First Look: Blue Microphones Eyeball

Last week I got the opportunity to get out of the office and head down to beautiful Boca Raton Florida for a retailing conference. While I was there I got the opportunity to check out a ton of new products and services that are either new or coming to market.

One product that caught my eye (no pun intended) was the Eyeball from Blue Microphones. Unless you’re a studio musician or into voice recording you’ve probably never heard of Blue Microphones. After all, they’re best known for making high-end microphones for likes of Cold Play.

I’m no lead singer, but I do use many VoIP soft clients throughout the day. So when I found out that they had an HD voice and video webcam, I was excited to get my hands on it.

Lucky for me, the great guys over at Blue Microphones stuck a demo unit in my bag. Unfortunately I’ve yet to play with the Eyeball (more on that when the review hits later this week), but from what I saw down in Boca, the Eyeball touts:

• A very cool retro design
• HD voice
• HD video with performance up to 30fps
• Ultra portability through an integrated stand and case
• Easy mounting

The Blue Microphones Eyeball has a MSRP of $139.99, so it’s definitely more expensive than your run-of-the-mill webcam. Considering the promise of HD voice and video there might be a case.

But will HD voice and HD video all wrapped into a slick retro wrapper be enough to turn me into a voice and audio snob? Check back later this week for the answer (and a full product review)!