Hello guys and welcome to another exciting interview with me, Danielle, for Stepping Up and today we will be focusing on DigiGov. I'd like to introduce my guest. His name is Marlon Narciss and he is the Acting Director for Public Sector Modernization. Good day. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us here today and we know that DigiGov has been the phrase everywhere. We've been hearing about it so we want to really get to zone into what exactly this is. So if you don't mind, let us know a little bit about DigiGov and what is the genesis of DigiGov. Okay, thank you very much. I'd just like to thank you first for inviting me to your show. It gives me an opportunity to further let the public know of what's happening with the DigiGov platform and what's happening with the Department of Public Service. Again, thank you. DigiGov is short for Digital Government Platform. And in 2018, the government asked us to develop an ICD roadmap for the implementation of ICD, any government, throughout government. And we thought that we can use the DigiGov platform as a catalyst for the growth of the ICD industry. We were actually in the process of doing a national ICD policy and sectoral strategy alignment refresh. And we thought that if we could implement an integrated service platform, that would spur a lot of interest in the national ICD policy, but also provide government a path towards digital transformation and also to get buying from the public and support through access to government services online. What can you describe your activities? What are some of the activities that were undertaken to now be able to launch DigiGov? Yes, so we undertook a very vigorous process. So before we even began any implementation, there was an initiation phase for the project, which focused on four primary areas. One was the business process re-engineering exercise that needed to take place to identify the various services and processes that needed to be re-engineered and revised. Secondly, we looked at the legal and regulatory framework that exists currently, identified the gaps and then made recommendations on what needs to be put in place from the legal regulatory angle to support the implementation of the DigiGov platform. We also looked at the infrastructure requirements to support the platform as well. And also- When you say infrastructure requirements, what are you talking about? We're referring to the broadband networks that currently reside in St. Lucia and this was timely as well because the government just finished the implementation of the government wide area network and this network would support our common platform to be able to launch the DigiGov from. So this was timely, as I said. The other component was the change management for user adoption framework. And this focused heavily on persons, the users, the internal users, the government workers, the public servants, who will be able to- who will be now going for this paradigm shift on how they provide services. We needed to make sure that we had re-trained them, re-skilled them, re-tooled them so that they would be able to provide that back and supported the platform once somebody applies for services in government. So as you mentioned that, I was not coming to how are St. Lucia's ready to benefit the platform that you guys have been creating. And we know as of recent that you guys have launched the licensing, being able to access paying your fees, etc., to get the new licensing. So why should St. Lucia's- what's the importance for St. Lucia's to jump on board? Okay, government has recognized for many, many years now that the expectations of its citizens have shifted. We all use social media. We all use shop online. And so it was important for the government now to step up to the plate. We needed to be able to provide our citizens the same kind of convenience of access to government services, interaction with government. And so this is one of the the underlying principles behind the development of the platform. And so at the Department of Public Service, we conducted several surveys in order for us to understand exactly what were the needs of the people. And this was one of the critical things that we undertook in just trying to justify the process, justify the project and see how best we can implement this platform to meet the needs of the citizens. What were some of the things that you discovered during your research phase? Actually, the question is, we did some online questionnaires as well as in-person questionnaires and we found that over 80% of persons indicated that they would be willing to access a government service online. And that actually is indicative of what we're seeing today. So for example, we've been online from the 25th of June 2020. We have had over 700 registrations and over 390 transactions of persons either applying for a new license or replacement of a driver's license. And what is key is that 40% of those transactions are actually online transactions. So this is very, very encouraging. And we anticipate that once the platform continues to material and we put more and more services online, we would get more and more persons actually using the service as we intend it to be. Key as well with this process is that for our digital transmission journey, we want to ensure that nobody's left behind. So even if you are, for example, you're not too familiar with the process or even familiar with using a computer, or you're an unbanked individual who don't have a credit card that could actually go online and pay or debit card that you can go online and pay, we still allow for you to be interfaced with the platform. So you could actually go online, apply for the service and once you've gotten to the point to pay, you could select to pay over the counter. And that over the counter process would then allow you to go to any Treasury office to pay for that service.  You could still go and pay. Once you've registered and you've made that application, the platform also interfaces with you directly. So to notify you that your application was received, when you pay it will say that we received your payment, your application is being processed. Once it's approved, we also allow you to know that it's approved or once that your driver's license is printed, the platform also alerts you and informs you that you can then come to collect your card. So there will be no longer a situation where somebody is guessing by wondering if my card is ready, if it's printed or not and several of the activities that will unhindrance to the timely service like the camera is down, we now allow in the citizen, the user, to put their own picture online. So you could take your own picture, how you like to see your face. Once it's in, once it's according to the specifications, you could then upload that to the platform and that would be what we have come up with. So you're almost aggregating your own profile. Correct. So my next question for you is, due to the nature of the project, what can you say to St. Lucians who have concerns about being protected online? And we know that, you know, new levels, you have new levels they like to say that you have new problems and you know how to create ways to protect persons, personal information. And what can you say to that to St. Lucians who are very wary? Because you know on the first part of it too, you have a lot of St. Lucians who don't like online at all, you understand. So what is it that you have to say to encourage them and what your office has been doing to do so? Right. So one of the key aspects of the project was the legal and regulatory framework. So in our gap analysis, we recognize that in 2011, the government of St. Lucia enacted three pieces of legislation, e-government legislation. One was the Data Protections Act. The second was the Electronic Crimes or the Computer Misuse Act and also the E-Transactions Act. All of them were passed in 2011. However, only the Electronic Crimes Act was commenced in 2018. And so there was more or less this big gap that existed between legal protection for electronic transactions and also legal protection for data as we said. So essentially government was operating the banking sector, the business sector was operating without these pieces of legislation commenced. So one thing that we, one of the developers of our project is to have those pieces of legislation commenced. So on the 25th of June of this year, the E-Transactions was commenced, was made effective I should say. And also we're currently speaking with the Ministry of Information to have the Data Protections Act also commenced sometime in June or July of this year. So once this is in place, we would have the part of the legal protections in place to provide some sort of ease of concern for the public. So you know that government as a data controller has certain requirements, certain obligations to protect your data. And likewise there are also specific remedies for persons, for the individual whose data is being shared. So you share your data with government, government has a certain responsibility and vice versa. Yes, also going along with the maturity of the project there are several other pieces of legislation that are going to be coming into force soon because we'll be doing more and more integrations. We want to ensure that you are custodian of one side of data, I'm a custodian of another side of data, but we need to share that data, we need to collaborate. So there is an electronic data interchange legislation that we also want to focus on. As well there is a national authentication framework which will come up in the forefront of the project, which would allow for every citizen to have an electronic on e-profile on the platform. And with that e-profile you will be able to interact with government at your convenience. We're also looking at education of the citizens this is key for security and for safety on music. So we have a aggressive education campaign that we will be following to ensure that we provide safety tips for persons as they go along on the platform. And the platform itself is very safe, we've taken, we've left no stone unturned rather to ensure the cybersecurity of that data that exists on the platform. And the integration process will just continue and we will go from strength to strength building on the security as we go along. Nice. And you heard from the man himself, step up and join the platform guys, we'll be right back. Introducing DigiGov, the government of St. Lucia's online platform that allows any resident of St. Lucia to access and pay for government services via computer, tablet or mobile device. Using DigiGov is very easy and secure but you must create a DigiGov account before you can get access to DigiGov e-services. Here's what you will need to create your DigiGov account, a valid driver's license, an NIC number and a valid email address. To create an account, open your web browser and type www.digigov.gov.govt.lc. In the top right corner of the page, click the sign up button. Next, complete the form provided enter in your nationality, ID type, NIC passport and driver's license number and then click the check button. A self registration screen will open and will display your existing information. Now enter a valid email address in the email field and click the submit button. An email will be automatically sent to you with your new login and password details. Take note of your username and password. Return to login page and login using your NIC number and password sent to you via email. Next, create a new password by typing your password in the new and confirmed password field. Click submit. After creating new password, you will be redirected to your profile page to update your home address and contact details. Click submit to update your profile. A notification screen will pop up indicating you have successfully updated your profile. Click OK to complete the profile update process. Congratulations! You have successfully created your DigiGov account. If for any reason you are unable to login, please visit the Division of Transport with a valid form of ID, a valid email address and your NIC card for assistance or call Division of Transport at 468-6300, DigiGov, serving people and businesses of that island alone.  