Powerline Networking with the Western Digital Livewire
by Ganesh T S on August 24, 2010 7:50 AM EST- Posted in
- Gadgets
- Networking
- Powerline Adapters
Western Digital's strategy in releasing products such as the WDTV or the WDTV Live can easily be deciphered as a way to drive the sales of their storage products. After all, storage is the bread and butter of Western Digital's revenue. However, a product such as the WD Livewire doesn't seem to fit into that mould at first glance.
The WDTV, WDTV Live, WDTV Live Plus and the upcoming WD Elements Play (apparently meant for the non-US market) seem to indicate that Western Digital is becoming a leading brand in the digital media player space. However, this market also involves content that gets distributed over the Internet and contents which streams across the internal home network. The official WD line is that consumers do not usually have network connections available in their living room or near where their TV is located. Therefore, it is the intent of WD to help solve this problem by providing the WD Powerline AV Network Kit.
At AnandTech, we believe that the Livewire product family is intended to further its presence in the consumer NAS market. Presently, the ShareSpace NAS product is intended for usage in SOHO environments. However, the explosion of consumer HD camcorders and the willingness of people to back up their Blu-Rays on mass storage has brought with it a situation in which the average consumer is no longer satisfied with a terabyte or so of storage offered by external hard disks. External hard disks are also not amenable to media streaming or periodic backups for multiple computers. In this upcoming scenario, a WD powerline product in conjunction with a consumer oriented ShareSpace model could work wonders. Consumers would be thrilled to have their NAS sitting in the basement, powered and connected to the household network from the same power outlet. There would be no necessity to worry about wireless reach or the noise that would be made by the NAS if it were to sit in the consumer's home theatre room. The powerline networking product is one more step by Western Digital in its quest to makes its presence felt in every component of media delivery (from the storage to the network and onto the media player sitting by the side of the TV) in the house.
Western Digital's Future Strategy?
However, the first generation Livewire doesn't have the necessary capability to fulfil this scenario. With the upcoming Atheros AR7400 chipset promising better bandwidth, and the HomePlug AV2 standards which promise Gigabit speeds, the outlined scenario might not be beyond the realms of possibility.
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PlcBooster - Saturday, September 11, 2010 - link
Hi Souka,Firstly, I would like to convey my Big KUDOS! to Mr. Ganesh T S on his good and inside report on the Powerline Networking with the Western Digital Livewire. He furnished us with very informative good and un bias reports.
I bet many people, end users or rather consumers are quite dismay after they use the PLC adapters and put them into real action ie use at home or at their office.
But hold on your dismay, cos, there is a company in APAC that I know can help or overcome this 10 years inherent issues that have been plaguing these PLC manufacturers, they will be planning to launch their product once they find the right business partner, may be Western Digital Livewire, if WD are keen to explore with them. So that the PLC adapters adoption and acceptance rate will surely flourish worldwide with an affordable price of course. :)
Cheers! to Mr. Ganesh!
PlcBooster - Thursday, December 23, 2010 - link
There is light at the end of the tunnel for all PLC adapters manufacturers, distributors & end usersKindly feel free to view these three short informative videos at the following links below:
PLC-adapters have been proven to perform better with Surestreamer
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84C7k...eature=rela...
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fV6Jn...eature=rela...
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQuQg...eature=rela...
Thank you very much & Merry Christmas!
casteve - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - link
Ganesh, thanks for the review. Since WD wants this device to be plugged into the wall and not into a surge protector power strip or UPS:1) How much AC power do the two units use?
2) Do they have an on/off switch?
3) Is there surge protection circuitry built in and are there any guarantees to it? Seems like there would be a surge path via the ethernet ports.
ganeshts - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - link
casteve,The device acts as a router of sorts, consuming around 3 - 3.5 W. Load or no-load didn't make much of a difference with the Kill-a-watt I was using (it is not really accurate at such low power numbers).
It does have an on-off switch right next to the power connection point.
I will get back to you on the surge protection circuitry in a bit.
ganeshts - Tuesday, August 24, 2010 - link
casteve, I have unofficial confirmation from outside sources that the board design also has surge protection circuitry built in. I am still waiting to hear back officially from WD PR.casteve - Thursday, August 26, 2010 - link
Thanks for the power usage info.yyrkoon - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - link
Yes, sometimes it is very hard to fish cabling though a wall to get what you want exactly where you need it but come on folks. There are so many neat and tidy ways to run cabling, surely most anyone can find a way to get it done.Such as pulling the floor trim off of the wall, and running cable behind it. Wont work for you ? Raise it up a bit, and run the cabling just under the floor trim(sometimes all that is needed is a wedge, and a screwdriver). Or how about; Under the carpet in the corner of the wall . . . all that is required is a little imagination, and wiliness to spend some time to get it done.
*Or* if things are extremely tough, you can drill a few strategic holes where you *know* you will not cut into anything important ( like power runs or plumbing, etc ), and fish from point A to B to . . .Z. It is not as though doing wall patch work is all that difficult. Again, all that is required is a bit of imagination, and time to achieve. Anyone can make excuses.
I shudder to think of the alternative. Which is *hoping* your electrical is clean / noise free enough to use something that in this persons humble opinion should never have even been given a second thought.
Brucmack - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - link
I've been using two Amitech home plugs for a while to connect my media box under my TV to the rest of my network. There are a couple of "gotchas" to consider. First, if you have a house with really old wiring, don't expect to get a very stable or fast connection. Second, some chargers can interfere with the signal, especially if you use the homeplug on a power strip. But basically if you can get a stable signal, it's quicker and more reliable than wireless.kwlinca - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - link
Powerline technology only works when connecting 2 locations on the SAME circuit. My computer is located on one circuit in the front of the house and my AV equipment is located on a different circuit in the back of my house. It is only when you read the fine print that you find this out.Welshtrog - Wednesday, August 25, 2010 - link
The problem with these units is that they are effectively broadband transmitters and cover a large section of the radio spectrum which is why radio users object to their use and objectors can cause them to be removed. by ofcom