Stream Deck is a product from Elgato that allows users to customise a grid of physical buttons with specific functions.
Stream Deck can be used with dLive by making use of the Allen & Heath dLive MIDI Protocol and Packet Sender. Packet Sender is an open source piece of software that can send TCP/IP messages from the command line (or using their GUI).
Sending TCP IP Commands from Packet Sender
To send a packet from Packet Sender once installed is very simple, you can use either the Portable Version, or the full install. In my example I have used the portable version. You can test Packet Sender by opening a Command Prompt and navigating to the folder Packet Sender is located in. (If you'd like to carry on with this guide without testing, skip ahead to 'Running Packet Sender from Stream Deck').
To open Command Prompt on Windows 10 click the start menu and type 'cmd'. You should then be able to open the Command Prompt.
Navigate to the folder where the PacketSender.exe file is located. If you need further help on how to do this, you can refer to the Windows Guide here (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/windows-commands), however to get you started you should be able to do this using only the commands 'dir' and 'cd'.
From here we can test the Packet Sender commands. For our purposes a Packet Sender command is made up of the following parts.
packetsender -xw 500 ip address of dLive 51325 "midi command"
For example...
packetsender -xw 500 192.168.1.70 51325 "B0 00 00 C0 09"
This should recall scene 10. Try this with your system now. If it doesn't work:
- Check the MIDI channel on your dLive is set to 1-5 (Utility / Control / MIDI) on the dLive.
- Check your MixRack is on its default IP address.
You can use any MIDI command as detailed in the dLive MIDI protocol (https://www.allen-heath.com/media/dLive-MIDI-TCP-Protocol-1.50.pdf).
Running Packet Sender from Stream Deck
Now we've got that working, we'll assign those commands to buttons in Stream Deck. In the Stream Deck software, drag the 'Open' action onto an unused key.
We can call the button anything we like. For my example, I am going to recall a scene that mutes all the DCA's, so I will call mine 'DCA Mute'.
For 'App / File' we will need to give the full path to the Packet Sender exe file, followed by the command. In my example this will be
<full path to exe file> -xw 100 <ip address of dLive> 51325 "MIDI command"
C:\Users\username\Documents\PacketSenderPortable\PacketSender.exe -xw 100 192.168.1.70 51325 "B0 00 00 C0 09"
It's strongly suggested here to use context menu (highlighted red above) to find the PacketSender.exe then edit to add the command.
You can then if you wish add a suitable icon for the button.
You can create buttons for any function that can be performed with MIDI as per the dLive MIDI TCP Protocol.
For further reading you may wish to view:
Allen & Heath dLive MIDI Protocol https://www.allen-heath.com/media/dLive-MIDI-TCP-Protocol-1.50.pdf)
Packet Sender Documentation (Including CLI Commands) https://packetsender.com/documentation
Elgato Stream Deck https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/stream-deck