So before the break, we just had a long discussion about what exactly DigiGov is and how it has a lot of benefits for citizens. Now I want to talk about, because this is the direction the world is basically going, do you anticipate that a lot of people lose their jobs and you know, have you guys considered that? Yes, we have. So this is a two or three-prong response to that question because I noticed something that persons always think of especially if you are an officer working in the department and there is a lot of ICT type of initiatives, you don't wonder but you know, am I going to lose my job? And the answer is no. So the DigiGov ecosystem is going to catalyze the improvement in government services, make government more efficient, more productive, allow customers to access the service at their convenience and in doing so, it would now require government to be a lot more responsive to the needs of the citizen. And so our response to this is to retrain, retool, reskill the staff that are currently within the department and also as part of our ecosystem to build value around the DigiGov platform and grow this ecosystem that we anticipate that will. When you mentioned grow value around the system, give us some examples. Okay, so a couple of examples. We're going from grassroots way up to the highest paying jobs that you can think about software development, mobile app development. So you know, we would encourage the private sector to build DigiGov apps that are specific to some of the functions that we anticipate that will occur as the platform materials, right? So somebody could build an app to support the police work. So one of the key features of the driver's license, which I will look to later on, is the development of that QR code. So our vision is the QR code.  So QR code. Yes. So it's similar to those barcodes you see the behind your groceries and stuff like that, right? So you're going to scan that code and get the bio data of the whole of the card, right? Yeah. So over time, we anticipate that we will move into e-ticketing, for example. And again, it goes back to your e-profile. You have an e-profile on the platform, government know who you are, you provide us with your contact information because you need to come in, we need to contact you when you contact, when you apply for a service. So these, all of these types of things would be integrated. So we could send out bids so that we can, we could get a developer to build that, that as part of the, so that will support the platform. So we're building the ecosystem. At the grassroots level as well, and we're talking about jobs, at the grassroots level as well, we have a concept within the platform which is called service bureau agent. And in the infancy now, we would have service bureau agents situated at the department of transport. Remember earlier, I spoke about persons not being able to complete the entire transactions on their own because they may not be, we don't be familiar with the platform or the technology. They could use the, they could use the service of a service bureau agent to assist them if applying, right? But this is just one component when you're at the department. We want to grow this to where you have a service bureau agent situated within an ICT center, a human resource development center. So we're going to the communities with this concept and also allowing an individual to say, okay, can I function as a registered service bureau agent for government services and start your own business with that? So in every community you could have two, three, four, five, six service bureau agents who assist the public in applying for the government service. And in tune, they would then have their own business and be able to get pay for that service that they will be providing. So it's almost like a transaction cost that the citizen would pay to that service bureau agent for assisting them in applying for the service. Again, we're recognizing that a large part of our population is unbanked, persons are not equipped with the technology. So it is twofold in the sense that we're creating more jobs and also we're providing an opportunity for persons to be able to interact with the platform. And to support the platform. And to support the platform as we go along. And the mobilization. Exactly. The call to action. The call to action. So as you said, a lot of solutions has to be unbanked. What are some of the lessons learned in this entire process of implementation? What can you say to the solution psyche when talks about technology and the way we think about e-commerce and being online? So what are some of the lessons that your team has learned going through this process? I will start by speaking of what's on the inside, what we've seen through our change management processes. We recognize that the user adoption is very, very, very important. Train, train, train, coach, coach, coach, guide, guide, guide. And I say that because, you know, we had one, I can give you one example of what occurred on the 26th of June in both North and South, almost simultaneously. There was an issue where the users were not, the backend users, the transport, the Department of Transport users, they encountered a scenario that was not anticipated. And the very first reaction, knee-jerk reaction, was to go back to what they knew. And there was an error where they actually printed some of the old cards during the course of the day, when from the 25th we had planned not to print any old cards anymore. So any existing cards that were already printed had to be disbursed, but the plan was not to print any cards. So the staff's first inclination was to go back to what they knew. And we recognize that it is part of the change management process that it is something that you have to massage continuously and allow persons to grow into the platform. So you only go into the platform when you get that confidence in the use and you understand and appreciate exactly what the platform can do for your work and how best and how it can improve your productivity and your efficiency in conducting your day, your work on a daily basis. So that's one of the things that we recognize very early on in our once we roll out. We also look at our modes of communication. The public chose to communicate with us a lot through social media. And these mediums we interact on a personal level with the public as well. Because going back to our tagline, serving people and businesses with that island love. And so we interacted on social media, but also encouraged persons to email us. So we emailed them to give them direct feedback on the questions that they had. And also the suggestions. We got a lot of valuable suggestions, which were actually factored into the platform in the subsequent versions of the platform. We probably have like two or three small minor changes that were done based on the feedback that we received from the public already. We forgot to do the other components where we recognize going forward. Some of the lessons is the mode of communication. Persons enjoy primarily contacting us through the social media platforms. But we wanted to try to make it a little bit more personal. So we respond directly to every question, legitimate question, and also send email feedback to persons once we recognize the input. And we've factored in several new features into the platform based on that feedback that we've received from the public thus far. SMS is also a good feature that we've been using. Unfortunately, in our requirements gathering, WhatsApp was not available for our region for business. So it is still a work in progress for us to get at least WhatsApp notifications onto the platform. But all in all, we've been having a lot of good responses thus far from the public. Good feedback that we've adopted onto the platform. And we think that that heightened expectation that we know that the public has also fueled our motivation to really do our best and to provide a platform that really gets the public engaged and excited with just connecting to government and accessing those services and their convenience. I like to say that because when we go on Amazon, we're chilling home, we put our smartphones and we're shopping, we're surfing the internet and we want to be able to have that similar type of experience once somebody connects with government to access government services. Well, I for one, I look forward to not having to take that long line at transport board to do these sort of things. And I think it has been a long time coming for these services to be accessed online. So kudos to you guys. We're going to be right back, guys. The government of St. Lucia is making it easier to transact business online with DigiGolf. DigiGolf is a safe and secure platform that you can use 24-7 with reduced processing time. Renewing your license is now easier than ever and it is quick and convenient too. Renew anytime and anywhere using a mobile, tablet or desktop. The use of a single window allow you to input your information speedily. Pay for your license renewal online with a master or visa card and receive notifications of your application process in real time via email and SMS. Never get caught with an expired license again. Renew today with DigiGolf. Welcome back, guys. And right now, we are going to join the DigiGolf platform. Mr. Narces, take it away. So you said every solution should and is asked to join the platform. So just once again, let us know the importance of joining the platform and then give us a first-hand view of how we can join the platform. Thank you for that. So it's very important that everybody registers onto the platform. Our proof-of-concept services is from the Department of Transport for renewal of your driver's license, as well as the replacement if the driver's license is lost or not damaged. So the first thing is that you could register and if your license is going to be expired in the next three months, you could actually apply from now. The main advantage now of applying for registering is that once you register on the platform, the platform will send you a notification or reminder of when your driver's license is going to expire. So at least you will not have any reason to go be driving on the road without a valid driver's license. The other major component of this also is that we're going to be implementing the national authentication framework where every solution on permanent resident will have an electronic profile with government. And with that profile, you'll be able to apply for all government services, you'll be able to participate, send government feedback on different initiatives that will be coming on. In fact, I could also mention the