News

HomePlug AV Specification Approved by Alliance Board (24/8/2005)

Targeting Digital Entertainment Networks in the Home, the World's Fastest Industry-Standard for Powerline Communications Will Revolutionize Home Connectivity

The HomePlug(R) Powerline Alliance today announced that its specification for HomePlug AV, the highly-anticipated, easy-to-use global powerline communications technology for creating an instant connected home ecosystem, has been finalized and approved unanimously by the Board of Directors of the Alliance.

HomePlug AV technology will revolutionize the way that consumers and service providers think about distributing multimedia entertainment content. HomePlug AV delivers a standards-based connectivity solution enabling simultaneous HD and SD video distribution, whole-house audio, VoIP traffic management and data networking. HomePlug AV delivers this level of performance while providing a stable, robust, secure and easy to use broadband backbone topology in homes on a global basis. For example, with HomePlug AV capability designed into consumer products (such as TVs, audio equipment, computers, and networking gear), a high-definition television show or movie from a PC, PVR or set top box can be viewed on any television in a home - all without running new wiring. This is because HomePlug AV uses the power lines already installed in a home as a path to transmit digital data between devices. HomePlug AV will be an important enabling technology for IPTV and triple play applications.

"This is a remarkable achievement for the Alliance," said Pete Griffin, chairman of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and Radio Shack's director of corporate technology. "This is a breakthrough technology eagerly anticipated by the consumer marketplace. HomePlug AV will change the face of the digitally connected home. It is the first multi-media distribution technology that makes multimedia home networking as easy as plugging an appliance in a power outlet."

HomePlug AV technology was built with contributions from companies worldwide that worked as part of the alliance's specification working group (SWG). The SWG further developed a baseline technology that was based on contributions submitted by Arkados, Conexant, Intellon and Sharp. The release of the specification comes nearly three years after the effort was initiated and is the result of a rigorous process that set market requirements, selected and tested competitive technologies from a field of international proponents, and managed intellectual property issues surrounding the licensing of the technology. HomePlug AV surpasses the market requirements identified in the original Marketing Requirement Document (MRD).

"We need to recognize the extraordinary level of cooperation that went into the realization of this technology," said Oleg Logvinov, president of the alliance and president and CEO of Arkados, Inc. "It was important to the alliance that we paid close attention to the input of the many constituencies in the connected home ecosystem: service providers, consumer electronics manufacturers, computer and networking companies, utility companies, and even hotel and apartment building owners. With that input, the HomePlug team was able to construct a technology that is the fastest and most robust in the world. So many exciting applications for the technology are being invented every day."

HomePlug AV follows in the footsteps of HomePlug 1.0, a technology utilized in millions of products used worldwide. Although HomePlug 1.0 has plenty of speed to share Internet access and audio throughout a home, HomePlug AV technology offers increased multimedia performance, allowing multiple HD and SD video streams to be distributed throughout a house, delivery of whole-house audio, management of VoIP traffic, and finally, data networking. The advanced Physical Layer (PHY) offers near theoretical channel capacity throughput and exceptional coverage around the home.

Consumer electronics platform manufacturers will value the high-efficiency MAC layer, which incorporates both scheduled access (TDMA) with Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees, and contention access (CSMA) capabilities. Multi-media content distribution applications will take advantage of the sophisticated guaranteed bandwidth reservation function, tight control of latency and jitter, and high reliability.

Service Providers will appreciate the technology's Advanced Network Management functions and facilities, capable of supporting plug-and-play (PnP), user and service provider set-up and configuration. Additionally, co-existence modes enable Broadband over Powerline (BPL) co-existence and interoperability, multi-network operation, hidden node service, and backward compatibility with HomePlug 1.0 devices.

"The HomePlug AV specification is the result of unprecedented cooperative innovation by a combination of global companies, each bringing their own core competencies to the table," said Larry Yonge, vice president of research and development for Intellon Corporation and chair of the HomePlug Technical Working Group (TWG). "The resulting technology is a best-of-class solution for in-the-home provisioning of rich multimedia content, with the ability to scale as applications demand ever higher performance."

The alliance will present the details of HomePlug AV technology at this year's HomePlug conference with the theme "Proven Worldwide Standards." The HomePlug Powerline Technology Conference will be held September 27-28, 2005, at the Embassy Suites at the San Francisco Airport.

All interested parties are invited to join the HomePlug Powerline Alliance and contribute to the development of its specifications and broaden the growing list of applications.

www.homeplug.org