Axis Communications: a step towards “Plug and Play”

Axis Communications: a step towards "Plug and Play". Consumer technology has long benefited from standardization – connecting a laptop to a monitor or projector, plugging a memory stick into a computer and even using a 3G phone oversees are all made possible thanks to industry standards. They establish uniform engineering or technical criteria that vendors agree to adhere to when manufacturing their products. Because of these standards, consumers enjoy freedom of choice, constantly-improving products and low prices when purchasing technology.

But despite the clear benefits, some business to business technology has yet to develop its own standards. The security industry is beginning to address its own shortfall in standardization. This should give rise to great competition for best-of-breed components from which end users can choose to build their ideal surveillance system solutions. We have already begun seeing products based on these new standards initiatives in 2009, and they are expected to make a significant impact on the market by 2010.

Standardizing Network Video Surveillance

Specifications only become standards once they have been ratified by a Standards Developing Organization (SDO). SDOs can operate globally, regionally or nationally. While “standards” has a very specific meaning, the term sometimes gets applied to products that have not been ratified by an SDO. The Internet Protocols (IP version 4 and version 6), for example, were not ratified by an SDO. Rather they were specifications worked out by several companies working together.

These types of specifications usually work as well as standards ratified by SDOs and often become widely accepted and deployed by the market. In the analog world, regional organizations NTSC (America) and PAL (Europe) have ratified standards for the video signal coming from the analog cameras. Those standards came from the television industry in the 1950s and have made it possible for analog cameras from multiple vendors to be used in a single system.

Since the standards are regional rather than worldwide, however, vendors still need different versions of their products for different markets, which add to development, manufacturing and logistics costs. In contrast, most standards developed for network video surveillance come from the IT industry and have the benefit of being worldwide standards.

Security Industry Driving Its Own Standards

Currently, there is no global standard defining how network video products such as cameras, video encoders and video management systems, should communicate with each other. But now standards developed within the security industry itself are on the horizon, which will complement the existing standards already deployed. Recently several organizations have become active in the development of standards for network-connected video surveillance devices.

One group is SIA (Security Industry Association), which is accredited by ANSI as a national SDO. Two other groups – ONVIF (Open Network Video Industry Forum) and PSIA (Physical Security Interoperability Alliance) – were started in 2008 and are focusing on improving compatibility by creating global open standards for the network interface between network video products. They want to define how network cameras, video encoders and video management systems communicate with one another to make it easier to integrate various brands of video equipment into a single solution.

Among the IP video standards the groups plan to address are issues surrounding video streaming, device discovery and management, intelligence metadata and event handling, as well as real-time viewing and remote pan/tilt/zoom control. ONVIF is also addressing testing to ensure conformance to the standards, especially important in the early days of a new standard.

Alastair Hayfield, Senior Research Analyst at IMS Research (www.imsresearch.com), has observed ONVIF and PSIA’s rise. “The video surveillance industry has clearly decided that standards are desirable,” he says. “Well over half of all video surveillance equipment sales can be attributed to companies in one or both of these standards bodies. In fact, 11 of the top 15 video surveillance vendors have joined either ONVIF or PSIA.”

How Standardization Will Benefit the Surveillance Industry

The ultimate goal of these organizations is to standardize the interfaces on the network layer level of the products in terms of functions such as video streaming, intelligent metadata, and device discovery. A seamless integration of different network video surveillance products operating on this standard will be enabled regardless of brand. This will make it even easier for endusers, integrators, consultants and manufacturers to take advantage of the possibilities offered by network video solutions.

End Users

The biggest beneficiaries of standards are end users. Instead of being locked into proprietary solutions, standards allow them to pick and choose best-of-breed components from different manufacturers with confidence that all the pieces will work well together. Freedom of choice tends to increase competition between vendors, ultimately speeding delivery of better products to the market at a lower price as the market expands at an ever-higher rate. Greater product demand, higher production volumes and lower integration costs for vendors and manufacturers will also translate into lower costs for the end user.

Standardization will also offer end users a greater level of future-proofing for their investment. The standard will ensure that interoperable products are available from a large variety of vendors, no matter how the market develops.

Integrators & Consultants

The interoperability between different vendors’ products, aided by the standard, will make it easier for integrators and consultants to offer their customers cost-effective and simple solutions. Installation will be simplified, regardless of brand, and there will be greater freedom to specify a system with products from different vendors, thus making it easier to fully meet the specific needs of each customer.

Manufacturers & Software Vendors

The benefits offered by standards to end users, integrators and consultants will result in increased interest in network video products and IP-based security/surveillance solutions. This means that the development of an industry standard is an important spur to the growth of the network surveillance industry as a whole.

Standards offer manufacturers interoperability with other products without losing the ability to differentiate products from the competition. They also present extended market opportunities, as the products/software can be easily used as a part of a global network video solution, and reduced in-house development costs.

ONVIF: Setting the Standard for Growth

ONVIF (Open Network Video Industry Forum) has hit the 103-member mark, totaling 12 full members, 13 contributing members and 78 user members. Recent additions to the organization include full members Canon and IDIS, and contributing member companies Dallmeier, General Electric, Genetec, Hitachi, Industrial Technology Research Institute, ITX, Nice, Optelecom-NKF, PMC-Sierra, Sanyo and Webgate.

The organization has also seen the roll-out of several ONVIF-conforming products from Axis Communications (a founding member) and Lilin (which has 11 conforming products). A list of conforming products can be found at ONVIF.org.

In recent analysis, IMS Research found that ONVIF member companies command over 40 % of worldwide video surveillance market revenues compared with the 25 % taken by PSIA member companies. The difference is even more startling when put into the context of network video surveillance equipment. Here ONVIF member companies command nearly 60 % of market revenues compared with the 20 % share for PSIA member companies.

Senior Research Analyst, Alastair Hayfield comments, “Instinctively it felt that ONVIF members had a greater market presence. However, it was a surprise to see quite how large the difference was. The move to a standards based approach for network video surveillance is an important one. It will help to drive the adoption of network video surveillance products and will greatly benefit end-users.”

Contact:

Dominic Bruning
Axis Communications,
Preston, UK
Tel.: +44 870 1620 047
Fax: +44 870 7778 620
dominic.bruning@axis.com
www.axis.com