Distributor Touchline Video claims to have finally found a videoconferencing vendor that can take the channel by storm, after signing a partnership with Avistar.

Avistar has appointed Touchline to distribute its C3 desktop videoconferencing system to the audiovisual channel.

Barry Cross, managing director of Touchline, said: “Desktop conferencing has been around for ages and I have seen it all, from the old BT systems to Visual Nexus. But this, finally, is an accessible, quality product. It is easy to install and manage and I am confident it will sell well.”

Darren Innes, general manager for worldwide sales at Avistar, said: “Touchline has got a reputation for quality brands like Lifesize. And it has got a good reputation for support.”

Until recently Avistar sold direct to the financial services sector.

“You learn to deliver quality when you deal with those people,” said Innes. “Now we want to bring a proven product to a wider mass market.”

Cross explained the main appeal of this technology could be its simplicity.

“For £100 you can get a high definition camera and a good headset. Then installing the codec is easy,” he said.