Just found your channel today. Great quality of production. Been using Companion for almost a year at this point. just made to the move to CompanionPi yesterday.
A theatre i work with uses one of these At makes it easy for people who dont know how to use the lighting and sound desks, It can control the house lights, show lights, work lights, sound and projector, an extremely powerfull tool
Intergration with osc, and philips dynalite are some of the coolest ones It was set up by the mega-nerd that was the previous technician, a job i some day hope to fill A lot if the buttons are linked through some really cool systems Fun thing is in a school, and having the companion go through to your phone is somethind i would have been enthralled by Lol Dude, tech is awesome and the way it effects entertainment is even cooler I firmly believe moder theatres are technical marvals with cutting edge gear
Perhaps I'll make a video on this one day... but for those searching right now google "configure wi-fi on raspberry pi4". You'll find some blogs about editing the "wpa_supplicant.conf" file to specify your network settings. Hopefully this gets you going!
Thanks for this, helped a lot. Question for you. Recently got into Companion Satellite and there are no tutorials at all for this online. Any chance you would make a video and go over the steps?
Great video thanks a lot! It motivated me to buy a Pi and get started. 2 Questions thought: 1) do I have to leave the SD card in the Pi with the Companion app flashed on it? 2)main event my Streamdeck will be plugged into the Pi, I’m assuming I’m not able to use it to control things on my computer, correct? I’d need a second Streamdeck for that? Thanks a lot :)
Hi @Stephan Melchior! 1.) Yes you leave the SD card in the raspberry pi once it is flashed - the SD card is like the "hard drive" for a raspberry pi. It's the main storage volume the raspberry pi boots from. 2.) There are some ways to integrate the official Elgato app with the Companion app! But some people find it much easier to just buy a 2nd streamdeck and keep the two separate for simplicity. Companion can also integrate with an app like Vicreo to send commands to your computer from the raspberry pi. So really there is a TON of potential! Just all depends how deep in the rabbit hole you want to go... 🙂
Great work. I now understand how to use the Stream Deck with a Pi but what about the Stream Deck software itself? I'd also like to use buttons that come directly from the Stream Deck software at the same time (using various Stream Deck plugins). The problem is we have a MacBook Air with just 2 USB C ports with a docking hub and Companion loses the connection to the Stream Deck. After working for a few minutes, we get the red flags on each button and no apparent way to reconnect it. Is there a way to set up Companion on the Pi and still use the Stream Deck software simultaneously?
Good day and thanks for this! Just to clarify, once the Rasberry Pi is assembled, you don't need to install anything, just insert the etched flash disk and turn it on, correct? Also, can the Rasberry Pi be powered by a USB power bank?
Yup, the people behind companion have made this prebuilt image for us! 👍 Otherwise there is a way to do this via a "manual install" or even compile it yourself if so inclined. Also yes a raspberry pi can be powered by a battery bank. I've also seen some regulated adapter cables to go from a vmount battery or something too.
Thanks @@BensTechLab! A dedicated Companion hardware is nice for mobile ATEM setups. Also if you want to update the Companion buttons / actions, you would need to connect the Pi to the network and repeat the setup, correct?
@@KuboriKikiamShow Yes, you would have to connect the Pi to the network to configure (dont think you can run the Companion GUI locally on the Pi with their image. But, you need to have the Pi connected to the network anyway for Companion to be able to control anything else than the Stream deck, so not really an issue as far as I can see?
People have done this, but you have to start with the playoutbee install and then install Companion inside of that image manually. I prefer to just have more raspberry pis: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZWr7f_zGLWc.html
Rasperry Pi 4 is still the current latest and greatest! So go ahead with it. I might have a few more options listed on my blog: www.benstechlab.com/topics/raspberry-pi/
So I just saw your video and this is very helpful. Question though: Now that I have the Companion image on the Raspberry Pi, if I take that Pi to another network, basically the same setup, will all my setting still hold even though I am not on the same network?
Yes your companion configuration is stored on the file system in the raspberry pi and will travel with the rpi. In case you are ever worried, you can backup your settings in the companion UI and download a configuration file!
