Roland are tapping in to the leagues of vloggers and streamers using their phones with a plug and play broadcast studio.

Roland have announced the GO:LIVECAST, their first announcement for the Consumer Electronics Show – and we got this one early! They hope that with this simple looking box they can help streamers make their smartphone broadcasts more professional with ease.

The hardware and its accompanying app give streamers the power to easily mix their sound, play other media, even harness their inner radio DJ and trigger sound effects. It works simply by plugging into your smartphone and with a Plug-and-Play setup users can jump straight into using it.

There’s a built-in microphone that offers high quality sound to replace your phone’s mic. Plug in a pair of headphones and you can mix the sound on the fly to perfect the output you want and add reverb if you’re a singer or just want to add some dramatic effect.

If you want to make it really professional then the GO:LIVECAST features an XLR input for microphones. The input can be harnessed to add a stereo connection to instruments or other mixers for a total diversity in what you can stream to your viewers in high quality. Two simple knobs help you keep control of the volumes for your microphone and any media that’s playing.

With it’s simple interface users can share photos and videos and play music or sound effects at the tap of a button. Use the partner app to set up custom libraries of media that you can access at your fingertips. The app connects with Facebook Live, Twitch, YouTube, and others for a seamless streaming experience to the top sites.

The app also offers up camera filters that can soften the footage or smooth out skin. The GO:LIVECAST works with both the front and rear cameras, whichever suits the streamer best. A second camera can even be connected via Wi-Fi and selected via one-touch switching or add a split-screen view.

Last year Roland launched a sophisticated piece of kit aimed at live-streamers on the computers, called the VR-1HD. It was capable of a lot more but it also came at a $1,500 price tag. This simplified version for smartphones is much cheaper at just $249.99.

Roland’s GO:LIVECAST will be available later this month.