The alliance – set up between three network video manufacturers – says that everyone with an interest will be welcome in the group and it will be a totally open forum.
Onvif – the Open Network Video Interface Forum – will be the first opportunity for everyone in the industry to work towards a single standard, said Sony’s senior European marketing manager NVM/CCTV, Simon Nash.
Speaking at the Next Generation CCTV conference, Nash said the three companies that set up the forum, Sony, Axis and Bosch, did so purely with the intention of creating a global standard for the interfacing of network security products.
It was difficult to get developers working together but, as more and more people were embracing IP, there was a need to make it “almost a plug and watch type technology” in the same way as people expect to be able to connect a printer to their home PC without problems.
More flexibility
The forum would enable a common protocol exchanging information between devices so that it did not matter whose equipment was being used.
This interoperability would give end users, installers and consultants more flexibility and choice allowing them to mix and match the best equipment for the job rather than having to use all the kit from one manufacturer.
Onvif was a non-profit making group open to all companies and organisations, financed by members paying a different range of fees “but everyone pushing in the same direction”.
In a Q&A session, Nash answered one suggestion that the non-founding members would “permanently be second class citizens” having to “chip away at the outside” because Onvif had published a “standard” before holding its first meeting next month – instead of first putting out a request for comments in a consultation document.
Nash said the word standard might have been misleading: “The standard has not been ratified so there is still an opportunity for yourselves to join Onvif and contribute, create and be involved in ratifying that standard.”
First draft, no more
“The standard is open right now to input to any company that wishes to join the Onvif forum and input to the creation of that standard. There is no definitive standard as of today. It is a first draft, no more.”
Sony, Axis and Bosch had announced the forum at IFSEC 2008 and everyone wanted to see some evidence of its work, he said. At Security Essen they had demonstrated a “first low level of integration” without PTZ control or VMD capability.
“It was just to show that here’s the software and you could plug any of the three cameras into that software and it will provide a picture – but that’s just a baseline. There has to be some initial standard there which can be adapted and modified as per the input from the members.”
Answering questions about software protocols being open to third parties who joined the forum, Nash confirmed that the forum would make them available.
Real need for standardisation
The API (the software interface to system services or software libraries) would be made available to all of the products “to anybody who wants them”.
He said the source code for implementing the API would also be open to members but it did depend on the level and type of membership.
“If you are a full member then my understanding is that you will have access to that level of technology,” said Nash.
Answering a question on the marketing opportunities by members, he said that full membership (the highest level, at a cost of 20,000 euros) would give the same marketing opportunities and rights as Sony, Axis and Bosch.
He added: “We are not seeking any commercial or political goal or capital from this. The fact that three companies got together proves there is a need for this sort of standardisation”.
* The Next Generation CCTV conference, in association with the organisers of IFSEC, info4security, SMT and Security Installer magazines, was held at Earls Court Conference Centre, London.
