VICREO

VICREO Hotkey Listener

A Companion module for controlling VICREO Hotkey Listener - enables remote keyboard automation and hotkey simulation for broadcast, live streaming, and production environments.

About

This module connects to the VICREO Listener application to send keyboard commands, hotkey combinations, and mouse actions to remote computers. VICREO Listener is a small program that sits on your machine waiting for incoming TCP connection/commands. It uses pre-defined commands to simulate key-presses on your machine. You can use this program to perform hotkey actions from remote.

Requirements

• VICREO Listener application installed on target machine
• Network connectivity between Companion and target machine
• For advanced features (mouse actions, shell commands, etc.), a VICREO license is required

Download VICREO Listener

Go to VICREO Listener for download.

Support

When you have an issue let me know at: https://github.com/bitfocus/companion-module-vicreo-hotkey/issues

Usage

Download and run the application on the remote computer (local is also possible). In companion, fill in the IP address of the remote computer or 127.0.0.1 if installed on the same machine.

From version 8.0.0 its possible to use the Bonjour service to find a listener on the network.

Check the build in presets!

SUPPORTED ACTIONS

• Single hotkey
• Special key (see keylist)
• Combination of keys

After this you would need a license. Go to VICREO Listener to get one.

• trio combination of keys
• quartet combination of keys
• Separate key press
• Separate key release
• MousePosition
• MouseClick
• MouseScrolling
• Send a string
• Send Shell command
• Open a file remotely
• Send key directly to a process
• Process watchdog (see below)

Keys

The following keys are supported:

Backspace Delete Enter Tab Esc Arrow up Arrow Down Arrow Right Arrow Left Home End Page Up Page Down F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 Command/Win Option/alt Control Shift Right-Shift Space(bar) Leftmouse Rightmouse

Check out the special keys !

Some functions might not work on different OS

Audio mute (toggle) Audio volume down Audio volume up Play Stop Pause Previous track Next track Numpad 0 Numpad 1 Numpad 2 Numpad 3 Numpad 4 Numpad 5 Numpad 6 Numpad 7 Numpad 8 Numpad Monitor brightness up Monitor brightness down Insert Keyboard light up Keyboard light down Printscreen

Open a file

Goto presets and drag-drop [Open Notepad]. This will give you the right example how to do this.

TIPS for MacOS

For mac, when you need the path of a file, right-click on the file and when you see the menu, press and hold Alt to be able to copy the full path.

When using Powerpoint for mac, you can program a goto slide via a process. Use the 'Send KeyPress To MacOS Process' action and fill the process name (in this case Microsoft Powerpoint, you can search for it in activity monitor on the mac) and select the desired key. For example ANSI_3. Then use a bit delay (30ms) on the same button for the ANSI_KeypadEnter.

When using file paths make sure you put " around the path, like: "filepath"

TIPS for Windows

For Windows, when you need to open a file, right-click on the file while pressing Shift, to be able to copy the full path. Leave it all as it is (wrong slashes and ") There is an example preset to open notepad.

Mouse Position and click

From version 4.0.10 upwards there is control over the mouse via position and a click (left, right, middle button, double click)

Process watchdog

Watch applications on the target machine and see on a button when one stops running or hangs. Windows and macOS only, and it needs a Pro license.

Setting it up. In the connection config, fill in Watch these processes with a comma separated list and set a check interval. Those processes are watched automatically, including after a reconnect. Use the process name as the machine knows it:

• Windows: the executable, e.g. chrome.exe, POWERPNT.EXE. The .exe is optional.
• macOS: the application name or bundle id, e.g. Keynote, Google Chrome, com.apple.Keynote.

You can also start and stop the watch from a button with the Subscribe to data action, choosing process state (watchdog). That replaces whatever the config set, for the rest of the session.

Variables. Each watched process gets four, with the name lowercased and punctuation turned into underscores, so chrome.exe becomes chrome_exe:

Variable	Value
$(vicreo-hotkey:process_chrome_exe_running)	true / false
$(vicreo-hotkey:process_chrome_exe_frontmost)	true / false
$(vicreo-hotkey:process_chrome_exe_responsive)	true / false / unknown
$(vicreo-hotkey:process_chrome_exe_pid)	process id

They go blank while the connection is down, so a button never shows a stale "running".

Feedback. Use Process state (watchdog) to style a button. Fill in the process name exactly as you watch it and pick the condition — "Process is NOT running" is the usual alarm. There are ready made buttons in the Watchdog preset category.

About "responsive". This asks the application whether its event loop still answers, which is how a frozen-but-running app is caught. It reports unknown when it genuinely cannot be established: a background process with no window, or on macOS an app that is not a normal windowed application. On macOS the Listener needs Accessibility permission for this, the same permission it already needs to send keystrokes. unknown never triggers the "hung" feedback.

Reporting. By default a report is only sent when something changes, so the network stays quiet. Tick "Report every interval" on the action if you want a message on every check. The interval is clamped to at least 1000 ms, and at most 20 processes can be watched at once.