Roland Unveils Bridge Cast One for Streamers

Roland has unveiled its latest innovation in the Bridge Cast series, the Bridge Cast One, aimed at enhancing the streaming and gaming experience for content creators. This new addition is designed to offer a streamlined and efficient interface for both gamers and streamers, featuring a range of controls and functionalities tailored to elevate live broadcasting quality.

The Bridge Cast One is a compact, desktop interface that integrates seamlessly into any setup with its minimalist design. Despite its small footprint, it offers robust features typically found in larger models such as the Bridge Cast and Bridge Cast X. The device includes dual bus mixes, a vocal transformer, fast-access presets, and compatibility with high-quality broadcast microphones and headphones. This design allows users to maintain a clutter-free desk while enjoying the full spectrum of Roland’s advanced audio capabilities.

One of the standout features of the Bridge Cast One is its onboard digital signal processing (DSP). This component offloads audio processing from the host computer, freeing up its resources for gaming and streaming tasks. This ensures that users can maintain peak performance in their games and streams without compromising audio quality.

The device supports separate sound mixes for personal monitoring and online streaming, a feature that enhances the customization of audio settings. Streamers can prioritize game audio and voice chat in their personal mix while adjusting the stream mix to engage viewers more effectively. The inclusion of an XLR input with a high-quality preamp further simplifies the setup by providing ample gain and switchable phantom power for condenser microphones, eliminating the need for additional amplification devices.

The Bridge Cast One’s interface is designed for ease of use, featuring a large control dial and five buttons, including a dedicated headphone level control. The dial allows users to switch between three different level control assignments, providing flexibility in managing audio settings. The three buttons located below the dial can be customized for various functions, while additional buttons offer quick access to the voice transformer and Game EQ settings.

Roland’s Bridge Cast app complements the Bridge Cast One by offering more advanced features for real-time control during streams. Through the app, users can fine-tune microphone settings, apply audio processing effects, adjust voice transformer parameters, and configure Game EQ presets. This added functionality empowers streamers to refine their audio output with greater precision and control.

The Bridge Cast One also supports 5.1 and 7.1 virtual surround sound, enhancing the immersive experience for headphone and stereo speaker users. This virtual surround sound capability is achieved via the USB connection, which enables computer audio to be converted into a multi-dimensional soundscape. Additionally, this feature will be available for the Bridge Cast and Bridge Cast X models through an upcoming firmware update.

For content creators seeking royalty-free music and sound effects, the Bridge Cast app’s BGM CAST extension provides a valuable resource. Users with a free Roland Account gain access to a selection of background music tracks and sound effects at no cost. By subscribing to the Roland Cloud Core membership through the app, users can unlock thousands of additional tracks and hundreds of sound effects, with new content added monthly.

Roland will showcase the Bridge Cast One at TwitchCon San Diego 2024, scheduled to take place from September 20 to 22 at the San Diego Convention Center. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience the new device firsthand at Roland’s dedicated booth, where they can explore its features and learn more about the Bridge Cast family of products.

The Bridge Cast One is now available in the U.S., priced at $179.99. This new offering from Roland represents a significant advancement in audio interface technology for streaming and gaming, combining ease of use with powerful audio capabilities to meet the needs of today’s content creators.