I believe you can run Companion on raspian. Raspian is based on Debian (of which buster is a specific generation of Debian). The official docs recommend a raspberry pi 4 for companion but "it will run" on a pi 3 but not recommended. I'd say if you already have a pi3 you dont have much to lose in experimenting. But if you are buying new, get the pi4 (linked in the description).
You could install more apps on pi if you would like. Some people just like having a dedicated device for certain purposes to make absolutely sure nothing goes wrong during a live stream or something. For the default companion image shown in this video, you can still login with the regular default raspberry pi credentials.
Great question! The short answer is isolation of functionality and spreading out the work load. I like to keep Companion separate from my computer to make sure nothing interferes with each other. As a software developer, I'm often running LOTS of other stuff on my computer including docker containers with other little services/apps (and 100+ browser tabs) and I don't want to risk doing something that breaks my bitfocus companion while recording/live streaming. If you don't do this with a raspberry pi, some people use a 2nd computer: 1 computer for demos/general functions, 1 computer for companion/graphics type stuff. But you can in theory run everything on one computer if the computer is powerful enough and you don't mind having "all your eggs in one basket". But also if your computer is struggling with say running OBS/vMix then adding companion to the same machine may be too much, so moving it off to a raspberry pi is a cheaper way of spreading out the work load than buying a mac mini or something.
This video doesn't really cover the ATEM setup with companion. But the way I use companion my Atem is on the local network and a desktop PC is not required at all (do not need to be run Atem Software control - companion can do all the controlling!).
@Tedz Stonz you can think of a "raspberry pi image" as something like a "hard drive backup". The people who produce companion have pre-baked a "hard drive backup" of the raspberry pi with the operating system installed, the companion app installed, and any config changes that make sense for this application. So when you download and flash your SD card it's pretty much ready to go out of the box! There are harder ways to do this with a manual install, but for 99% of users, this will be great.
You do not need the Atem software running to use Companion. Companion is able to control the Atem all by itself! However, you may _optionally_ run the atem control software on your computer if you want it for something that Companion doesn't do on its own. For example creating new macros or adjusting fairlight audio controls.
hope u can help me on this -- I did this scenario several times, and is unable to bring up on browser from several pcs laptops etc. im able to ssh in from different pc's but no browser???? i also tried remote desktop and it connect but gives a black blank screnn thanks for any input.
I'm not sure I can help with this as it may be unique to your setup. If you can SSH to the rpi that is a good sign that your network is all working. I'd review the boot-up text on the rpi very closely to make sure it is starting companion as expected.
I would say very reliable. However I did 1 time have it lock up and streamdeck was unresponsive and had to reboot the pi. But that was once in a year and it may well have been caused by something I did in software vs the raspberry pi itself. I later mounted my raspberry pi into a rack mount with an easy access power button.
hey ben, I bought the canakit with the pre existing noobs on it. Im a noob. Can I also flash the companion pi image on the same SD card as well? If not, any suggestions on what to do?
Yup! "flashing an SD card" = totally overwrite anything already on it. So go ahead. And if you ever want to go back you can download a noobs image and flash it again! Each time a total overwrite of the card.
@@BensTechLab thanks! So can the noobs desktop and the companion pi be used together? I would prefer not lose one over the other. Im lost as to how to keep the Pi desktop in this process
@@BiGGMiCC most people using companion on the pi are using the raspberry pi "headless" with no monitor keyboard or mouse - just a streamdeck or two. Otherwise you might want to run it on a regular desktop computer? Also rasberry pi can multitask, but not as well as a desktop. That said you may be able to install a debian/ubuntu linux version of companion desktop inside the raspberry pi desktop. But I havent tested and not sure I'd recommend it and it would be different than this video.
@@BensTechLab Thanks Ben! I was really hoping not to use both simultaneously but switch between headless and desktop version when I need to on the Pi. Is that setup even possible or would I definitely have to have a separate SD card to achieve it - one with the NOOBS setup and another with the companion pi setup (headless)?
@@BiGGMiCC everything is "possible"! But as a newer user to raspberry pi and linux a $10-15 SD card may be easier to start with. Then you can tackle more complex things as you learn.
