Two new products for budding streamers and professional creators alike are on the way from Elgato. The company has announced some light strips, which really are just RGB LED light strips, and some fancy foam panels to reduce echo and improve room acoustics. And we all know that effective sound dampening is next to godliness.
So let's start off with those first, the Elgato Wave Panels. These are effectively fancy versions of these foam panels, or many just like them, that you'll find used by anyone kind enough to treat their walls for their listeners' pleasure.
A wall of foam is a pretty popular approach to prevent sound bouncing around a room. That or thick curtains. A decent sound environment is one aspect of audio that's often neglected a little, too. Mostly in favour of fancy, expensive microphones.
Elgato says its Wave Panels feature both low-density ripple foam on the outside and high-density materials on the inside and a concealed air pocket to further prevent high and low frequency sounds from reflecting around a room.
But as Elgato admits, these are also just as much about looking the part.
To that end, the Wave Panels are also available in multiple colours, and feature a hexagonal shape so you can make your own designs—almost like an acoustic alternative to Nanoleaf.
Just bear in mind that, whatever shape you choose for your panels, anything less than full coverage in the right places, such as in front of where you're speaking, will be less than ideal. There is science to placing foam to benefit your audio setup, after all, more so than merely picking and choosing what looks best.
If you really want to feel the benefit, you'll want to maximise surface area with stacks upon stacks of foam, such as in a anechoic chamber. That's a bit creepy, though.
And perhaps pricey, as one kit of six Wave Panels will set you back $100 (£120).
The Elgato Light Strip comes in at $60 (£60), and will likely come as good news to anyone that hopes to keep their RGB lighting setup within the Elgato family and controllable via the Stream Deck.
These light strips are fully dimmable, output up to 2,000 lumens, and can be controlled via a free bundled app if you're not into that whole ecosystem thing.
Both products are now available worldwide.
Oh, and there's also this green screen mouse mat, but I hold that our very own Jorge came up with that idea first.