government is setting up a payment process so that we could have to support the telephone. So any telephone in the future, somebody could pledge online on the government platform as well as pay if they want to pledge and pay immediately. Would it be fair to say that joining the platform is like having an online ID card? Yes, you will have your multipurpose ID. So again, as I said, the eventual goal with the national authentication framework is to have a unique multipurpose ID number that represents you at every agency of government. So within the civil status registry, within IRD, within NIC, within the electoral department, your record will be established within the platform to point to all of these databases. So it is very, very important to register, not just because it's a driver's license, but there are so many other benefits coming on the road once the platform goes through maturity and the implementation process. So let's see how easy it is to join. Using DigiGov is very easy and secure, but you must create a DigiGov account before you can get access to DigiGov e-services. Here's what you will need to create your DigiGov account, a valid driver's license, an NIC number, and a valid email address. To create an account, open your web browser and type www.digigov.govt.lc. In the top right corner of the page, click the sign up button. Next, complete the form provided enter in your nationality, ID type, NIC passport, and driver's license number, and then click the check button. A self-registration screen will open and will display your existing information. Now enter a valid email address in the email field and click the submit button. An email will be automatically sent to you with your new login and password details. Take note of your username and password. Return to login page and login using your NIC number and password sent to you via email. Next, create a new password by typing your password in the new and confirmed password field. Click submit. After creating a new password, you will be redirected to your profile page to update your home address and contact details. Click submit to update your profile. A notification screen will pop up indicating you have successfully updated your profile. Click OK to complete the profile update process. Congratulations! You have successfully created your DigiGov account. If for any reason you are unable to login, please visit the division of transport with a valid form of ID, a valid email address, and your NIC card for assistance. Or call division of transport at 468-6300, DigiGov, serving people and businesses with that island love. With the implementation of the QR code for on the driver's license, the police would download a secure QR code scanner that will be provided by the DigiGov platform and only the police would be able to use this QR code to scan this QR code. So even though you try to use your regular QR code scanner, it will not scan this QR code. So if I could just give you a demonstration. Once you scan the QR code and then all of the information to the front of the card would then be displayed on the QR code information here. So this would allow the police to validate the card information. And as I said in the future, we're going to be having real-time connectivity to the database so the police would be able to validate in real time the current, most current information that you would have on your profile. Like if the license is valid, if you have any outstanding tickets. If it's lost, all of the damage just comes very, very handy because an individual may see my driver's license is lost and it is not lost and try to get another one and try to receive the police. In that way, once the police scans the lost driver's license, the QR code informed them, hey, this is a lost driver's license. So essentially, you could now then prosecute this individual for using. For lying. Exactly. Also with the implementation of the QR code, the police would be able to, as I said, monitor the validity of your driver's license to see what is lost and what damage. As well as if you have any offenses there because eventually we will be integrating with the courts. Coincidentally, the same company that we're working with for this platform also just recently built the platform for the courts, the elitigation platform. So integrating there would be seamless for us going forward. So we want to again indicate to the public that, hey, you have a responsibility as a digital citizen to yourself and to others. So it would be better if you pay online and not get fined. But don't you think that might be a deterrent now for people to not want to be a digital citizen because that means they have direct continuous access to anything about me. And as you said, the courts, if have any warrant for arrest or anybody, it can be a deterrent. Well, I think it's just a benefit of modernization. And as we go along, I think more and more integration of our daily lives will occur with technology, both for our social lives as well as our interaction with our government. Thank you very much for that, Daniel. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here to further give the public some more information about the DigiGov platform. We have a self-registration process that is absolutely important, and we want to encourage everybody to register online so that they can beat the line. With DigiGov, we anticipate to rule out another 152 services within the next two years. And it is to the benefit of everybody. So we'd like you to register at www.digigov.gov.govt.lc. The registration process will not be seamless for everybody because based on our review and assessment of the current database at the Department of Transport, there were some anomalies where you may have found one or two persons with the same NIC number and vice versa. Because in the past, it was an electronic platform, but then there was a lot of manual keying of data so you know the errors occurred in that process. So we want to clean up that data in order for us to move along to the national authentication framework where we'll be guaranteed and assured that hey, whoever is applying for a service is the actual person behind the computer. So once again, I would like to invite everybody to register at www.digigov.govt.lc and encourage everybody to follow us on social media at www.digigov.govt.lc. So again, Tanya, thank you very much. I'm really happy to have been here and be your guest on the show. And I'm hoping that once we get to our next phase or exciting rollout, we're going across the spectrum for local and for businesses as well. Application for your passport is also on the agenda as well. So we've done all of the groundwork. The government has been fully supportive of this project. We have the finances, so we're moving along as a very rapid pace. At full speed ahead. Well, I must say that I am looking forward to beating the line. And I know all of St. Lucia is looking forward to beating the line in the near future. Once again, thank you very much. Thank you guys very much. I hope you enjoyed our interview with Mr. Malanasis as we dig into the world of DigiGov. Don't forget to step up and join the platform so you can enjoy all the ease and access to governmental services online. And now it's time for Linkup. For this episode, we'll be having a chat with the High Commissioner for St. Lucia in the UK. So you know, for Linkup, we like to reach out to our diaspora and to just find out how everyone is doing. And of course, for the past few segments, we've been basically reaching out to the different ambassadors. So I must thank you so much for allowing us to chat with you this morning, you know, this morning and this afternoon over there. But you know, we want to find out what exactly your office has been doing, you know, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. And I want to start off by zoning into the rules and the responsibility as High Commissioner and what exactly has your office been up to? We have learned to adapt. It is since March that we all have been working from home, but we have still been able to facilitate our solution diaspora. And also, of course, who have relatives who are stranded in St. Lucia and persons wanting to know what's going on in St. Lucia. The High Commission is the center where everybody calls and everybody wants to know how they can get help. And so it has been difficult. It has been tough. But we have learned to adjust. And so we have set up our London chat room. So all of our staff, we are on one chat room and we share information that way and we keep in touch. And then when we need to go into the office to process passports and persons wanting those certificates or whatever, we go and get it done and come back out. So far so good. All of our staff members are in good spirits and we are continuing to facilitate our role up here as the High Commission. Nice. So how do you continue to represent St. Lucia? Because as much as the pandemic has changed the face of how everyone is working, how do you continue to represent St. Lucia at the WTO, the IMO, the Commonwealth? So just share some light with us in terms of the things that you continue to do despite just facilitating St. Lucia's who make requests all the time and supporting them over there. My life has now become a just spending all my time on my laptop or my computer at virtual meetings. So the WTO still continues to function despite the fact that the offices are closed. The Commonwealth Secretariat still continues to function. The IMO continues to function. And so we meet, I said, virtually, nearly every day there are different meetings taking place. But we're still getting the job done. Your Excellencies, so we know that you've held a post for this over four years. Can you share with us what would you say is some of your successes or some of the things that you're really proud of that I guess your office has been able to accomplish in these past four years? In terms of accomplishments, as I've pointed out, it's a lot of my work as a High Commissioner is in terms of representation. So WTO is an important trading organization and where a lot of trade issues are discussed. And if you're not at the table, especially at a small island developing state, you get left out and your voice is not heard. So I've made it up points to be at those meetings. And we have been pushing our own agenda at those meetings. For instance, we have been promoting the need for greater consideration for small island development states like ours, developing states like ours, and trying to implement some kind of resilience yardstick for our small island states. Because as you know, climate change has a major impact on the world and one of the things everybody is discussing. And the way you measure one's economic performance or state is they use your GDP. And we keep saying that that is not a true yardstick to measure small island developing states like ours, where despite the fact that we are not the main contributors to climate change, but we feel the impact. And as we've been discussing even at the Commonwealth, and we had what we call the force meeting a couple of weeks ago, again, that these are the small island states within the Commonwealth. We are looking at what are the new measures and how can we get additional support for our small islands. So in addition to seeing about the needs of our diaspora and nationals in the UK, making representation to various departments of the United Kingdom and