A year ago, Roland’s Bridge Cast earned our Best Mixer Award at CES 2023. The company has now announced the Roland Bridge Cast X, the latest addition to the Bridge Cast family of products.
Bridge Cast X
The Roland Bridge Cast X is a powerful desktop interface and connection hub designed for livestreamers. With a comprehensive range of input and outputs, this means you can focus on creating content, rather than fussing with cables and different pieces of specialized gear. The device’s integrated design also simplifies your connections and reduces clutter in your workspace. In addition, the Bridge Cast X has a user-friendly control panel so you can execute actions in real time while streaming.
Connections
The Bridge Cast X has two USB-C ports and two HDMI inputs. It also has an HDMI Thru connector to connect to an external gaming monitor. This means that you can easily combine computers, gaming consoles and high-quality cameras for your live video workflow. In addition, the microphone has six assignable control pads to enhance your livestreams. You can use the control pads to trigger sound effects, background music, OBS commands and more.
Audio mixing
The Bridge Cast X includes all the audio connectivity and mixing features from the Bridge Cast Dual Bus Gaming Mixer. This means that you can connect a broadcast-quality XLR mic and headphones. There are also dedicated volume knobs and assignable buttons for muting sounds and accessing various functions. In addition, as the microphone is a dual bus mixer, you can create independent sound mixes for personal monitoring and online streaming. So your personal mix can prioritize game audio and voice chat, while you can optimize your livestream mix for maximum viewer engagement.
Bridge Cast app
When you use the Bridge Cast app, you can also unlock additional features. These include mic and audio processing, voice transformer settings, Game EQ presets and more. You can also re-assign hardware controls and save/recall configurations for different games and streaming audiences.
BGM Cast
BGM Cast is available on the Roland Cloud service. BGM Cast extends the AV tools in Bridge Cast X with direct access to a high-quality music library. You manage it all within the Bridge Cast app, so you don’t need third-party music services and complicated computer software setups. In addition, all tracks in BGM Cast are royalty-free, so you don’t need to worry about copyright strikes. You can sign up for a free Roland Account which gets you 36 background music tracks and 16 sound effects to use at no charge. However, Roland Cloud Core membership unlocks thousands of additional music tracks and hundreds of sound effects, with new selections added each month.
What we think
The Roland Bridge Cast X adds video to the great audio mixing features of last year’s Best Mixer award winner. Whether you are into online gaming, podcasting, vlogging or other video content, the Bridge Cast X will simplify your setup and help to improve your content. In addition, the device’s multiple USB-C, HDMI and audio ports mean that you can keep all your kit connected and won’t need to reconfigure between different streaming scenarios. If you want to take your live streaming to the next level, the Roland Bridge Cast X could help you get there.
Pricing and availability
The Roland Bridge Cast X will be available in February 2024. It will retail at $499.
