Elgato has been helping gamers and broadcasters live out their dreams of being online stars with video capture hardware and software. Now it's adding a pair of new products to help streamers step up their game—the Elgato Green Screen and Cam Link.
Starting with the Green Screen, it's a collapsible chroma key panel that rolls up neatly into a rectangular case. It takes just a few seconds to pop it into place, giving you a wrinkle-free chroma-green surface so that you can more easily remove or replace the background with whatever footage or images you want. Imagine no longer having to worry about tidying up your room or studio.
The screen measures 148cm x 180cm (58.27 x 70.87 inches) when fully deployed, and collapses into a 148cm x 10cm x 11cm (64.76 x 4.13 x 4.53 inches) aluminum carrying case. It's a bit on the heavy side at 20.5 pounds, though still manageable when you want to take the show on the road (or into a different room). Check it out:
Elgato's other product entry, the Cam Link, is a USB camera link attachment that you connect to any high-powered HDMI camera as webcam source for programs such as XSplit. It offers real-time feedback and comes with the promise of low latency streaming in 1080p at 60 frames per second.
VentureBeat had a chance to test it out and says it works as advertised, though how well will ultimately depend on the camera. While most modern DSLRs can record high-quality video, some of them tend to overheat during longer sessions. That was the case when VentureBeat tested it with a Canon T4i—it automatically shut down after 30 minutes of streaming.
"A high-quality camera is a critical upgrade to any creator’s setup, but often comes at the cost of a complicated and cumbersome video workflow," said Julian Fest, General Manager of Elgato Gaming. "The arrival of Cam Link and Green Screen will kick off a new era of higher-quality visuals on YouTube, Twitch, and other platforms. These products will help content creators stand out by allowing them to experiment with creative production elements like chroma keying, wide angle and closeup shots, depth of field, and more."
You can preorder the Cam Link for $129 and the Green Screen for $149 now direct from Elgato or at Amazon. They will both be available August 18.