some countries in Europe, we still have to make our voices heard at forums like the World Trade Organization, like the Commonwealth, like the IMO, where we seek to get benefits for St. Lucia. For instance, we have been in dialogue with the IMO to get St. Lucia to get our ship registry and to be able to get training for our young people on working to get them working on freight ships, just like we've had training for them at the I'm working on to work on the cruise lives. We have been discussing with the UK how we can improve on trade with the UK now with brexit having been done. And we also have the responsibility to dialogue with our counterparts in Europe on how we can collaborate to see what's going on in Europe, because at one time we only with the European Union, but we've written out of the European Union and wanting to play a bigger role within the Commonwealth, a lot of dialogue is taking place there. So there is so much on our plate that we have to do. But at the same time, we have to continue to collaborate with our diaspora, keeping them informed of developments in St. Lucia, encouraging them to invest in St. Lucia and not just investing in terms of sending remittances back to St. Lucia, but investing in the development, the economic development of the country by investing in government bonds, investing in in small hotel development. And I've been employing them to have a change of mindset. Instead of those of them who want to retire in St. Lucia when they've completed their work here, the old thing has been to give somebody to build a house for them and then the house sits empty and then people break into the houses, etc. And I keep telling them that mindset has to change. They need to invest in housing, up to the house into a housing pool for rent and it becomes an asset to them and it can generate income for them while they're here. So that can help pay their mortgages and then whenever they need their home, it's theirs. They're free to get it. So a lot of work is being done. Well, kudos to you and your office and thank you so much for always doing what you guys do because we do know that the High Commission office in the UK for St. Lucia plays a very important role in protecting and supporting our St. Lucia's in the diaspora. As we wrap up and also we had the closing of the borders, etc. We had all the issues with the repatriation of our nationals and working with the airlines to get them back to St. Lucia. We have a list of more than 160 St. Lucia's who were desirous of coming home. So we had to then shift them to British Airways and ask them to book in there because that's much cheaper for them. Years they have to wait, they'll have to wait a little longer but when you think of the cost, it makes sense for them to and the borders being open. They are going to come down and we know for a fact that British Airways will be coming down regularly as of the 25th of July because St. Lucia has handled the COVID-19 situation so well. We have been rewarded by being one of those islands. So I want to congratulate our government, I want to congratulate all of the persons who have been working hard in St. Lucia. Those on the front line to make St. Lucia a safe place and a place that everybody wants to go. I mean every time we get St. Lucia, everybody wants to go to St. Lucia. Everybody wants to come to see Lucia. It's true. Yeah but I have lots to do still. I want to see that all of our St. Lucia's go home. Right now everybody they're still calling to know especially now that we require COVID tests before they can travel. They want us to tell them how they can get it, where to go. I mean we are inundated with requests for support from our nationals but we are happy that we can facilitate them despite the fact that we have to do it virtually. Your Excellency, thank you so much for chatting with us this morning. My technician always says don't mention the time but you know it's a habit of persons so thank you so much. Very good and we know that you're doing an amazing job. Continue to keep stepping up and thank you very much and keep safe. Thank you so much for joining us for this week's episode of Stepping Up. If you know anyone who's doing anything amazing in your community feel free to send me an email at steppingup758 at gmail.com. Once again I'm your host Daniel DuBois. See you next time.


Hello and welcome to the live stream today. We are talking about the stream deck plus and first of all just so that you Don't get all too excited. Mine is currently stuck in customs I'll go to have been very kind to send me one But yeah clearance delay apparently so it's about 600 kilometers away from me right now But that is not going to stop me from talking about it of obviously got lots of the specs got lots of thoughts on it So I'll certainly be be diving into this first of all before I do that I'll just say a couple of hello's hello. David Harvey. Great to see you here Oops get that little thing out of the way move that somewhere where we can see it there we go and Great to you here Tim as I'm sorry Chris as well Fantastic to see you on the stream appreciate you staying up as as ever and Yeah, I think you're thinking the same as me It will be a good addition if you've been thinking about loop deck or you've used a loop deck before Are we comparing the two with that as well? Because there is a lot of similarities in overlap and a lot of the things that I really like about the loop deck Then we're going to be able to do with the stream deck plus with much better software in my opinion in any case So what are we talking about? Well, we are talking about the new stream deck plus Which is basically an evolution of the the existing stream deck with the stream deck XL We've got the stream deck Original the mark 2 and we've got the stream deck mini the only thing that really separates all of those is just the number of keys Whereas as you can see with the new stream deck the stream deck plus what we've got is we've actually got multiple different dials on the bottom as well and also a touch strip and we've got those same familiar keys now the Software which we'll get on to is all going to be exactly the same It's all programmed in exactly the same way, but obviously just with some added functionality of those dials So we'll talk about that and let's just have a little look Shall we at the actual form factor of it and take another little spin around it so that we can see what it looks like now Actually, those buttons that it's got on there are in fact larger than the original stream deck So if I just sort of compare the two here, we can see the stream deck XL next to the the new stream deck plus and you can see there that the buttons are actually quite considerably larger on the the stream deck plus I Always think that here that you could probably have squeezed in a few more now What they've said is that they are this is the phrase they used they are more glanceable being large But I never really had a problem with the stream deck Button size on the original because I tend to just use them by touch in any case I'm not really having to sort of look down at my stream deck all the time to be pressing buttons So I don't know. I just think it would have been nice to have squeezed a few more in there But anyway, nevertheless, we have got those eight buttons But the new features obviously is going to be these the touch strip down at the bottom there and then also the dials So let's talk about the LCD shall we first of all? So it has got this touch LCD screen and as you can see you can sort of swipe left and right on it And that is actually going to swipe pages. So if you've got your stream deck set up with different pages You'll know that you do need to actually use up effectively two different buttons In the regular stream deck because you have to allow one for sort of page left and Page right. So if you look at my stream deck set up here If I move on to the next page Basically, this this button here is the sort of page left and this one is page right So it's actually taking up a couple of buttons just to be able to have those pages Whereas with the new one as you can see here Just being able to sort of swipe left and right to to move those pages It does actually free up a couple of buttons So it sort of belies how many there is because you've got that sort of functionality of the swipe What you can also do is actually program that that screen so you can change the the background on it Just as you can change icons, you can put all sorts of different backgrounds on there There's a load of ones built in but you can also Obviously upload your own and then you've also got the space where the buttons themselves are where you can actually change the the backgrounds and the images on those as well and It does work as a swipe as a touch as well. So you've got that extra functionality So in in actual fact, although there are only eight physical buttons You've then got another four touch buttons effectively on that touch screen But they are going to be related to whatever is that is sort of displayed on there And that in turn is generally related to what is on those dials. So let's have a look at the dials because These look really nice. There is a little video that has got the sort of audio with this So they sound and it's nice in terms of the the rotary action and the clicking It's very similar actually to the loop deck one of the things I do like about the loop deck I'll just unplug it. It's not really using it at the moment Is the the dials so they have got this sort of nice Little clicking sound as you are rotating them and nice solid feel to them So it looks very much like the stream deck plus is going to be in much the same ballpark as this So nice solid actions there. They are and what they call sort of infinite dials There's no sort of stop to them. So they can just continually rotate in one way or the other Which means that they can be applied to lots of different things and used in a really sort of versatile way Now the use cases for those dials is going to be obviously things like volume and stuff like that But what you can actually do with them as well is you can actually assign hotkeys to them So it's very similar to what you can do with the loop deck in terms of being able to program this And the way that this would work then is in the software you basically just going to drag and drop The the action that you want on to the dial What you'll see is if you look in the sort of right hand column on this this screenshot here At the top as well as the sort of buttons. You've got the rotary Actions so it has basically now got sort of two different groupings of actions in the stream deck software And that allows you to sort of add these these dial actions But what you can do is add a hotkey to these dial actions as well So if you've got something, I don't know Let's say command plus command minus for zoom in zoom out or whatever it happens to be You can assign those to the the dials as well And so every little click every little increment is going to be performing that action So that really opens this up to be used with lots of other applications I mean, that's how I'm using the dials on the loop deck is because I use it for things like, you know Scrubbing along a timeline cropping something zooming something whatever it happens to be and so you can do that just as I was gonna say just as easily You can do that far more easily with with the stream deck software Because