Choose ONVIF Prescribe ONVIF

Choose ONVIF Prescribe ONVIF

As an eSecurity Professional I always prefer to use ONVIF. ONVIF allows me to be truly independent of brands and recommend a way forward for customers that is not going to tie them in to a single, specific manufacturer. As I work as a System integrator in last 12yr found purchasers have probably all heard of ONVIF, but in my experience, the high level of competition in the CCTV market drives many manufacturers to attempt to differentiate themselves to understandably stay ahead of the pack. Unfortunately, I have seen many cases where the manufacturer tells the customer they make ONVIF-conformant products, but they then upsell additional features for their product and in many cases will say how that method is better than ONVIF. This doesn’t help many buyers of CCTV products today as they are not always experts in the field of CCTV or in the business of security, so they don’t see the strategic benefits of employing an ONVIF approach. We also see that the end users do not yet see the wider benefits of using an open standard and what that can offer them in the longer term.  They are instead more focused on the short term project, so there are many strategic influencers who are not yet aware of ONVIF.

Many projects I work which under government-funded customers that have long approval cycles and need to be able to have longer term plans. ONVIF allows this, as it has a stable roadmap and retains backwards compatibility in most things, so I am able to set a roadmap and a vision for a customers that they can plan around whilst having access to a large range of vendors and innovative new products. Government-funded long term projects will benefit the most from using ONVIF-conformant componentry. In India very few consultant prescribe ONVIF product, basically they still not clear about spec of ONVIF profiles. In UK, USA, Australia whether it is rail, roads, national or local projects, ONVIF has to be a key consideration in government-funded projects.

More systems will be ONVIF conformant and people buying products will be able to choose new and innovative solutions – like thermal cameras – as they become available, based purely on quality and cost instead of the manufacturer. That is a much simpler decision for them to make and the best products will rise to the top and remain in the market. There will also be more opportunities for systems to interoperate so that systems can be shared.

Each ONVIF profile has a fixed set of features that must be supported by a conformant device or client. Realizing a need for the standardization of communications between IP-based physical security products, Axis Communications, Bosch Security Systems and Sony Corp. in 2008 formed the Open Network Video Interface Forum (ONVIF).

ONVIF has surpassed 10,000 conformant products that meet its global interoperability standards, further broadening the organization’s offering and relevance in the IP-based physical security marketplace.

Membership is open to manufacturers, software developers, consultants, systems integrators, end users and other interested groups. The organization’s membership base covers six continents and offers more than 9,000 profile-conformant products.

How important is it for devices to be able to openly communicate, with some sort of standardization in effect? The technology researchers at the Gartner Group predict that by 2020 there will be 50 billion devices connected over IP networks, or what’s known now as the Internet of Things (IoT).

As ONVIF standards have evolved they have been designed around a list of performance profiles. Each ONVIF profile has a fixed set of features that must be supported by a conformant device or client. An example would be that an ONVIF Profile S device must work with other ONVIF Profile S devices.

Within each profile are product features listed by ONVIF and classified as mandatory (M), conditional (C) or optional (O). You can check online at the ONVIF Conformant Product List page and search for compliance confirmation. Do remember smarter video systems play a clear role in generating data.

To get an idea where products for your next project stand, here’s a look at current ONVIF profile specifications.

ONVIF Profile Specifications

For electronic access control systems:-

• Profile C conformant devices and clients support site information, IP door access control and event and alarm management.
• Profile A devices can retrieve information, status and event, and configure entities such as access rules, credentials and schedules. Conformant clients can provide configurations of access rules, credentials and schedules. The client can also retrieve and receive standardized access control-related events.

For IP-based video systems:-

• Profile S could be a camera or video encoder that can send video data over an IP network to a Profile S client. A client might be video management software (VMS). This profile also covers pan/tilt/zoom control, audio, multicasting and relay outputs for conformant devices and clients that support such features. So it addresses common functionalities of IP video systems, such as video and audio streaming, PTZ controls, and relay activation.
• Profile G products such as a camera or video encoder device can record video over an IP network or on the device itself. A Profile G VMS client is one that configure, request and control recording of video data over an IP network. Profile G also includes support for receiving audio and metadata streams. So it addresses video storage, recording, search, and retrieval.
• Profile Q aims to provide quick discovery and basic configuration for Profile Q-conformant products. Profile Q also covers specs for TLS (transport layer security) configuration. TLS is a secure communication protocol to protect against tampering and eavesdropping.
• Profile T is a release candidate for IP-based video systems. It supports video streaming such as the use of H.264 and H.265 encoding formats, imaging settings, and alarm events such as motion and tampering detection. This profile is designed to work with Profile S and not replace it.

The most majority IP-based security products claim to compliant with ONVIF standard. However, when end-users try to install these devices marked with this standard might encounter some problems, such as network video recorder can't discover the IP cameras in the same LAN network, motion detection doesn't work. Why is this happening?

First, you need to verify that your installed devices are truly compliant with ONVIF standard. Some manufacturers often mark their products as compatible with ONVIF, although this is not true. It's better to buy/use the IP-based security products from members of ONVIF. You can find the full list of members/manufacturers who are verified to offer ONVIF compliant products.

Second, it's not possible to be ONVIF compliant only; the IP-based security products need to be compliant to a Profile as well. You can be ONVIF conformant only, but if you are it is not guaranteed that you would get interoperability between other ONVIF devices and clients. To truly reap the benefits of ONVIF, you need to be Profile S compliant as it dramatically increases the chance of things like video and audio streaming or video configuration and multicast actually working well together.

One may encounter cases within a set of devices with Profile S, having no problems with connectivity and video streaming, but with some functions (e.g. motion detection). It is usually caused by errors of the standard or, more often, by an incorrect implementation of the standard/profile made by the manufacturer. Such problems should be immediately reported to the manufacturer that, in turn, should release improved software. ONVIF forum is heavily working on new, improved versions of the standard, which will be debugged and more precise in terms of terminology.

ONVIF has suspended Dahua & HikVision on October 9, 2019.

ONVIF Benefits to End Users:

• Greater flexibility
• Increased product choice
• Future proof

ONVIF gives you the flexibility to pick and choose optimal products for your needs without being locked into a specific brand. An ONVIF conformant video management software, for instance, will allow you to integrate ONVIF conformant devices from different hardware manufacturers. With software that supports both ONVIF and proprietary application programming interfaces (APIs), you can choose to use the ONVIF interfaces for certain functionalities and the proprietary API for other features at the same time. Having ONVIF conformant products is like having an insurance policy that future-proofs your system for a more secure investment.

ONVIF offers thousands of conformant products from different vendors that support one or more.

ONVIF Benefits for System Integrators/Specifiers:

• Greater product choice
• Assured interoperability
• Easier integration

ONVIF conformant products allow you to create a flexible, cost-effective and future-proof system. ONVIF enables you to choose optimal products from different vendors. The conformant products allow you to be confident in their interoperability and makes integration of products from different vendors easier. The interoperable functionalities are determined by a conformant product’s ONVIF profile(s). 

Please share this handy guide to all consultant, System integrator & customers. After reading this guide if you ask any of them, what would make your life easier? They’ll likely reply with open source integration of systems. Well, it’s been some time coming, but it looks like that wish is becoming more of a reality these days.