Members announce new developments, as “The Year of G.hn” gets under way

News highlights:

• HomeGrid’s booth attracts keen interest as powerline demos wow the crowds
• Show visitors experienced first-hand G.hn’s ability to send traffic over powerline in an exciting seven-node demonstration of interop and high demand traffic
• HomeGrid Forum members Sigma Designs and Marvell announced new design wins for their G.hn chipsets
• The excitement of G.hn at CES 2014 provided a great beginning for this year’s deployments of the technology

HomeGrid Forum’s G.hn “Any wire, anywhere” technology was a real crowd-pleaser at this year’s CES – with powerful demos showcasing the multi-vendor, high traffic, high quality service provided by G.hn. The spectacular multi-node home network demonstration showed six TVs, each with its own G.hn node, running different HD IPTV streams at the same time, all fed from one single G.hn node linked to a network attached server (NAS). This powerful demonstration, with systems from six different system vendors powered by G.hn silicon from three different silicon sources, had visitors eager to learn more about how G.hn technology handles digital content over any wire, notably powerlines, providing a fast and simple high performance home network. This demonstration was coupled with others showing G.hn and HomePNA coexistence over the same coax, the ability of G.hn to send Ultra-HD over powerlines (a CES first), the ability of G.hn to avoid interference with neighboring networks inside apartment buildings, and a real powerline communications MIMO demonstration on real wires and the interoperation of G.hn single path (SISO) mode and multi-path (MIMO) modes. The demonstrations had one common theme: interoperation and multi-vendor support; a key success factor for Operators as they move to deploy the technology.

The buzz around G.hn extended from HomeGrid’s on-site demonstrations to global recognition, as key industry members selected G.hn for its strengths. Marvell and Sigma Designs both made announcements surrounding successful design wins using G.hn technology. Sigma celebrated the selection of its G.hn chipset by ST&T, and also announced integrated TR-069 support in its chipsets thus combining high performance with enhanced management. Marvell also created excitement at CES, with their announcement of Blu-Castle selecting Marvell’s G.hn silicon chipset to power its Connected Home products. A second announcement that its G.hn chipset has been selected to power Netwave’s newest adapter, the first G.hn Home Networking product to be available in Korea, was also made.

“The demand for G.hn was clear at this year’s CES, where many visitors to our booth were eager to learn where they could get their hands on the technology,” said HomeGrid Forum President, John Egan. “HomeGrid’s cutting-edge technology is deployment-ready – confirming that 2014 will be ‘the year of G.hn’.”

G.hn, or Gigabit home networking, enables high speed in-home networks using existing home wires, delivering high quality networked entertainment including triple play and IPTV, even Ultra-HD, as well as supporting Smart Grid applications.

“The interest surrounding G.hn technology at CES shows not only that there is a need and demand for this powerful technology, but also that it meets the needs of Operators and consumers and will thrive in the market,” concluded John Egan.