The 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s largest trade show of home appliances/electronics, was held in January, 2009 in the U.S. Exhibits by communications and audio-visual related manufacturers drew the most attention from participants.

The HD-PLC Alliance exhibit booth grabbed the most attention from participants. It made the announcement that the PLC technology they were proposing, right before CES, was approved as one of the baseline technologies of the PLC standards by IEEE P1901. HD-PLC Alliance announced that IEEE P1901, the leader in creating the international standard for PLC, will create a plan for new PLC standards in which HD-PLC will be included. This will allow for HD-PLC to coexist with other PLC technologies.

HD-PLC Technology To Become a Standard

‘When the new standards come out, users will not need to worry about compatibility issues and differences in standards with pre-existing PLC products. I think this is why a lot of manufacturers saw this as a chance to get into new business.’ Eiji Kobayashi, the president of HD-PLC Alliance said of the reason for getting a lot of attention at CES.

The current PLC system does not allow the exchange of data between devices with different PLC standards. However, the system to mutually authenticate different standards is implemented in the new standard approved by IEEE P1901. “Some in the industry saw the issue of the differences in the standards as ‘difficult issue to solve if left alone’. However, since the standard just approved by IEEE P1901 makes it possible for PLC with different standards to coexist, the overall view in the industry is that PLC is a source that will bring in a variety of new products and services applying PLC, in other words, new applications will be created because of PLC,” said Kobayashi.

• Eiji Kobayashi, President of HD-PLC Alliance:
“International standardization will turn PLC into the platform for new applications”

‘WaveletOFDM’, a communication technology for HD-PLC, will also be approved in the new standard. This means that PLC can be used in situations where different PLC standards are used, which also means that current HD-PLC-enabled devices can continued to be used in the future. “Technical know-how of users and engineers HD-PLC gathered can easily be spread in the industry from now on. Not only will the users benefit from all this, but there is also a chance that the business chances for manufacturers will dramatically increase in the world” Kobayashi explained.