HomeGrid Forum today announced
that Best Buy, Laboratoire des Applications Numeriques (LAN), University of New
Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory, and ACN Advanced Communications Networks
SA (ACN) have joined the growing list of HomeGrid Forum members.
While this list is certainly compelling, what is most telling in today’s announcement is that the mother of all big box retailers, and survivor of the consumer electronics retail downturn, Best Buy, has been appointed to HomeGrid Forum’s board of directors.
Walk into any Best Buy and then head over to their Magnolia Home Theater department. That’s where the rubber meets the road and big gross dollars are spent when a consumer decides to go all the way with high- end home theater. And even if the consumer just needs new big screen TV or an audio system, Best Buy is still the place where the consumer is going to make a decision and try to get educated on making sure their purchase is good for the long run.
I also think this move will be good for Best Buy’s Geek Squad division which is the group that comes to your home to help deploy and install your equipment purchase. With Best Buy supporting the global adoption of the ITU-T’s G.hn next-generation technology as the single wired standard for connecting devices together over coax, powerlines, and phonelines in the home, it should make the installation process a much simpler one.
At the other end of the spectrum in today’s announcement, two of the new member companies -- Laboratoire des Applications Numeriques and University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory -- are established and highly respected leaders in the field of standards compliance and interoperability testing for broadband networking technologies.
This is also a big deal because they will help ensure the deployment of high quality G.hn products through rigorous test programs based on the HomeGrid Compliance & Interoperability Program.
Products that pass these tests will receive the HomeGrid-Certified logo, an assurance that G.hn-based products from any vendor will deliver the performance and interoperability necessary to connect computing, communications, and entertainment products in the digital home. And that takes me back to where Best Buy fits in.
Having a HomeGrid-Certified logo on your product helps the consumer make a
decision where it matters the most:
at the point of going from let me think about this, to “honey, let’s
take this one home.”
Everywire is a blog that will talk about G.hn and related wired networking news.
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