Since the 1980's the audio visual industry has slowly standardized to the European power cord standard.  This cable is called a ,IEC, Eurocord or UPC (Universal Power Cord). 

One glitch in the new standard is that typically manufacturers only supply a gauge of wire that is required for the power demand the piece of equipment requires.  While this is fine when products are purchased and used in a fixed install, probelms can arise when cables start to stray from their original pieces of gear in a event production environment.  If a cord designed for a small audio compressor is used on a theatre projector, the result will lead to a loss of power to the projector and can even create a fire hazard.  BEL has developed a simple solution to this problem.