Legrand MoCA and Powerline Devices Extend Network Connectivity

The role of a home network and how technology is used in a home has changed radically over the past few years. For decades physical media led by vinyl, VHS tapes, CDs and DVDs dominated the way consumers entertained themselves at home, but now with downloadable and streaming music sites, as well as high-bandwidth video sites such as Netflix and Hulu, an ever increasing amount of Americans are utilizing the power of the Internet to occupy their time.

With the building market still lagging from a sputtering economy, the retrofit market, which addresses the millions of existing homes is the place that custom installers need to grow their revenues. Legrand, a manufacturer of everything from whole-house audio systems, to lighting control solutions recently announced its new Four-Port Coax Network Adapter and Four-Port Powerline Network Adapter home networking products that are designed for retrofit residential networking applications.

“Our new networking adapters received a fantastic response at CEDIA 2012,” recalls Fritz Werder, vice president and brand general manager for On-Q [Legrand]. “Our customers need networking solutions that efficiently and reliably tap into the existing wiring of most modern homes. Not every home ... or even every room in the home lends itself to Cat-5 or Cat-6 wired or wireless data distribution, and it’s our job to continually design cutting edge solutions for every residence.”

The Four-Port Coax Network Adapter connects to coax cabling to deliver a MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance) 1.1 compliant high-speed network connections for devices such as MoCA enabled TiVo Premiere DVRs, web enabled HDTVs and Blu-ray disc players, and network devices that include switches and wireless access points (WAP). The adapter delivers up to 170Mbps of throughput and its four inputs support multiple devices.

Legrand says the Four-Port Powerline Network Adapter can be used in situations where the application calls for the use of a home’s existing powerlines. The Powerline adapter can be used in a similar fashion as the MoCA solution and like the MoCA network adapter, the Powerline unit is also capable of supporting high-speed Internet signals.