The world’s largest home appliances/electronics exhibition, the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was held on January 8 - 11, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. HD-PLC Alliance marked its second year as an exhibitor following its participation in 2008. This was their first exhibition since HD-PLC format was approved as a baseline communication technology for PLC at IEEE in December of last year. Unique equipments and services based on HD-PLC format have steadily been introduced in the U.S. The show became a place to see how related industries and users are reacting to how HD-PLC will affect their businesses and home environments in the near future.

HD-PLC Makes TV More Fun, Convenient To Use

A total of 70 items from 44 companies developing businesses based on HD-PLC were displayed at the HD-PLC booth. Each company gave presentations at the main stage, as well as introducing a variety of HD-PLC based products at the exhibits under different themes such as ‘AV Streaming’, ‘Business Solution’, ‘Green Ubiquitous’ and ‘Home Control’.

At the main stage, in addition to the demonstration of the application of HD-PLC to Electric Vehicle as seen at “CEATEC JAPAN” in Japan in Fall 2008, a TV set with networking function was connected to a PLC adaptor to demonstrate how easily users can view websites on a TV screen. In particular, the demonstration of the HDMI-PLC converting adaptor by AudioVox Accessories Corporation. that simplifies the cable connection between Blu-ray players and TV sets attracted much interest from visitors.　For example, even if a flat screen TV and a Blu-ray player were placed in separate rooms, users can still enjoy Blu-ray movies on the TV screen. This maximizes the space-saving advantage of having a flat screen TV.

A similar HDMI-PLC converting adaptor by Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. and AverLogic Technologies, lnc., based on a technology called H.264 that facilitates compression of movies, on exhibit at the ‘AV Streaming’ display drew a lot of attention.

Real-Time Information ‘Digital Signage’ Attracts Big Crowd

The most popular exhibit at the ‘Business Solution’ corner was the prototype of the HD-PLC-compliant Digital Signage Player by AOpen Inc, as well as the USB transformers with a built-in PLC adaptor by Icron Technologies Corporation. and Heisei Electronics Co., Ltd. Digital Signage Player by AOpen is a ‘digital signage’ that shows advertising films on a display connected to it. What’s new is that it can display not only pre-loaded data but also real time information downloaded to it via HD-PLC. This means it can show news programs or the current stock information next to advertisements by dividing the screen into sections.

The USB transformers by Icron and Heisei are used to connect equipments that only have USB interfaces to connect to the network. At the exhibit, images taken by an USB camera were sent out through the HD-PLC network and were displayed on a PC.