HomeGrid Forum Selects TRaC as First G.hn Accreditation Test House

BEAVERTON, OR--(Marketwire - Apr 12, 2011) - The HomeGrid Forum (HGF) has today announced the appointment of TRaC as the industry's first test house for HomeGrid Certified products. The accreditation process will see TRaC working directly with silicon providers and vendors of home networking devices in order to ensure that they comply with the G.hn test standards developed by the HomeGrid Forum for standards compliance and interoperability with other G.hn devices. Companies whose products successfully complete the TRaC testing process for HomeGrid Certification will be able to display HomeGrid Forum's certification logo.

The appointment of its first test house represents a major step forward for the HomeGrid Forum as it continues to roll out its Compliance & Interoperability (C&I) Program, designed to help service providers and equipment manufacturers move to new products based on the G.hn specifications.

TRaC is a market-leading test company with world-wide facilities offering unrivalled testing, regulatory and compliance services. With a well-established track record in the testing and certification industry, TRaC offers fast, expert testing and certification for a range of global approvals from electromagnetic compatibility, environmental, telecoms, and safety, to radio and wireless, supported by computational analysis and detailed reports. The HomeGrid members will benefit from having access to a test house which can provide a ubiquitous service addressing all of their compliance and certification requirements.

Paul Russell, Director at TRaC, said: "We are delighted to be working with the HomeGrid Forum in this exciting new area of home networking standards. This is a welcome addition to our comprehensive range of test services for regulatory and interoperability purposes. It complements our work with other standards bodies, allowing us to offer system companies a complete suite of certification tests that would enable them to speed completed products to market."

Regulatory compliance and product approval is a rapidly changing and complex arena and TRaC has a global reach and reputation for state of the art testing capabilities and thoroughness which will complement the work of the HomeGrid Forum.

President of HomeGrid Forum Matt Theall said: "TRaC has an excellent reputation as one of the world's leading test houses for the standards and specifications that are paving the way for next generation communications. We chose the company because we felt it had the greatest expertise and with the added bonus of their experience in working with many of our partners, such as the Broadband Forum and the ZigBee Alliance. This means that they are already familiar with many parts of our industry and our requirements."

About HomeGrid Forum
HomeGrid Forum is a global, non-profit trade group promoting the International Telecommunication Union's G.hn and G.hnem standardization efforts for next-generation home networking and SmartGrid Applications. HomeGrid Forum promotes adoption of G.hn and G.hnem through technical and marketing efforts, addresses certification and interoperability of G.hn and G.hnem-compliant products, and cooperates with complementary industry alliances. For more information on HomeGrid Forum, please visit www.homegridforum.org or follow us on http://twitter.com/homegrid_forum.

About TRaC
TRaC is a leading test group with accreditations for all major markets worldwide. It has established itself with a reputation for unrivalled excellence in global approvals, testing and certification.

TRaC provides the assessment route to product manufacturers and designers to ensure they fulfill their legal obligations and demonstrate full compliance with the requirements of countries around the world. For more information, visit www.tracglobal.com.