 | March 28, 2001 |
Wonder wire
Vendor promotes coax as home backbone
Those touting home networks have generally proclaimed the need for "no new wires" technologies, which has led to phoneline, powerline, and wireless schemes. Now, Broadband Home is promoting existing TV cable as the home-network backbone. The company has developed technology that allows existing TV cable to simultaneously carry TV signals, bidirectional IEEE 1394 (FireWire) traffic, 10/100-Mbit/sec Ethernet, infrared control signals, and phone traffic.
The scheme relies on a hub, which replaces the traditional splitter that distributes TV cable throughout a home. The company claims that the average home has three to four coax outlets and that those outlets are typically in the key spots for home networks. I might argue that the average is highly polarized; old homes have a single outlet while newer homes have six or seven. Still, Broadband Home has developed the Ultimate Outlet for wall mounting, a unit which breaks out the different traffic types to phone, network, and cable-TV connectors. The company also has launched the Home Cable Network Alliance to promote coax as the dominant home-network infrastructure.
—Maury Wright, Editor-in-Chief
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