Elgato is a brand of consumer technology products. The brand was manufactured and designed by
Elgato Systems
Eve Systems GmbH (branded as Eve and formerly called Elgato Systems GmbH) is a German smart home and home automation producer founded on June 27, 2018. The brand originally existed as a line of smart home products manufactured by Elgato Systems ...
, founded in 2010 by Markus Fest and was headquartered in
Munich, Germany
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, until 2018 when the brand was sold to
Corsair
A corsair is a privateer or pirate, especially:
* Barbary corsair, Ottoman and Berber pirates and privateers operating from North Africa
* French corsairs, privateers operating on behalf of the French crown
Corsair may also refer to:
Arts and ...
.
History
The brand, Elgato, was formerly a brand of
Elgato Systems
Eve Systems GmbH (branded as Eve and formerly called Elgato Systems GmbH) is a German smart home and home automation producer founded on June 27, 2018. The brand originally existed as a line of smart home products manufactured by Elgato Systems ...
. The Elgato brand was used to refer to the company gaming and thunderbolt devices and was commonly called Elgato Gaming.
On June 28, 2018,
Corsair
A corsair is a privateer or pirate, especially:
* Barbary corsair, Ottoman and Berber pirates and privateers operating from North Africa
* French corsairs, privateers operating on behalf of the French crown
Corsair may also refer to:
Arts and ...
acquired the Elgato brand from Elgato Systems, while Elgato Systems kept their smart home division and renamed the company to
Eve Systems
Eve Systems GmbH (branded as Eve and formerly called Elgato Systems GmbH) is a German smart home and home automation producer founded on June 27, 2018. The brand originally existed as a line of smart home products manufactured by Elgato Systems, ...
.
Products
Thunderbolt dock
Elgato introduced a
Thunderbolt
A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hell ...
docking station
In computing, a docking station or port replicator (hub) or dock provides a simplified way to ''plug-in'' a mobile device, such as a laptop, to common peripherals. Because a wide range of dockable devices—from mobile phones to wireless mouseâ ...
in June 2014. A computer is plugged into the dock using a Thunderbolt port in order to gain access to the dock's three USB ports, audio jacks, HDMI and ethernet. It is typically used to plug a Macbook into an office setting (printer, monitor, keyboard) or to provide additional ports not available in the MacBook Air.
A review in ''The Register'' said it was compact and useful, but Windows users should consider a USB 3.0 dock.
''The Register'' and CNET disagreed on whether it was competitively priced.
Reviews in TechRadar and Macworld gave it 4 out of 5 stars.
Thunderbolt SSD
Elgato introduced two external solid-state drives in September 2012 called Thunderbolt Drive. Benchmark tests by MacWorld and Tom's Hardware said that the hard drive was slower than other products they tested, despite being connected through a faster Thunderbolt port, rather than Firewire. The following year, in 2013, Elgato replaced them with similar drives identified as "Thunderbolt Drive +", which added USB 3.0 support and was claimed to be faster than the previous iteration. A CNET review of a Thunderbolt Drive+ drive gave it a 4.5 out of 5 star rating. It said the drive was "blazing fast" and "the most portable drive to date" but was also expensive. An article in ''The Register'' explained that the original drives introduced in 2012 didn't perform well in benchmark tests, but the newer "plus" version had impressive speed results during testing.
Game Capturing
Game Capture HD, which connects to gaming consoles to record gameplay, was introduced in 2012. It was created in response to gamers that were hacking EyeTV products for gameplay recording. The device connects between a gaming console and the TV and is powered by a USB connection. It captures video as the console sends it to the television, compresses and stores it.
A review in iPhone Life gave it 4 out of 5 stars and noted that it could also be used to record iPad games with the right setup.
In October 2014 Elgato released a new version called HD 60. It recorded in 60 frames per second and 1080p high definition video (compared to the previous Game Capture HD's 1080p30 or 720p60), whereas typical low-end video game recording devices capture in 720p and 30 frames per second. ''The Telegraph'' gave it four out of five stars. A review in Gizmodo said that it captured extremely high-quality footage, but it may be higher-end than needed for many gamers that would be satisfied with the recording features built into the console.
Stream Deck
The Stream Deck is a customizable control pad, which can act as a programmable keyboard that lets the user create their own macros. It is designed to serve as a
video game live streaming
The live streaming of video games is an activity where people broadcast themselves playing games to a live audience online. The practice became popular in the mid-2010s on the US-based site Twitch, before growing to YouTube, Facebook, China-bas ...
control device for
online streamer
An online streamer or live streamer is a person who broadcasts themselves online through a live stream to an audience.
History
Streaming arose in the early 2010s, originating on sites like YouTube where users could upload videos of themselves i ...
s. Each button is an LCD screen which can be customized, and mapped to specific functions like 'Open Program' or 'Mute Microphone', or perform multiple actions at once.
Elgato has released multiple products under the Stream Deck name. Starting with the original Stream Deck on March 23rd, 2017 with 15 buttons, but continuing with the release of the Stream Deck Mini on July 24th, 2018.
Featuring only 6 buttons and no stand the Stream Deck Mini would target a lower price point with all the same software features of the original Stream Deck.
On May 28th, 2019 Elgato would release the Stream Deck XL, a larger more expensive Stream Deck featuring 32 buttons and a magnetically attached removable stand, and the Stream Deck mobile app which presented 15 buttons on the users phone via an Android and IOS app wirelessly connected to their PC. Both the Stream Deck XL and Stream Deck mobile app connected to the same software used by the original Stream Deck and Stream Deck Mini, with all of the same features. In July, 2021 Elgato released an updated version of the original Stream Deck called the Stream Deck Mk.2. It featured the same 15 customizable buttons, a magnetically attached removable stand like the Stream Deck XL, and a removable face plate.
Departing from Stream Deck's normal desktop format in January, 2022 Elgato released the Stream Deck Pedal, a device designed to be operated by the user's feet with three buttons, adjustable tension on each button, and no displays.
Green Screens
Elgato offers a collapsible, ceiling-hung
green screen
Chroma key compositing, or chroma keying, is a visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images or video streams together based on colour hues ( chroma range). The technique has been used in many fields to r ...
. It is most commonly used by content creators on platforms like
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
or
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...
.
Video Lights
The Key Light and the Key Light Air are two models of video lights produced by Elgato. The Key Light Air is a lower budget, less powerful version of the Key Light. The Key Light has a maximum brightness of 2800
Lumens, while the Key Light Air is half as bright at 1400 Lumens.
Elgato also offers the Ring Light, which differs from the Key Light in that it is circular rather than rectangular, and features physical controls, while the Key Light and Key Light Air are controlled via app.
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Official website
Digital video recorders
Consumer electronics brands