Walking into the exhibit halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center, no one could miss the HomePlug TechZone at CES 2010. At over 20-feet tall and barely squeezing into one thousand square feet of floor space, it dominated the portal to the South Hall and was chock full of new HomePlug-certified products from more companies than you can shake an extension cord at.Sponsored by six HomePlug product companies Asoka, GigaFast, Plaster Networks, Russound, Tatung, and six HomePlug semiconductor providers Arkados, Atheros, Coppergate (a Sigma Designs Company), Gigle Networks, SPiDCOM, and STMicroelectronics, the TechZone demonstrations included HDTV distribution, whole-house audio systems, WiFi extensions, videogame connectivity, surveillance, in-home displays, smart meters and smart grid solutions – even some that combined Zigbee and HomePlug Smart Energy technologies (courtesy of JetLun).
The clear market leader in powerline communications (as of January, over 40 million HomePlug products have been sold), products containing HomePlug technology from brand names such as Aztech, Belkin, Checkolite, devolo AG, Linksys by Cisco, Monster Cable, NetGear, Sling Media, Solwise, and Zyxel filled six tall display cases that framed the pavilion.Besides a giant display, the HomePlug alliance also made some giant announcements:
- The IEEE 1901 Draft Standard for Powerline Communications was published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (the same folks who brought you the wireless 802.11 standards). Historically, IEEE’s open standards dramatically boost the adoption rate of new technologies.
- HomePlug’s new liaison agreement with the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) paves the way to help service providers feel comfortable that reliable high-speed wired connectivity is available via any wire in the home.
- Continuing with theSmart Energy focus, the HomePlug alliance announced that the HomePlug GP (“Green PHY”) Specification for Smart Grid Applications will be available for implementation in 1Q/2010. Fully interoperable with both HomePlug AV and HomePlug AV2 products, the HomePlug alliance expects to begin certifying chips and products in early 2011.
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