Twenty20 Sets Sites on CE With Wearable Camcorder

By Greg Scoblete -- TWICE, 7/9/2007 7:14:00 AM

Seattle — Helmet camera maker Twenty20 has seen its models travel through mountains, rivers and racetracks and soon, the firm hopes, CE store shelves.

The action-sports-oriented company will launch a new video recorder this fall that integrates a rugged camera and SD card storage into a single wearable unit and will push to expand its distribution beyond the action sports channel into as a new category of “hands-free camcorders,” said founder Jason Green.

“We’re an established brand in major sports stores, but we’re looking to broaden beyond that niche because we think the other sports cameras on the market are basically kids’ products,” he said.

The camcorder can be mounted to a number of surfaces and records MPEG-4 VGA-resolution video at 30 fps to removable SD memory. It offers a lithium-ion battery with roughly two hours of recording life.

According to Twenty20, the camcorder uses hardware, not software, video encoding to offer improved video quality.

The retail launch will be supported with a free, interactive in-store display along with marketing and pre-sales support. The company also runs the Take20Video Web site where its camera owners can have their videos professionally edited.

The camcorder will retail for around $350, Green said.