Arindam Bhadra: ONVIF and PSIA Standards in Video Surveillance

ONVIF and PSIA Standards in Video Surveillance

We talk to two of the biggest interface standards organizations in surveillance – ONVIF and PSIA.

ONVIF is a global and open industry forum with the goal to facilitate the development and use of a global open standard for the interface of physical IP-based security products. Or in other words, to create a standard for how IP products within video surveillance and other physical security areas can communicate with each other.

It was officially incorporated as a non-profit, 501(c)6 Delaware corporation on November 25, 2008. ONVIF membership is open to manufacturers, software developers, consultants, system integrators, end-users and other interest groups that wish to participate in the activities of ONVIF. The ONVIF specification aims to achieve interoperability between network video products regardless of manufacturer.

It’s all very well running your security across an IP network, but if your recording device won’t talk to your PTZ camera, you are not going to get very far. Over the last decade, the security industry has spent a lot of time talking up the benefits of IP-based surveillance systems, and end-users have been bombarded with literature and sales pitches on the subject.

It soon become clear in an industry that was raving about the endless opportunities for security on the network that manufactures would have to become a little less proprietary in their dealings with their customers. In short, it was no longer fair to deny end-users the ability to choose whatever camera they wanted and whatever DVR they wanted on their network. They were, after all, used to IT systems that interfaced. It was time for the security industry to realise it had to be more open as well.

Two organizations that have been at the forefront of the drive towards open standards in the industry are ONVIF and PSIA.

ONVIF: Open Network Video Interface Forum

The cornerstones of ONVIF are:

Standardization of communication between network video devices

Interoperability between network video products regardless of manufacturer

Open to all companies and organizations Members

ONVIF was set up in 2008 by Axis, Bosch, and Sony. A non-profit organization, its aims are to create standardization in the industry to aid communication between various vendors’ video devices and then interoperability between those devices and others on the network, regardless of manufacturer. 300 member companies since its founding in 2008. The list of participating members includes major manufacturers like Vivotek, Arecont Vision, and Milestone Systems.

In December 2009 ONVIF’s member base had grown to 127 members. This comprised 14 full members, 15 contributing members and 98 user members. In December 2010, the forum had more than 250 members and more than 600 conformant products on the market.

ONVIF now has 480 members and as of mid-October 2014 has nearly 2040 products that conform to its Profile S specification, which handles video and audio streaming. The total number of products that meet the ONVIF core specification has reached well over 4,000.

In order to be ONVIF conformant, manufacturers use the test tools developed by ONVIF to meet the requirements of its core specification. Only manufacturers whose products have met the requirements of the test tools can submit a test report and a Declaration of Conformity signed by the manufacturer.

The core ONVIF specification, which was launched in November 2008, aimed to define a common protocol for the exchange of data between network video devices. Since then it has extended its scope to include access control products and also has developed specialist profiles for specific categories. The idea behind the profile was to help end-users identify which version of the ONVIF specification the products they were interested in conformed to, making it easier to determine compatibilities between conformant products and specific interoperability features.

There are now three ONVIF profiles, S, G, and C. Profile S looks at the common functionalities of IP video systems, Profile G addresses storage and recording functionalities and Profile C, the integration of IP-based security and safety devices, including access control units. Profile C is expected to be released in early 2014.

Per Bjorkdahl, chair of ONVIF’s steering committee, told us:

The profile concept is a way for end users and systems designers to identify more easily what products will work together without needing an in depth technical knowledge of the specification or having to keep current on each new release.

Profiles group together common sets of features and functionalities, so when two products — for example an IP camera and NVR — both bear the Profile S mark for video and audio streaming, they will work together.

The organisation has been making a concerted effort to broaden its security scope after some criticism that it was too focused on video. Bjorkdahl continues:

From the beginning, ONVIF’s focus was video because we knew we could get the proper feedback from the marketplace and because the need for standards and interoperability on the network video side was so acute. But ONVIF recognized from the start the need for specifications in other industry segments.

Its next area of concentration he says could be new additions in the physical access control area or a new profile for intruder alarms.

The benefits of an open standard for network video should include:

Interoperability – products from various manufacturers can be used in the same systems and “speak the same language”.

Flexibility – end-users and integrators are not locked within proprietary solutions based on technology choices of individual manufacturers.

Future-proof – standards ensure that there are interoperable products on the market, no matter what happens to individual companies.

Quality – when a product conforms to a standard, the market knows what to expect from that product.

ONVIF Specification:

The ONVIF Core Specification aims to standardize the network interface (on the network layer) of network video products. It defines a network video communication framework based on relevant IETF and Web Services standards including security and IP configuration requirements. The following areas are covered by the Core Specification version 1.0:

IP configuration

Device discovery

Device management

Media configuration

Real time viewing

Event handling

PTZ camera control

Video analytics

Security

ONVIF utilizes IT industry technologies including SOAP, RTP, and Motion JPEG, MPEG-4, and H.264 video codecs. Later releases of the ONVIF specification (version 2.0) also covers storage and additional aspects of analytics.

Drawbacks of ONVIF:

Onvif is a new standard and as such has issues. From our experience there are 2 combining factors contribute to the reliability of an Onvif based CCTV system and they are.

How good a camera manufactures implementation of the Onvif protocol is.

How well VMS manufacturer ensure the quality of the marriage between their implementation of Onvif protocol and each camera manfacturers.

Some IP camera features and enhancements may not be available when using a VMS that exclusively supports the ONVIF standard. To take advantage of some of these features you may need to use the manufacturers own proprietary VMS (Video Management System) application or choose a VMS that supports these enhancements.

The profiles tested were:

Profile S, for IP-based video systems;

Profile C for IP-based access control;

Profile G for edge storage and retrieval as well as the upcoming

Profile Q for improved connectivity.

ONVIF Specification can be downloaded here - http://www.onvif.org/imwp/download.asp?ContentID=18006

ONVIF looks like its mostly a verbose SOAP/ XML based service.

Devices supporting ONVIF advertise this by providing services on a DEVICENAME/onvif url.

Spec details for device management:

http://www.onvif.org/onvif/ver10/device/wsdl/devicemgmt.wsdl

Application programmers guide:

http://www.openipcam.com/files/ONVIF/ONVIF_WG-APG-Application_Programmer's_Guide.pdf