In the new age of gaming and streaming services, streamers are now the new rockstars. So if you want to jump on the hype, you will need serious accessories.
Honestly speaking, my history with streaming wasn't a really good one. But I am sure that you would be better than me, right? Either way, let's take a look at the equipment that you will need to become the next ... PewDiePie?Ninja?XQC.
Microphone
Ask any professional broadcasting person and they will definitely tell you that audio is way more important than video quality. Your viewers will flee from your broadcast if you have poor audio. For example, Cloverfield and all those shaky-cam films worked because the sound is much better than the awful video quality.
Using that as a compass, the built-in microphone in your gaming headset or on the laptop is just not enough. That built-in microphone is where the factory cut corners so its quality is pretty bad, you need a dedicated microphone. For my own setup, I use Blue Yeticaster. It is not only one of the stable these days for audio recording, but my model also has boom arm and shock mount which are perfect compliments.
Of course, these are still other options such as Blue Condenser and Razer Seriren X microphone, you can even leave out the boom arm to reduce the price tag.
Webcam
For a complete set of AV accessories, you will need to buy a webcam. If you intend to stream in a well-lit environment, any webcam on the market will get the job done. Light is the key for all the camera to function well. I know it is just too obvious, right? However, our eyes were evolved in a way that they can be tricked into believing in fake lighting level in a room.
I suggest the Razer Kiyo packs with comes with a light ring which will help light up your face for the stream. Notice that the video from the webcam is not as important as the gameplay video. If your stream room already has plenty of light. then a normal Logitech HD Pro is more than enough.
Surely, you could also skip the webcam if you want to stream without showing your appearance.
Stream Card
Currently, there are lots of online debates about the necessity of a stream card. But according to my prior experience, streaming is a really heavy computing task and the power from your CPU and graphics card is just not cut it, even after I tried to optimize my setup.
I should also mention that there are two types of streaming cards available on the market, external and internal one. We have some examples of internal one likes the Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro and the AVerMedia Live Gamer HD2 which you have to install inside your desktop PC. While external one like AVerMedia GL310 also works with laptops and consoles.
Controller
As a streamer, you will be both acts as the control room and the host. When streaming sometime you might have to switch between multiple stream settings during a gaming session. To deal you that you can get for yourself a good controller like Infinitton Smart Programmable Keypad or Elgato Stream Deck.
I highly recommend the Stream Deck because it is connected to Open Broadcaster Software and Elgato’s Game Capture - very good streaming programs. Moreover, you can also customize the buttons layout to do specific tasks like pause the webcam, start the stream, tweet out a link while remaining on your Livestream.
Also, I have to mention that good streaming equipment is not cheap. And there is nothing to guarantee that you could make your money back from your stream.
All the streamers that I know all said that - don't do it for the money. It's rare that people could make a living out of streaming. Even if you are saying that you do it for your love for games, it is not easy. And for the major part, streaming is like talking to yourself ... because that is exactly what you will do.