it is a bit of a laborious task to create these things in loop deck I find I'm not a fan of the loop deck software as Anyone who's been on this channel for any amount of time would know So yeah, certainly not not a fan of of the loop deck software But this is just basically all the sort of stream deck ease of use that we that we know and love so Really looking forward to trying some of these out. I just say another quick. Hello to some new people in the in the live stream Hi, Sean. Great to see you here. Thank you for stopping by and andre from belgium. Great to see you too Jade great to see you as well here. Thank you for stopping by Chris if if I win it it will be officially called I will be officially called mr. Elgato I have a huge the original the 32 and the pedal and a bunch of all that Elgato stuff I know it is a bit of an ecosystem, isn't it? What I love actually I mean, this is a great point is that it is actually doing something which we'll talk about a bit later with the Elgato software it is actually bringing everything together. This is going to be a really unifying device But I'll talk about that a little bit later. It's actually far more powerful than it looks like on there just the service Um Nice shirt by the way, you can get this. Thank you very much. That's almost like I'd Cue that up. You can get this from my merch store. I should probably have a link You can find it at my website take one tech.io and then hit the little merch button up at the at the top So that's where you can find that Um, hi Elaine. Great to see you here as well. Love the swipe Yeah, it is um, it's going to be great for sort of navigating these things and yeah without having to Use up one of those buttons. That's going to be um Going to basically free up some of those buttons as well. Hey rich. Great to see you here and hey gym. Great to see you as well Um, so let's go through and talk about some more of these things on the the list here Um, where are we now? So as well as the touch on the touch screen You've also got the dials can be pushed in as well So that means that you can use that for whatever function is on the on the screen You can use that as well. You can just basically push in on the dial So I've got a little video of it here. So basically as well as being able to rotate them here You can also sort of push in and out and actually what you can see there is there's another feature Which is built into this which is what they call dial stacks And effectively what you can do is basically add as many different Actions rotary actions as you want to one dial And then basically pushing the button in is going to switch between them And in fact you can sort of see this here If you just look at the little part of the screen directly above the button here as it's being pressed You can see how it was. Let me just play that again It was actually just basically cycling through those different actions So when the button's being pressed the little icon just above it is changing because it is cycling through Different actions and what that means is you might want to have you know one dial Which is let's just say for your um your levels for a particular set of devices And so you could have the the button so you press it once adjust your mic volume adjust it again Which adjusts sorry press it again, and it would adjust your you know in-ear monitors Adjust it again. It might adjust your discord levels or something like that So you can really have multiple different things all on the one dial Profiles obviously are going to work just as well on this as they always have done and pages as well So when you are swiping back and forth between those pages of the The buttons it's also going to be swiping through the actions that you've got on the dials as well So, you know Combine pages profiles and those dial stacks You can really add quite a lot of things into here And that's really great because it does integrate with the all the algato products So if you've got algato lights and the algato wave mic software the audio software wavelength But one of the things that they've done which I think is huge and I'm really looking forward to digging into this Is that the algato wave software? So this looks like something like this Well now you can control all of that with this device But in actual fact previously you always used to have to have an algato wave microphone in order to use this software or the the xlr the Algato wave xlr the the box that you can basically just plug in your xlr microphone But unless you had that or as I say one of the algato microphones Then you basically couldn't use the software. So it wasn't sort of like opened up for everything Well now when you add in the stream deck plus and you actually plug that in then that does in fact open up All of the algato software so for audio which means that Things like adjusting independent levels of different applications that you've got on your computer is now Sort of all controllable by this because the algato, you know wave plus software is really powerful It's just that as I say it was always just sort of limited by you needed the algato microphones to use it I'm really looking forward to digging into that software more now that I I can actually use it And have that as a sort of companion to Rocaster because anyone who's watched the channel will know that I do do a lot of Sort of audio routing with the Rocaster You know using the three usb channels and then I've also got another one for Into the back of the Rocaster out of the mic socket on my computer So basically I've got sort of four different channels going into the Rocaster Well now we can also then do some splitting off of different sort of routing tasks And actually have that go through the wave software So I could be controlling independent volumes or levels on you know different sources on the computer As well as you know all of the the other stuff that we can do on the Rocaster I think that this is going to be a really powerful sort of companion app to that more or less So yeah, definitely looking forward to digging that in Hi equip institute Yeah, apple auto correct, you know, siri still correct my name for myself as well You would think that siri might have learnt that I was spelled it But yeah, it happens to me as well So what's your name by the way just so that I can call you call you properly by your name David Yeah, can't wait for yours to arrive to mine. So mine is um, I'd hoped it would be here by now But then I got the notification a couple of days ago delayed in clearance delay So I'm in the northeast of Thailand and it's currently stuck in Bangkok. Uh, yeah sort of 800 kilometers away. Hey, Sebastian. Great to see you here. Thanks for stopping by the stream Oh from Poland. Great to see you great to see so many folks. I do love the fact that we can Uh, all be here on this this global Internet connected with each other um And uh flow tense great great to see you. I shall try to commit that one to memory I may have to ask you again next time though Um Smell another course. It's funny. You should say that it is definitely on the list the the stream deck course Um, yeah, I've got a number of different courses. By the way, I should probably mention I sort of mentioned it in the the giveaway. In fact, I should definitely mention that shouldn't I So yes, I am doing a stream deck plus giveaway. It's not the one that I'm waiting for You'll have to pry that out of my cold dead hands But that will be ordering another one directly to to whoever is the winner So you can enter that in the the chat You'll find it's pinned to the the top of the chat there And it's also in the description if you have not entered already So the draw for that is going to be on Next week week on tuesday. So after cyber monday I've got some discounts running through through black friday weekend cyber monday And then I'll do the draw for the stream deck plus there. So yeah, hopefully That will go to somebody who is in need of a stream deck But aren't we all in need of a stream deck? I think we are It's funny actually because even though this one's coming I was on the verge of also Adding a second stream deck excel to my my setup as well because sometimes it is handy to have To have everything out in front of you when you're doing a run of show In fact, it was specifically for this one. So I'll just while we're here while we're talking about this This is my current stream deck now. Normally all of my buttons look nice and pretty something like this All matching designed all my icons you can find my icons on my my store as well But today you can see they look a little bit messy because they've got all of these different Scenes down here, which are all of my sort of b-roll. So I'm just sort of adding in my b-roll Live as it were. So if I just press this button down here, for example, then it will bring up this scene to sort of show the difference of the Stream deck plus compared to the original But basically, yeah, so I've got all of these different scenes and one of the things I'm going to be doing with my Recorded videos, which are all done pretty much live. Anyway, they're all done sort of live to tape as it were Live to disc I'm going to be trying to work in more b-roll to those sort of things as I do more sort of product demos and stuff like that So in my regular videos, I want to have, you know, sort of queued up lots of different sort of b-roll scenes So I can still do it all live in one take. Um, but basically just flicking between them So yeah, I'll probably be adding another stream deck excel as well But anyway, I digress Um Yes, when am I going to announce you as the winner Chris? So, um, yeah, let's uh, let's see where we are now. So, um, yeah, I am really excited about this But there are a couple of things about it that I'm uh, I'm sort of a little bit curious about really. Um So Yeah, so just to answer your question. Hey gert, great to see you here in the chat as well Is it possible to have the dial control the position of a call out in da Vinci? Well, there are going to be built-in plugins that allow you to control many different things But actually this would come back to uh that feature that I was talking about where you can actually just program anything that you could do with a Keystroke or a key command and you know on a rotary dial Sorry on a On one of the dials you can apply as Basically that keystroke would be mapped to you know, one of the little increments as you turn the dial So I don't know what the particular keystroke would be for that in da Vinci But even if it's not in a plugin, uh, then you can just sort of recreate it So as I say the very simple one of this is you know, I don't command plus command minus four zoom in and zoom out So you could literally map That to the dial if I just bring up that particular thing once again So this is where you're basically dragging this option on and then here you can see you've got Um, these are two three different options per button when you're assigning a hotkey You've basically got you know the the hotkey for when you rotate it one increment left one When you rotate it right and also the push as well So it's gonna be really easy to actually map these so I'll be using this for all sorts of things Um, I actually I don't really do editing. I edit my podcast minimally I chop the end off and things like that and stick and add it in the middle of it For my live stream a backstage podcast. Uh, so that's about the limit