Elgato Stream Deck review: A streamer's best friend
(PCWorld)

Pro-grade equipment at a bargain price. That´s the reputation Elgato earned as first YouTube videos and then Twitch streaming took over video games. Straddling a line between hobbyist and professional-grade-a line that´s hard to walk competently, I might add-Elgato´s capture cards have become a mainstay of streamers at all levels.The Stream Deck, Elgato´s latest piece of hardware, is something altogether different: A video switcher (or mixer), not a capture card. But aside from some early-days software issues, it´s poised to be just as important a piece of kit for a certain tier of creatives.Power at your fingertips Video switchers are a fairly standard (and boring) part of multi-camera broadcasts. If you´ve ever watched a sporting event or another live broadcast, chances are a switcher was employed-it allows a producer to switch between multiple camera feeds on the fly, rather than sticking a camera on a tripod and calling it a day. Usually it´s a big gray rectangle full of dials, levers, and color-coded buttons.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here