Streamers often interrupt their broadcasts to respond to new subscribers, donations and messages from their audience. But it seems like Razer thought those interruptions weren't enough, because the company today announced the Seiren Emote microphone, which features a built-in display used to show pixellated emoticons.
Razer said the Seiren Emote is "the world's first professional-grade microphone featuring an emoticon display," and that it "synchronizes the emoticons displayed on the microphone to on-stream events." That syncing occurs via the new Emote Engine in the Streamer Companion App for Windows.
That app can be used to decide which emoticons are shown on the 8 x 8 panel display when certain things happen on-stream. Razer said it offers "more than 100 static or animated preset emoticons" with the app. Streamers can make their own emoticons, too, with an editing tool built into the Streamer Companion App.
Speaking of the microphone: Razer said the Seiren Emote "utilizes a hyper-cardioid pickup pattern" that's supposed to better reduce background noise than its non-hyper counterpart. It has a built-in shock mount, too, that can muffle contact with the mic's stand. An interchangeable gooseneck (non-biological) allows the microphone's height to be customized.
The big question, of course, is if this will catch on with streamers rather than existing tools to respond to streaming audiences, including overlays and other special effects. This is certainly a creative effort, but we'll have to see if streamers take to it.
Razer said the Seiren Emote is available now from its online store for $180; it's expected to be available from resellers in the fourth quarter of 2019. More information about the microphone can be found on the company's website.
