Buttons v1.8 is a huge release! Route signals across multiple devices, keep tally in step with your setup, and get more control over NMOS, buttons, and workflows.
Performance
Overall much better performance. Large routing setups should feel better in day-to-day use: the Routing UI is more responsive, and route dispatch is faster on busy systems. Large workflows stay responsive while you edit and move nodes.
Tally Management
Tally that keeps up with your show. Labels and tally lights follow the signal wherever it's routed, so what operators see on the multiviewer is always right. Bring in tally from your switcher, TSL, or anything else Buttons knows about, and send it to any UMD or display. Available on Pro and Enterprise plans.
Role Sections
One panel, the right controls for everyone. Build a view for each role in the same panel, and let an NFC card, a PIN or SSO decide what each person gets. The director, the camera operator and the audio engineer walk up to the same surface and see exactly what they need. Everything lives in one place, so it's easy to keep up to date.
Custom Router Section
Build the routing panel your operators actually want. Pick the sources and destinations they need, put them where they make sense, and decide how a route is taken. Combine it with any folders, popovers or shared sections you like. Nothing extra, nothing missing.
Tieline Management
Route across several routers as if they were one. Pick a source and a destination, and Buttons finds a free path between your routers and takes it. It even bridges baseband and SMPTE ST 2110 automatically, routing between SDI routers and NMOS devices in a single take. When the production is over, release everything in one go.
NMOS in one place
Run a built-in NMOS Registry and see senders, receivers, and multicast allocations in the NMOS inventory.
On Pro and Enterprise plans, Multicast Address Management can assign addresses to NMOS senders based on stream type. You can also set an address manually when a sender needs a specific one.
Virtual Routing
Let operators route Camera 1, not a list of ports. One take moves picture and audio together. Go bigger and patch a complete studio to a PCR in one go, with return feeds sent back safely. And when the hardware behind it changes, your panels and presets keep working as before.
More to explore
Surfaces and workflows
Connect compatible third-party control surfaces through an authenticated WebSocket interface. Buttons can discover and adopt them, then send layouts and button images. This requires a paid license. You can also rotate supported surfaces to match how they're mounted; position layouts follow the selected orientation.
Workflows gain Countdown, Stopwatch, HTTP Request, HTTP Query, Workflow Action, Value Mapping. Custom Workflow Actions can also be triggered from buttons.
An external automation system can take a route, execute a routing preset, or advance a cuelist without opening the Buttons UI. It can also read the active source for a destination, set workflow and position variables, and enable or disable workflows, connections, and surfaces.
Give each integration its own API key and grant only the permissions it needs.
Backups
Standalone installations can schedule local backups. You can inspect and restore saved backups or import one through the UI.
Workflows
Added Countdown and Stopwatch workflow nodes with start, pause, reset, editable time, and countdown looping controls.
Added HTTP Query and HTTP Request nodes.
Added preview of the nodes when hovering the nodes in the Node Pool, and better visuals of unsaved changes.
Companion / Modules
Added basic Companion module API 2.0 and 2.1 support for compatibility with newer connection modules.
Enhancements
There are lots of performance improvements and fixes across the board. Here are some of them:
Routing & Devices
Improved the behavior of some routing modules, like Videohub, SWP08
Improved surface responsiveness on slow or congested devices by preventing stale frame updates from building up, with more reliable reconnection for Stream Deck Studio/Cora, Densitron, and iPad surfaces.
Added USB Relay to the Add Surface dialog and improved Linux USB hotplug detection.
Improved position and cuelist navigation with cursor-centered zooming and wheel panning, and made the editor Back button follow visited folder history like a physical surface.
Improved workflow-editor performance and toolbar accessibility.
Reliability & Installers
Improved backup restore and import with metadata previews, progress reporting, and clearer reconnect messaging during planned restarts.
Added live password-requirement guidance and dashboard warnings for incompatible browsers.
Improved Windows and macOS installers by detecting a running Buttons application before upgrades.
Patch notes
1.8.3:
Fixes the Buttons is unavailable dialog randomly showing up on rare occasions
