Pocket-lint has been following the Beamz Interactive Music System for some time - from its initial announcement in 2008, up to a hands-on with last year's model at CES 2010. Now we've managed to get some playtime with the latest version of the Beamz Player, the explosively titled C4, and we can firmly say that we've never had so much fun in a hotel suite full of men with beards...

The device, which hooks up to a PC, has different beams (get it) of light that, when broken, force the computer to perform an action; generally play a music clip or sample. Simple really. And there are several beams, plus a range of buttons, that can be assigned different sounds and so on.

Therefore, the Beamz Player can be used as a musical instrument, the like of which that Jean Michel Jarre would approve of, gaming controller, or, even, professional DJing tool.

Certainly, during our play as CES 2011, we were most keen on assigning famous dance music samples to each of the beams, swiping our hands over vocal clips like "pump up the volume" and "get up" in time to some phat beats (or, at least, that's what the kids call them, we're told).

On the Beamz website, thebeamz.com, there are plenty of software applications to download, including games and music tools, and some of them are even offered for free. Additional songs and clips can also be bought from the company's own music store.

The Beamz Player (C4) itself is available for around £199, generally from online music stores, such as djkit.com. It's certainly therapeutic, and you don't even need any musical training to get a decent vibe going.