ONVIF, the US-based standardisation body for IP-based physical security products, hosted a panel discussion at the Essen exhibition in the autumn, pictured. A diverse crowd of more than 80 people, demonstratied say organisers that the issue of standardisation and interoperability in the security industry is still a subject of debate.
The panellists agreed that the deployment of standards in the industry would allow installers and end users to more easily compare and select products for IP video deployments and enable inter-operability between components of a system.
Jürgen Alz, Product Management, Bosch Security Systems, business area building security, said: “For the most part, we don’t typically build a system from scratch.” As ONVIF matures and becomes more widespread in installations, he said, this will provide the ability to automatically interface with existing ONVIF-conformant kit at a customer site and would be an advantage when upgrading a system for a client.
The panel also included Jonas Andersson, chairman of ONVIF’s Steering Committee; Frank Rottmann, Bosch Security Systems, and liaison partner and convener, International Electrotechnical Commission TC 79 ‘CCTV’ and René Kiefer, Siemens Building Technologies, and chairman of the Video Expert Group, ZVEI Industrial Association Security. Panellists covered such issues as ONVIF test tools, the impacts of competing standards initiatives in the market and whether technological innovation would be stifled as the result of standardisation.
Audience members queried the panel on topics ranging from the timeline of ONVIF’s introductions of the access control specification and plans for an intrusion spec. Also raised, potential use of third party testing houses as a standard method for ensuring full product compliance. René Kiefer said: “In the end, ONVIF will create more easily interoperable products, which will increase the number of applications for the end user and grow the market for manufacturers and integrators.” Another ideal outcome of standards initiatives in the security market would be to spread the message to other industries that IP video is a valuable tool outside of surveillance, such as queue management, traffic flow and other functions.
Frank Rottmann said: “Standards will enable the security industry to talk with one voice to the rest of the world. Whether it’s the logistics industry or a company like SAP, those organisations will think that video is easy because of standards and they should be doing more with that technology within their own businesses.”
As background the group formed at Essen in October 2008, released Version 2.0 of the ONVIF Core Specification in late 2010, and released Profile S one year later. An inter-operability demonstration of Profile S, which takes in video and audio streaming, PTZ and relay output control and video encoder configuration and multicast, was displayed at the event. Companies disaplying included: Milestone Systems, TKH Security, StreamLabs, IndigoVision, EverFocus, DRS Technologies, AxxonSoft, Hikvision, Shenzhen Jiaxinjie Electron. More about ONVIF conformant products, including the vendors and the conformant models, is available on ONVIF’s website: www.onvif.org.
