Buttons v1.8

Published on October 2, 2026

Product UpdatesRelease NotesButtonsv1.8

Release Notes & New Features

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.

Control API

The Control API lets you operate Buttons programmatically. Its documentation is available here.

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 NMOS endpoint health, failover, recovery, status reporting, sender SDP visibility.
Big performance improvements in the “Routing UI”

Surfaces & Editor

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.

Bitfocus wins IBC2026 Best of Show Award for latest Buttons enhancements

Version 1.8 recognised for new workflow tools, boosted control panel flexibility and ease of integration into IP networks

Press Releases · 10 Sept 2026

Biggest functionality boost yet makes Buttons the perfect platform for broadcast and media management

Version 1.8 will bring advanced routing control, new workflow tools, boosted control panel flexibility and ease of integration into IP networks