of the actual editing I do I do that in adobe premiere though. Um, and so I'll be mapping Some of the controls that I use for that for like scrubbing back and forth chopping and trimming and all that kind of stuff I'll be mapping those to the dials at the moment. I'm using the loop deck So they are mapped to that in the same way. I also use photoshop So I'll have this to sort of zoom in and out just brush size and so on And so yeah, all of that sort of stuff anything that you would ordinarily be able to do just with a Keystroke or you know combination of keystrokes you'd be able to do that What you can also do is if there's things where you use modifier keys sometimes with it and sometimes without You can actually assign that modifier key to something else. So I also use the stream deck pedal So it might be that I have a dial that does one thing But then when I press the pedal in it'll do something different And I'll still be able to use the dial. I'm really looking forward to sort of playing around with that and and diving diving in Um, just to answer chris's question here. When are the tutorials coming back? Lots of podcasts on your channel. Yeah, so I did a big update on my channel and where I was at with it Probably about a month ago something like that. Um, so they're returning in the next in the next week or so Yeah, just what I've been doing is just to digress and to give you a bit of an update the past two months have been spent on Setting up all of my systems really and getting all of my content Scheduled in terms of what I'm doing across every other platform And then the podcasts have been something that I've been doing although there's one a week going out on the channel I've actually been recording about three or four a week. So by the end of november. I will have all of my record my Podcasts recorded up through february So that will all be sort of done and then my schedule will be focused more on getting back to the regular course video So I'll have a whole series of videos. You'll see a lot more coming out this week There'll be the obviously the the stream that plus video the actual full Unboxing tutorial and all that kind of stuff will be coming out this week. There's also another big update coming to some things that i'm working on so there'll be Look forward to at least I would say three new new regular recorded videos this week And then yeah a few other things with some other devices in the pipe So they are they are coming back. There'll be about I would say three regular long form videos Coming coming coming in every week going forward. So yeah expect to see those Yes, there certainly will be a course coming I should say as well I in the the giveaway the The giveaway for the the stream deck plus When you enter that there are different things you can do to sort of increase your chances and get sort of extra entries And one of those is to actually check out my courses and the reason I'm mentioning this now Is because I did kind of give it away on the there that there is an early offer for a black friday giveaway So also a black friday discount. I should say So basically if you use the code cyber 22 on my store, you'll be able to get 35% off everything and that actually includes my My icon packs as well. So over on my store. I've got courses on ecum live Which is the live production software i'm using for live streaming now It's what I use for making all of my videos highly recommend it I've also got my roadcaster pro 2 master class over there as well And then also the zoom master class. So that is how to sort of level up your game on zoom And for me, I always think that zoom without ecum is a bit pointless So actually if you get the zoom master class, it also includes the ecum master class as well And you can get 35% off all of those that runs through till cyber monday as well And that's using code cyber 22 You'll also find my stream deck icon packs here. So I've got one for zoom ecum live youtube player keynote Another one with 3 000 icons got my stream deck calculator over there and also pro mouse Which is what i'm using right now to sort of demonstrate on the screen So you can find all of those and yet they are all 35 percent off 35 percent off in some cases. I think the calculator one. Yeah, the calculator one is two dollars. So 35 percent off that is a pretty Pretty good point. It's hardly worth the paperwork. Is it really? But anyway, there you go. Um, so so yeah, those are my my stream deck icons So let me come back and just get back on topic for a little bit. I don't mean to to digress there But yes, so since we are talking And oh, hey Eileen, I've just got a message. It says Eileen celebrates five months of membership Well, thank you so much for is it five months since I launched my membership that That's flown by lies. So, uh, thank you very much and glad you've entered the the giveaway as well I hope I wish everyone all the luck in the world I wish I was doing more of these now in terms of, you know, giving more away in the single month But I am going to be doing this on an ongoing basis. I think I'll just have like a monthly giveaway of something That is relevant and on topic to the month Um, thanks Caleb. I'm glad you're I'm glad you're enjoying the uh, glad you're enjoying the the course Um, so uh, oh, I'm sorry. I've just missed another question there. So is it lacking buttons? Well This is what I'll get on to so I've got a few things that are my initial reservations having not held one and used it Um, but what you can see here is there is eight buttons at the top and as I mentioned they are actually Small sorry, they are actually larger than the buttons on the You know the other stream decks all of the other stream decks the buttons are all exactly the same size Although there's just more off, you know, less of them fewer of them depending on which model you've got Um, but yeah, these buttons are larger and I can't help thinking because it is the width of a The standard stream deck. So if I just pull up the standard stream deck for a second You can see that the width of it is basically exactly the same But that kind of highlights just how much bigger and larger those those buttons are I can't I'm thinking that they probably could have got two rows or maybe even three rows of Of you know, the the regular buttons there So I think that it's one of those things I can never have enough buttons almost on my stream deck And so whilst I think this is a really great device It almost would have been great if they could have just sort of combined maybe the The original at least the mark too with the um with the buttons and the dials That might have been a little bit of an additional way to go I'm seeing this, you know, it's it's fine for me because I'm basically going to be using this as a companion to My other stream deck my stream deck pedal and maybe even a second stream deck excel So I'm not as bothered about the buttons, but in terms of a single device They probably could have squeezed a few more on the other thing that I'm going to be really interested to see is um, I've got the Livestream at nexus, which is a device from ava media And that's got really big buttons and one of the things you get when you start having much bigger buttons Is the sort of feel and the travel of them and one of my criticisms of the live stream in nexus from ava media was Those the buttons that it has are a little bit wobbly because they're much bigger I'm going to be really interested to see what the action is like on these with them being sort of larger because it is a different sort of Game in in terms of the the mechanics So yeah, really interested to see about that There is one other thing though this i'm I'm not entirely sure about which is the form factor if we take a look at it from the side Let me get rid of that one You can see that this is the form factor of it So they've sort of changed it in many respects because obviously all of the existing stream decks Now with it even with the mark two are more this sort of form factor But you can sort of always remove the base so that you've got a you know a flat stream deck You can always take it off the device off the the base and what that means is you can actually sort of lay it flat Now it's a shame really. I love these magnetic devices I mean coming back to the ava media nexus as well That's another one that has got a magnetic base that it sort of you're going to adjust the angle on With this one the base actually screws in place So you do have to actually screw into physical screws with a screwdriver There's no little thumb screw or anything like that. So that base that little sort of Flat plate at the bottom is actually firmly screwed in place You're making it really a conscious decision about you know, it's got to be mounted like that And I say I say that because you haven't really got another option Whereas with the other ones you can actually sort of take the base off and use them flat and sometimes I will find that You know, if I'm doing something where I it's next to my keyboard more like I'm working or something like that I will often have this off the stand and just have it flat This one unfortunately will never lay down flat because of the position of the usbc cable And I don't I don't quite understand why they've done this because it's coming directly out of the back So even if you get one that's got like a sort of 90 degree head on it So that it can actually come out at 90 degrees Then it's going to be basically you're going to be resting the thing on the actual cable itself And then it's going to be a little bit wobbly I don't know. I think there's going to be a bit of sort of pushback over this because I know that there are people who like it on their desk Me included the other time when I would do that would be sometimes if I go traveling Which is not that often these days. I have to say given what's been going on But I have thrown this in a bag with me and when I took it away with me I didn't take the stand because I just wanted to be able to take it like this Well, now you don't have the option to lay this one flat and yeah, it's not going to stop me from It would not have stopped me from getting one or using it. But it is just one of those things I think there might be some people who are Yeah, who are going to be Who are going to be a little bit Not necessarily upset disappointed about that. In fact case in point. Hey Dina, great to see you here And yeah, I know.  