I have been fascinated by communications as long as I can remember. My earlies memory is probably working out a way I could connect rolled up newspaper as tubes to my neighbour’s house and chat at night to my friend next door from our bedrooms.
And of course in later ages I went through the CB radio phase, and a strong memory was making my very first phone call from my car with one of those new fangled car phone things.
I was in awe that people walking on the moon could chat to colleagues back in Houston, and in my days running the Tandy Computer Centre in Subiaco in Western Australia, I was almost fizzingwith excitement when I saw live, the text of a journo, transmitted to the world via 300 baud modem and a pilot system called The Source whilst embedded in with the Israelis in one of their interminable wars.
What followed of course came in leaps and bounds from Viatel to Compuserve to the Microsoft Network and finally, the Internet.
But it never ceases to excite me when I see something new, or a really good variation on an old system, and Aussie company RØDE in conjunction with Vortex Communications has done just that using its RØDECaster Pro II and Duo systems.
In essence, they have modifed the firmware in the latest beta version to allow through- the-internet communication live from RØDECaster to RØDECaster or RØDECaster to browser. RØDE calls this system RØDE CallMe.
Various sliders and buttons etc of the RØDECaster can be tied to operations in the firmware, thus greatly expanding the RØDECaster functionality in a way that is so obvious I am surprised it hasn’t been done before.
For starters, this is a boon to podcasters and producers who have remote guests as it takes out the variables of using a phone and Bluetooth connectivity, but the possibilities are endless for many other creators and professionals in broadcast too.
There are three tiers of use with the base version being a freebie and giving a single channel of communication (activated by a code unique to your RØDECaster), a mid level system and a pro system, both with pricing and offering different levels of connectivity – all explained in this video below.
If you have a RØDECaster II or RØDECaster Duo, take a look. I think you’ll be impressed.