Power line group hooks up new members

The HomePlug Powerline Alliance has added three companies, the announced on Tuesday. Comcast, DS2 and EarthLink have joined the board of directors of the alliance, which promotes home networking over power lines. The new companies are expected to help advance the group, as it enters the multimedia arena with its HomePlug AV specification. Members include Cogency Semiconductor, Conexant Systems, Enikia, Intellon, Panasonic, RadioShack and Sharp.

In related news, electronics maker Panasonic demonstrated a broadband power line networking prototype based on the HomePlug AV specification at the Consumer Electronics Show last week. The demonstration used a network able to transmit audio and video data at rates of up to 170 megabits per second, according to Panasonic.