Yeah, so Yeah, so that that is going to be a thing. Obviously Chris is people third party printed bases But it's a shame that you have to do that when they have done it, you know with the the existing one It's just a case if they've got this slightly away. I won't show it with the light there They've just got a slight indentation at the back. So the cable has got space to come out Really surprised to be honest that they didn't do that because yeah, there are people that There are people that use it like that. Hey, elo great to see you as well That would be my guessing as well that this Sorry, Eileen's saying that they're guessing they'll have an XL version of this for 2023 Yeah, I'm guessing that you know now that they've got the whole touch screen and the the dials They will be able to sort of build this all out. Hey non non non beats non Sorry for the pronunciation there. Hello from Germany though. Great to great to see you here as well Um, I'm yeah, I'm hoping that they make a I always joke that I want a stream desk basically an entire surface just fully made up of all of these buttons and things like that But yeah, so a third party printed solution might be the way to go. I mean, I already used something to mount this I use this one. It's off the desk at the moment because I've taken my loop deck off it But I used this for so long for mounting my loop deck Directly above the stream deck and it actually when it was around this way It held them sort of perfectly together. This was just a sort of um An iPad stand, but yeah held the loop deck and the stream deck XL right Just in the correct position and correct angle above each other. So yeah, I'm sure there'll be other custom solutions There is actually a great chap on etsy who makes Molded things for exactly what I was telling to mount the loop deck and the stream deck together So, um, yeah, there'll probably be some third party But as I say, it's just a shame that they didn't sort of factor that all in from the the start Um, let's have a look the the digital screen isn't fabulous. Look how apple Removed it after having true. Yeah, I think that's a bit of a different use case though that one to be honest Kayla because um, yeah when apple introduced the touch strip on the um on the the the macbook It's a bit of a different use case because of How people use that device and the keyboard and then there was also an issue with sort of integrations of that with other things However, in this case, I do think the touch strip is really useful because of the fact that um, It's probably not showing up here But it's the fact that it's actually giving you information and feedback on there So it is actually telling you, you know, what your levels are on different things Um, I actually think it's quite good And I also think having that swipe function that's again I feel like they've almost taken all of the things that I love about the loop deck and added them into stream deck So I do love on the loop deck how you've got the the screen and you can swipe left and right And that was one of the things I thought well That's a great solution because it frees up those buttons then that you don't have the the have to have A button for page left and page right That was one of the things I loved about stream about the loop deck and it's come over here And then obviously the dials that was the reason why I stuck with this in term in in spite of the software Um, but yeah being able to sort of swipe back and forth Let me see if I've got a better picture because I've perhaps not to explain that as well as I could do Um, so here you can see on this one Uh, where's it gone? Let me just bring that back up again and pause it in the appropriate spot Uh, I'll just come back out of here come back in there So Here where as you can see it's changing. So here you can actually see All the settings and this has got deep integration with all of algato's product products. Obviously they're making an entire I mean, they've got such a great ecosystem. I don't personally use algato lights at the moment. I've still got these Uh, other sort of larger softboxes But to be able to adjust the uh temperature setting of your lights from within here Or just the color setting and be able to see what it is on that screen as you're adjusting it I think is really powerful and again, like I say with the microphones as well Um, so and You mentioned there like oh there. Yeah, that's nice if you can read it and that is one of the things you can change the background So if I just let this little video run you can see how you can change the background I would probably be having that something really neutral Just so that you can really actually see what's going on. I mean these ones are a bit more plain It's not really focused on the actual screen itself But yeah, just a sort of plain neutral background is more the sort of thing I would have on that So maybe something uh like Yeah, well that one's got a bit of a color on it as well I also noticed there something which I hadn't just noticed but let me come back to that I notice that as you swipe it's almost Yeah, as you swipe you can change the background Now that's quite cool that you can change the uh the background image on the lcd panel on a page by page basis are based on that little clip there because um Yeah, just to be able to glance down and see and and recognize what page you're on by the image at the back That would be quite useful. I mean as I say I'd still I'd make my own custom images I'd make them quite plain But to be able to just sort of swipe and then you can glance and see what what page of buttons you're on that That's going to be really helpful. I think for me personally So watch as he swipes Then the background changes on the actual uh the lcd panel. Yeah, that's really useful. I like that Um So hey Eric, great to see you here Uh, oh I was just about to read your comment and then realize oops. I can't read that But uh, great to see you. You're chatting in the in the chat Um, it would be nice to control picture in picture size and position on an 8m There are no keyboard shortcuts for that. Ah, right. Yeah, so um Yeah, I've well that's that is an issue if there are no keyboard shortcuts I don't know if there might be any hey, do you know what though? I wonder about the um, so there's a whole another software for stream deck I don't know if people are aware of this but uh, there is the stream deck software itself But then there's also an app called companion And companion basically is it opens up all of the stream deck functionality to use with uh, you know other Other hooks that you want to put into stuff Let me just pull up companion because uh, this is really powerful But what it opens up is it it links in with things like 8m So, uh, let me just to find it for you because uh, this could be a great um a great solution for that If it's something that is if it's something that can be controlled externally um in um in the 8m Then it may be able to be controlled by companion So, let's uh, let's see it's by a bit focuses the name of the uh, the company bit focus.io. Let me just drop this in the chat Um, because yeah, I'm I'm guessing there's going to be some work needed to do on companion side I don't know whether they will have uh developed this out yet, but if I just come over to this screen share Um, so yeah companion basically it opens up all the buttons and then basically you program it You're not programming it using the stream deck software anymore You can actually split it so you can do sort of half with companion and half with the original stream deck software Um, but it allows you to do yeah lots more uh things. This is not giving us too many great examples, but let me just see about the uh, it's going to be just documentation No But yeah, basically it allows you to have much more. I'll leave the link in the description as well It's in the chat though But that allows you to have much more fuller control of uh other software that you ordinarily might not be able to fully control with stream deck and so After that digression, I think um that that may be um something that you could use with the uh, where's it gone with the um To control the 8m because I know that a lot of 8 time uh users Use uh companion uh with um with stream deck because it can control certain things. I'm not sure if it can control that I don't use an 8m myself. So uh, we'll have to have to see hey, yeah, it is indeed a long time great to see you here Thank you for stopping by um, and Let's just see what other questions if you've got any questions or or anything in particular about this um Oh, there is a companion plugin for the for the plus already. Oh, well, that's great. Uh, so works only in beta Ah, so have you um is uh because I'm I'm not an 8m user. Is that something that um Uh can control the the 8m. It would that be a potential way of uh, uh of of doing that I'd be interested to to know if that is That's something that can be done um Let's have a little look where we are at um Yeah, so I'm uh basically apart from those few minor things about the uh the the screw stand and the laying flat I think that that is something that they're going to get a little bit of pushback on And the size of buttons but apart from that I'm really just looking forward to getting this into a workflow One of the things that I always found with I hate to keep bringing this back to loopback we're supposed to be talking about the stream deck plus um, but It is something that is always going to be a comparison and I've talked about it at length I just think that they've been there was such a missed opportunity from loop deck um with their software Because I always found that I mean I I bought this Whenever it was just over a year ago and it sat on my desk for about three months before I properly started using it And the reason was friction friction with the ability to set up the buttons and they using the software It was one of those things that I just felt and I mean i'm a i'm a total geek I love geeking out on this stuff and using stuff But there's sometimes if there's a bit of friction where I thought well I was busy with other stuff I haven't got the time to dig in to learn how to use this because it is so awkward and cumbersome and clunky with the software So having the stream deck now having all of these functions I just feel like they missed a trick and they've sort of missed the boat in terms of these functions that uh Yeah, I mean it's such a great device the loop deck in terms of the build quality and the functionality They've just missed the boat a little bit in my opinion But anyway, so i'm i'm probably going to be replacing a lot of this stuff I'll probably just keep this for some dedicated You know work that I I do one of the things that is good about the loop deck is this You know, it's got the removal stand and then it's really sort of wafer thin And it does lay flat as well. So if you compare this to the size of the Cable compare it to the size of the stream deck. Um, yeah, it is it is much more much more thin and portable So it's good for a portable device maybe but yeah, certainly. I think that the the other one is going to be replacing that So if there are any questions that you've got a proper ecosystem makes all the difference Ah, bicky. Hello, great to see you here as well You can you can use companion to control the ak atm. Oh, that's uh, that's great Um, oh and you're getting yours tomorrow. Congratulations Exciting. Yeah, mine. It's always horrible. Isn't it where you're waiting for something to come? And then you get the notification that it's delayed So mine was held up in customs apparently. So hey, I've got to wait a little bit long for mine. Never mind Yes, maybe yeah, maybe elon acquired the company and fired all the designers Oh, what's going on elon? That is terrible. What's going on at twitter at the moment, isn't it? Anyway, um lots of uh, I Hope you're having a great conversation And I hope it's all hope it's all fit for the stream Um, I think wait for the stream deck plus second generation before I buy but I have four excels right now Yeah, probably you're probably good for stream decks then Um, that is a that is an interesting point you make though with any first generation thing I mean, it's it's not a first generation because it's got the buttons But the dials and the the software and the the lcd Um, yeah, I mean the rocaster pro 2 is another device which I love But there've been quite a few teething