Introducing video calling in the living room with new Logitech TV Cam and Google TV

So now that you’ve heard about Logitech Revue with Google TV, I’m excited to tell you more about a major milestone in delivering on our promise to bring HD video calling to anyone, anywhere, on any connected screen. As part of the Logitech Revue experience, we will bring HD video calling to the living room with the Logitech TV Cam – a camera specifically designed for the living room – and Logitech Vid, a free and easy HD video calling service that will come as a pre-installed app on Logitech Revue.

Logitech TV Cam will be fully integrated with Google TV, enabling you to visit long distance with friends and family from the comfort of your couch by making a Logitech Vid HD call to someone on another Logitech Revue, or on a PC or Mac as Vid HD is available for free for everyone – download it here. If you are familiar with our webcams, you know that we are relentlessly detail-oriented when it comes to delivering the best possible experience and the highest quality video for our customers. We’ve taken that passion for video and poured it into the Logitech TV Cam.

Check out the video below of Glen Kuo, global product marketing manager, as he shares all the cool new features of Logitech TV Cam and the Vid app for Google TV.

By bringing HD video calling to the living room, we are taking a huge leap toward our vision of a world where HD video communication is as mainstream, simple, and seamless as a phone call. Since the living room is a much more comfortable and natural place for families and friends to gather, we believe that bringing video calling to the best and biggest screen in the house – your HDTV – will drive consumer adoption far beyond what we’ve seen on the PC.

When you’ve experienced raw emotional connections – such as seeing your newborn grandchild, or your long distance loved one – there is no turning back. According to the AARP (PDF), approximately 50 percent of grandparents live over 200 miles away from their grandchildren. We believe video calling in the living room will bring families closer together in a way that’s second best to being there in person.

One of the features I’m really excited about that will be ready at launch is Google TV’s dual-view mode, which enables you to do a Vid HD call with your friends or family while watching TV simultaneously – so no need to pause the game when dad calls. And with the Android market for Google TV opening up next year, you can only imagine the use-cases that could be enabled…like playing chess with grandma, live streaming mom’s 50th birthday party for long distance relatives, not to mention the new industries it could drive like telemedicine, telefitness, and distance learning. But what I’m most excited about is all the use cases we haven’t thought of yet – what new experiences do you think video calling integrated with Google TV will enable? Leave a comment with your thoughts.

Author

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Logitech for Business @EricKintz

8 comments

  • Wow. I just love to hear about Logitech Revue. One of the good sources of info about Logitech Revue is
    Logitech Revue Live News Updates
    which gives all real-time updates from yahoo, google, bing, Icerocket, Techmeme, twitter n don’t know what others but its good site to get current updates from single place. A must visit.

    • Hi kiatlc,

      You are right that the Logitech TV Cam and Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 share a similar design, however the TV Cam is bigger and designed to work with the Logitech Revue with Google TV on your HDTV.

      Best,
      Eric

  • At this time, the Logitech TV Cam is compatible with the Logitech Vid app that comes pre-installed on Logitech Revue with Google TV. We have not yet announced compatibility with other Google TV offerings.

  • Looking for a video-call solution for my increasingly hard of hearing Mother … is there already
    a solution for typing text utilizing Google TV’s dual-view mode ? That would work for me since there is a need to be able to type a word or phrase to her when my side of the the conversation
    gets stuck .

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