assign a Loupedeck adjustment to the module, turn its Learn property on:
Then simply rotate the desired controller on Loupedeck, e.g. the one we set up above. The assignment is made by automatic filling of the Device and Controller properties. Also, the Learn switch is automatically turned off to prevent any accidental further assignments.
You can see that the aforementioned Slider 1 is assigned to the module.
By default, the Game Controller module outputs a value between 0 and 1. You can modify the range by setting its Min / Max Value properties:
