PAX Australia is not just a haven for gamers, of any type, it is also a chance for tech lovers to go hands on with some of the latest and in some cases, brand new hardware. Razer were back again to PAX Australia, but this time, they had a larger booth and were showing off a range of devices.

While they recently announced the refresh of the Razer Blade Pro laptop, they did not have one around the booth, but they did however have the recent Blade laptops on hand, which were drawing crowds all through out the show. Each Blade was placed high up, with the mouse and keyboard options varying, ranging from the new Naga to the redesigned Blackadder, so players could experience different products.

Two areas that Razer were focusing on heavily though were the VR space, with the OSVR (Open Source Virtual Reality) and the Broadcaster space, giving players options to both.


What Razer are calling the Broadcaster Suite is actually a range of products, designed to help anyone who wants to stream games, do so with minimal fuss. First off there is the capture unit, Ripsaw, a simple and small unit that allows you to plug your console into it and record or stream your gameplay to a computer, once the software is installed you are good to go.

Of course, streaming games means you need to show yourself and you can do that with the Stargazer, perhaps one of the worlds most advanced webcams. Sitting atop the monitor, the camera is exceedingly low profile, which is probably a good thing, seeing as the amount of tech that is packed into that small space, is quite scary. With IntelSense packed in, it does a lot more than just views you, it tracks your eye movements, so you can learn where you are looking during a game, if you look away from the computer, it can actually lock your machine, keeping your information safe, just watch the video to see how the coolest feature, dynamic background works.



Of course, the final piece to any streaming or recording set up is a good microphone and Razer again delivered with the Seiren, a studio quality mic that not only provides crystal clear recording, it also looks great. Again, watch the video to see all of its features.



Mixing all that together takes a pretty beefy computer, but more importantly, it requires the right software and while you can use a program like XSplit, Razer have also released their own, Razer Cortex. With Cortex, you can manage each and every piece of your stream, from the size of your camera window, to the levels of your game audio, each part can be managed by yourself.

But as I stated above, Razer were also showing off OSVR, which is a new VR platform that makes it easy for anyone and I do mean anyone to get in on the action. While the units themselves are not ready for public sales, the developer kits are providing lots of options for makers, as each of the units can be changed, to suit whomever is using it.


Because the entire platform is open source, anyone who considers themselves a game maker can jump in and start building with it, heck any company that wants to release their own version of the headset can do that, including Xbox or Nintendo. While VR is still in its early days, there is no ceiling right now and with platforms like OSVR joining the action, things can only keep going up.

Razer have really shown themselves off at PAX Australia this year, the booth last year was small and forced, but this year it was almost three times the size and much more open. Giving players to sample products from their mice and keyboards, to their headphones and VR headsets, meant that no matter what your gaming style, there was something there for all.