Roland’s new Go Livecast is a pretty fantastic little box for live-streaming with your iPhone. You can hook up microphones, use the companion app to do the streaming, and — get this — you can hook up a second iOS device and switch to its camera.

Let’s check it out.

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Roland Go Livecast

Style-wise, the Go Livecast resembles a 1980s-era office telephone, in a good way. It has inputs for a microphone (XLR) and a stereo line-in, plus a port for your iPhone or iPad. In addition, you can connect a second iOS device via Wi-Fi, and switch to its camera. The unit is powered over USB, and has a headphone jack port, and a built-in microphone.

So, for instance, a musician could connect a microphone, and hook up a drum machine. Then, they could use their iPad’s self-camera to present the vice, and point their iPhone down at the drum machine to do their demo. I’m just picking this example because I watch far too many drum machine videos on YouTube.

The from panel also has a bunch of buttons. These can switch between cameras, as well as triggering preset sounds.

The Livecast app

The other part of the setup is the Go Livecast app. This connects directly to Facebook Live, Twitch, YouTube, and “other major streaming services,” so you can stream with just the app (And the box, obviously). You can set up titles, theme music, and sound effects, and then trigger them using the hardware buttons. You can even show still images or videos in the background of your stream, and live chat to anyone who is watching.

The whole package looks pretty impressive, and a lot more useful than Roland’s Go Mixer. Right now, getting set up to record a video podcast, or to make a live stream, is a real juggling act. Being able to do it with just an iPhone and this portable, dedicated, box, is killer. You can also record your show offline, for further editing, and uploading later.

Available soon, $250.