Network through your AC power line

[Roger]

Consumer electronics devices that need to send and receive data to each other have found a permanent home inside our homes. Whether we're using computers, routers, VoIP phones or digital audio and video equipment we need to hook them all up to other devices. A consumer electronics consortium has been working on ways to send digital information through our AC power lines. The HomePlug Alliance is picking up steam with members from all over the electronics industry including Sony, Samsung, Intel, Motorola, Comcast, Linksys, Sharp and many more. A high speed networking over AC power lines demonstration will be put on by the HomePlug Alliance at Microsoft's Hardware Engineering Conference, WinHEC '06.

Any digital information is fair game for the specifications being developed by HomePlug. This includes audio, video and especially home networking and internet connections. If perfected the technology stands to be a valuable convenience since nearly everything electronic gets plugged into the wall and a hard wired connection is more reliable and faster than today's wireless.

But, the idea isn't so revolutionary. Today there are a number of consumer electronics devices already using this technology albeit to mixed reviews. Probably the best implementation so far was a high profile product unveiled at CES '06 last January Marantz's DAvED / Digital Audio via Electrical Distribution featuring PLC (Power Line Carrier) technology.

DAvED allows multi-room audio transmission from Marantz's ZR6001 A/V receiver and it's picked up through a special client "boombox" device. An audio source playing back to the receiver such as a CD is transmitted through your household AC power circuit. This music is collected by the client, a portable stereo. When the client is plugged into the wall anywhere in your house including an outdoor plug, it'll playback the audio being streamed from the receiver.

Radio Shack also sells products by Accurian that do basically the same thing. Accurian's product is basically a wall outlet transmitter and a set of powered speakers. These are admittedly clumsy first steps into a larger possibility of flawless high speed digital communications through AC. The reviews aren't exactly stellar. Some reviews found online complained of interference from any fast switching devices plugged into the same circuit. In other words it's possible you'll hear the air conditioner kick on through devices that use the slower HomePlug 1.0 standard. There is a new HomePlug AV spec that promises greater speeds for high performance and limited interference.

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