In the face of emerging tech, ONVIF is unifying an industry

LAS VEGAS – The security industry just wrapped up ISC West 2023, one of the largest trade shows of the year, and that’s where Security Systems News caught up with ONVIF to discuss the future of interoperability.

The Open Network Video Interface Forum (ONVIF) was founded in 2008 by Bosch Security Systems, Axis Communications, and Sony Corporation to bring together manufacturers, software developers, consultants, system integrators, end users and more to participate in the standardization of communication between IP-based physical security products.  

There’s no better place to bring all those people together in one place than a convention with tens of thousands of attendees. “This organization that we have is driven (by) and consists of our members,” ONVIF Steering Committee Chairman Leo Levit told Security Systems News in an interview. “Our members, the vendors and integrators are following the industry trends, and if they see that something is evolving and interesting for the industry, they will push it to us, and we jointly make it happen.”

Right now, Levit says they are working on specifications in the area of cloud connectivity and relaying video to ecosystems that are cloud-based. They’re also looking at the rise of AI and how that affects the integration of proprietary platforms. “It's just emphasizing the need for interoperability,” Levit said. “So, I think it's good for us as standardization organization, but this also brings some challenges because it's the, you know, explosion of different AI technologies is creating massive opportunities, but it's also creating a lot of difficulties for integration because a lot of solutions based on those technologies are proprietary and more in rather close ecosystems. What we're advocating for is a more open ecosystem that people can collaborate across the borders of organizational structures and industries.”

It's been a year of milestones for ONVIF as they celebrate not just 25,000 conformant products, but 15 years as the industry standard for interoperability. Those conformant products each support at least one of ONVIF’s seven different profiles that range from access control configuration to advanced video streaming.

You can learn more about ONVIF and their mission, and members online at www.onvif.org.