troubles with it. So um, yeah, you're not necessarily Wrong to to wait and see what goes with all of the you know, the devices when they first come out Because very few people have actually got them in their hands right now. So Yeah, probably a good move there Um, so well if anyone's got any further questions then do feel free to shout out as I say I've not got it in my hands I was hoping for this to be a much longer stream with me demonstrating everything but yeah at the moment We're stuck with with b-roll of That I've I've got from from Algato, but yes It is something really exciting. I'm looking forward to getting my hand on it and get it into my My yeah my workflow I'm sorry. I've just seen Eric's content comment there. Thanks for thanks for that. Yeah You're just talking behind me talking about me behind my back Um, well, yeah, I hope you are entered as well bicky So, yeah, I should just mention for those that don't know I'm I guessing everyone knows about it now But yeah, you can enter the giveaway for the stream deck plus in the in the Comments and also in the chat you'll find the in the chat and in the description rather should say you'll find the link for that The draw will be on Tuesday after cyber monday So I've got some other things coming up for the next week and then as I say, yeah I will be doing a giveaway every month. I think because it's been very well received and We all love prizes, don't we so There we go. Well, that is going to be it for today folks because um, yeah As I say, I was a rather hoping to have one in my hands, but as it's not here I will not just keep running on and on endlessly But I will be doing another live stream as soon as I get it I'll do the unboxing and the full sort of first impressions and all of that kind of stuff So expect to see all of that as well Thank you to all of the new folks in the chat. It's been great to see some some new people in here And you're welcome back any time, of course You can find in the description as well all the other places you can find me So look forward to seeing you in some of there as well And I will leave a link for those that are watching on the replay to Some other stream deck content over on the right hand side And I've got to also say a big thank you to all of these wonderful people Who are channel members and support me on an ongoing basis. I really really really appreciate your support and encouragement Have a great day folks. See you next time


what's going on you guys I'm back with another video was popping y'all how y'all doing so in this video I'm gonna be cutting down his hair with a three with the grain make sure you want to brush the hair before you actually cut the hair because so that way you get a good good little flow what his pattern is gonna be like so we're just taking it down I'm eventually gonna cut off the little the mullet back there so we're gonna do like a little like a little tail in the back we're gonna do a taper over the tail so I'm using a three just to keep it dark still and I want to keep it long so make sure you guys follow the hair pattern so you guys don't patch or anything so as you can see I'm I keep combing the hair so to see which way the hair grows and the pattern of his hair so I'm gonna be setting in the ball line with my baby's liners I'm not gonna go too low but I'm also not gonna go too high I'm kind of keeping the ball line like kind at the bottom of the ear I don't want to go too low because I am gonna be keeping that drop my phone oops sorry guys I am to be keeping that the tail so you want to make a straight line because this is really important cuz you do want to keep you want to make sure that that tail is straight so make sure that the the line is straight and yeah so now I'm gonna be sending my guideline I don't want to take off that hair on the bottom so I'm being extra careful of how I'm making my guideline so I'm making the guideline about half an inch to an inch so how about say half an inch so again be extra careful because you do not want to cut off the hair at the bottom because he's trying to keep that so I am making it about half an inch make sure it's straight you guys make sure it is straight and so on this part we're gonna be closing our lever all the clothes just take out that bottom line so again be extra careful of what you put your blade at because you don't want to cut off that hair so I close my lever and then I'm gonna go halfway and then open so I play my levers a lot the more you cut the hair the more that you get the understanding of what the levers do so you want to how I do it I just go close first and then I go halfway to take out that the line I made with the clothes and then I go open and then you want to just fluctuate in between what those levers do it might take some time to do at first but when you keep cutting the repetition you get it down and it will just come natural so we have our number one guard here on our walls so we're gonna make another guideline about half an inch to an inch as you can see I'm flicking out because I don't want to make another hard line when I'm doing my guidelines because I say this all the time you guys I sound like a broken record now but when you make hard lines it's hard to take out so what I like to do is I make my line and then I flick out at the end so that way it's easy to take out and you have no problem you know I gotta take it higher and higher so there you guys go you know I'm saying you guys you're having some free game here young you know I'm saying but also want to let you guys know if you guys are new to this channel please feel free to subscribe you know I want to know what you guys how you guys came across my page or not my page my YouTube and if you guys and learn anything off my YouTube I just want to know you guys so yeah if you guys are new again feel free to subscribe so now we're gonna be going on to the zero guard on our walls I'm gonna be starting my lever all the way open to cut because so that way I can see what that what my guard is gonna do to the hair because some hair is a lot different than the others but when you do open it lines it up and then that way can go closed in halfway so I'm playing with my lovers again like I always tell you guys to do you want to go open halfway close just play with it always use the corners of your blade because that way you have more precision of where you cut like which hair to cut you know the thing about like a pencil and like that little little area you have more control on that you know little tip you know the pencil you know I'm saying but so use this like you're you're coloring somebody's hair or you know I mean I don't know how to really explain it but something like that so we'll be using our number one and a half guard just to line up that you know a little dark spot right there it's not really taking off chunks of hair but it is doing the job and making it lighter so one and a half right here guys so for the side taper we are using our walls and we make our first guideline about half an inch wide we're doing a high taper on him so we're doing the no hooks so the guideline half an inch make sure that it is straight and also make sure you flick out of where you want to stop your guideline so we have our one and a half guard here and the reason why I'm doing a one and a half here is you see that bulk on the side I want to get rid of it so I'm using the one and a half just to clear out the bulk on the side so that way I can see what I'm cutting I'm eventually gonna blend it out for some people you might think that oh man you're going way too high it's you're not gonna look right no everything will look right I'm just clearing out some hair so that way I can see what I am doing and so it's yeah so we have our clipper of a comb right here and this is why that's what I'm talking about I'm be clipping the hair that is sticking out so you want to keep your comb at a straight angle and you want to cut the hair that is poking out so when you keep your your comb straight and you put it up to the hair whatever sticking out that's what you cut it took me a long time to understand clipper of a comb but when you keep doing it over and over repetition it really it really kicks in and you've got to keep doing it over and over and over I mean I mean look at me I'm a pro so we have our one guard here now so I am basically it's not gonna do much because I did a one and a half you know to take off that bulk so it's not gonna really do much so what I'm doing I am using the corners they can see that right corner and I'm just flicking out what it's doing is lightening up I'm eventually gonna go in my zero guard and you know blend that thing out so as you see it is it is light and all you got to do is just take that zero guard just to take that little bottom line out and there you guys go so now we have our zero guard you guys are really gonna see what the zero guard is going to do for this taper it's gonna make the whole thing pop so I have my lever all the way open and then I'm using the corners just to get that little dark spot so I want to kind of be more precise of where what I'm cutting because it is a taper and tapers are mainly just phase on the side of your head on the on the temple area but you really got to make sure that it is you know precise in that location in area of the you know the hair or head as you guys can see look at this guys I am using the corners and look how blurry that looks that zero guard really made a big difference of this cut because it's just it's beautiful so I did use a one and a half guard again just you know so I can lighten that spot up and make it more blurrier there is still a little dark spots on top so again that's why I'm using the one and a half guard so here's a guard you guys never really seen me use it's a number two guard I'm using number two guards so because it is dark again on top so I'm just gonna be blending up but I also am using the corners because I don't want to make a hard line especially how crispy and blurry this taper looks so I don't want to mess up so I am using the corners just to take out some dark spots so we're going to be transitioning to the line up on the neck and around the ear I'm using my babyless liners to line up so the best way to line up behind the ear is you kind of want to follow the natural line you don't want to go too high back because that that loop or that little ear line up is going to look funky so you kind of want to keep it as low as possible kind of use the ear as like a tracer you know you want to cut around the ear so use that ear kind of as a tracer but just don't go too high guys and also use the corners to you know like a pencil again to line it up so on to the line up here the most important part of the haircut you guys so I'm starting from the middle and I'm working my way to the left and then the right it's important to start from the middle for me is because of that way you can start that first little line that first base and then so you don't got to worry about it being uneven on each side so work your way from the middle then the left and then to the right you guys so this video is about wrapped up you guys I thank you so much for watching my youtube videos it means a lot to me guys if you guys are new to the channel again please feel free to subscribe um my instagram is at the top left of the corner so you guys any answers feel free to hit me up and look how crispy this hair looks I'm out y'all take it easy later