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Elgato Stream Deck Pedal Released With Three Customizable Foot Switches
Elgato has released the Stream Deck Pedal. This new tactile foot controller, with three hit zones, expands the Stream Deck range in an unexpected but welcome direction. Elgato demonstrates the Stream Deck Pedal in gaming, streaming, productivity, and hobby activities. As you might imagine, there are many foot control possibilities, and the software facilitates the use of a wide range of the usual Stream Deck functions, plus Multi Actions and Smart Profiles.
(Image credit: Elgato)
Sometimes a touch or button interface at hand level isn't the quickest and most intuitive thing for computer users. This is especially the case for those whose hands can already be very busy with a mouse, keyboard, etc., which makes using a foot controller very attractive.
Elgato's Stream Deck Pedal is pretty unadventurous, hardware-wise. The product maker says all the right things about the controller's heavy-duty construction, anti-skid feet, interchangeable pedal pressure springs, and grippy top surface, but in summary, it is just a trio of pedals in a line. The pedals aren't even analog (like a wah or volume pedal); they are simple switches.
However, simplicity is not a bad quality for something that you might operate with a big boot while out of sight. Furthermore, Elgato's experience and foundational work on button interfaces means that it has many smart features that make the Stream Deck Pedal useful in a wide range of situations.
(Image credit: Elgato)
Elgato highlights the usefulness of its new pedal in streaming content creation, gaming actions/shortcuts, presentation making, video editing, and working with the new Stream Deck Discord plugin for mute/talk/deafen and more. In addition, there are over 100 Stream Deck plugins available online to make your new foot controller very flexible.
Multi Actions can be used to string button press actions together and assign them to one pedal. You can stomp down to grab a screenshot, open a destination folder, and share it on Twitter, for example. Other tasks might be to smooth your audio or video production workflow.
Smart Profiles help alleviate the three-button limit here. Using the setup software, you can easily create, save and recall pedal layouts mixing single and Multi Actions. You might create Smart Profiles and Multi Action sets for different tasks you do on your computer – one for live streaming, and another for video conferencing, for example.
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It is recommended you watch the intro and overview video for the new Elgato Stream Deck Pedal above to get a good feel for its capabilities.
The device measures 244 x 175 x 49 mm / 9.6 x 6.9 x 1.9 inches, weighs 930 g / 2.1 lbs, comes with four pedal spring tension sets, and connects to your computer via a USB Type-C port (with a USB Type-C to USB Type-A connector cable in the box).
Elgato is selling the Steam Deck Pedal today via the official product page linked in the intro for $89.99.
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
