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Run it from a Stream Deck

By the end of this page an Elgato Stream Deck shows the cover of what is on air, and has keys to skip it, like or dislike it, and stop or start the station. The Stream Deck never plays the station: it is the desk, as keys.

On a Stream Deck describes every key in full.

You need a Stream Deck, the Stream Deck app 7.1 or later on macOS or Windows, and to be signed in to the console as an admin.

1. Install the plugin​

Install deadair from the Elgato Marketplace. The Stream Deck app keeps it up to date from there.

If you would rather open the file yourself, download radio.deadair.streamdeck.streamDeckPlugin from the latest Stream Deck release and open it.

The deadair keys appear in the Stream Deck app's list of actions, under deadair.

2. Make an API key​

The keys talk to the station with an API key, never your password.

  1. In the console, open Settings → Sign-in and security and find API keys.
  2. Under New key, name it for what will use it: Stream Deck.
  3. Choose its access. Read only is enough for Now playing and Request. Skip, Like, Dislike, Stop and Grant request need Read and manage.
  4. Choose when it expires, or Never.
  5. Press Create key, and copy the key. The station shows it once and keeps only a fingerprint, so it can never show it again. It starts with da_.

3. Put the keys on the Stream Deck​

  1. Drag Now playing onto a key.
  2. In its settings, under Every deadair key, enter the station's address under Station, such as radio.example.com, and paste the key under API key. An address with no http:// or https:// is taken as https://, so a station on your own network needs it written out: http://192.168.1.10:8080.
  3. Press Test connection. It names the station that answered, or says what is wrong.
  4. Drag Skip, Like, Dislike and Stop or start onto keys beside it. Every deadair key shares the address and the API key, so you enter them once.

The API key stays on that computer. It is never written into a Stream Deck profile you export, so a shared profile does not share access to your station.

4. Use it​

  • Now playing shows the cover, the title and the artist, with a bar along the top that fills as the record plays, red while the station is on air. Press it to open the console. Under This key in its settings, a key can leave out the bar, or the words, for one that is only the cover.
  • Skip ends the record or break on air.
  • Like and Dislike set what the station thinks of the record on air, the same rating as everywhere else. The heart fills when the station already agrees: press the lit key to take the opinion back. A dislike keeps the record off the air for good.
  • Stop or start: press once and it says Confirm, press again within five seconds and the station stops. Leave it and it forgets. Once stopped, the same key starts it.
  • Request asks the station for a record, as a listener would. Search for one in the key's settings and pick it, and every press asks for that record. With none picked, a press opens the console's Request a record dialog in your browser instead.
  • Grant request shows how many requests are waiting for approval on a red badge, and a press lets through the one that has waited longest. It only has work to do if the station holds requests for approval.

With nothing to rate, such as during a break, Like and Dislike go faint and do nothing.

If it goes wrong​

  • A key says No station. Open its settings and enter the address and the API key, then press Test connection.
  • A key says Key refused. The API key was mistyped, revoked, or has expired. Make a new one in the console and paste it in.
  • Skip or Stop does nothing, and Now playing works. The key is Read only. Make one with Read and manage.
  • Test connection cannot find the station. The computer the Stream Deck is plugged into has to reach the station's address. Try it in that computer's browser.
  • The cover looks faint. The key cannot reach the station right now, and is showing the last cover it had so nothing looks current when it is not.

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