Jan 13, 2011 21:11 GMT  ·  By

Given the fact that the popularity enjoyed by the Skype VoIP service (in either its audio-only or audio and video variants) has increased quite a lot over the past few years (and especially at CES 2011, where plenty of Skype-enabled products have been officially introduced), faceVsion, a traditional manufacturer of videoconferencing equipment, has recently introduced the TouchCam V1 720p HD VideoCam, offering quite a few interesting features at a very affordable price point.

Closely related to the TouchCam N1 model, the TouchCam V1 720p HD VideoCam comes equipped with a wide-angle lens and built-in hardware H.264 video encoding that provides 720p video even over an Internet connection featuring an unimpressive 1.2Mbit/sec bandwidth.

Moreover, beside being Skype-certified, this accessory will also work with other online conferencing applications, such as Cisco WebEx and GoToMeeting.com.

"Consumers and businesses are clamoring for lower cost HD video cameras for both desktop videoconferencing and casual video calls," said Ping Liu, President of faceVsion Technology USA.

"faceVsion was there with one of the first Skype Certified HD video cameras and introduced the TouchCam N1 last year at CES. Now we're here with the new low-cost TouchCam V1 to satisfy our customers' requests for lower cost cameras that won't sacrifice video quality," the company's President continued.

"Skype is proud of our continued collaboration with faceVsion to develop a new high-definition webcam optimized for Skype video calling," said Manrique Brenes, director of business development for Skype, adding that "partners like faceVsion allow our growing community of users worldwide to seamlessly transition into HD video calling, bringing them even closer to the ones they care about through a richer, more meaningful video calling experience."

The faceVsion TouchCam V1 will start selling in Q1, 2011, and, as mentioned before, has quite an affordable price point, of just around 70 US dollars.