A&S reveals the latest ONVIF activities in this Q&A discussion.
How is ON VIF different?
The key is traditional video-access-intrusion boundaries are disappearing. The whole ONVIF initiative has come at the right time, because people are ready now. If you want to break away from the traditional proprietary boundaries, you need a good standard.
The best way to measure success is how many members and how many products you have coming out that are compliant. This year, we have 300 cameras that are compliant. The gap between the number of memberships and number of products is closing.
What is the rate of integration for video surveillance and access control?
We rarely see a new project tender without access and video integration, whether for video verification of an event or a verification of an alarm event. It's security for corporate or critical infrastructure customers.
Now in a classical building, there will be more integration there as well. Then you have all the new initiatives of smart grid and integrated home environment. It will go to the next level.
Is intrusion or fire system integration in ON VIF 's schedule?
There's not any schedule. We looked at it this spring. Our approach is how we add new areas. It's up to all the members to push those initiatives.
We're seeing that access control is a natural start. As we're going into intrusion alarms, I'm sure we'll adopt that as well.
Fire is something people want to integrate to. We're all security companies and fire is highly regulated. It's regulated differently in different markets and gives ONVIF a different set of boundaries. We require some sort of interoperability with systems outside the security domain. We can try to conquer the world or look at ways to do alliances and achieve the same thing.
After 2013, IP is expected to have the majority of market share. What will happ en?
There are many other business sectors where standardization created opportunities. The interface just changed the market. It's providing the entry level for confidence in equipment.
If you look historically, people have embraced standards. That's the reality in the computer industry. Companies who defend their positions and don't embrace the change are not here.
The potential here is huge for a large number of players. Asia typically comes into the market from the low end, then builds up over time. There's a whole slag of companies in the high-end differentiating and building up. And if you look at the variety of cameras, there are different ones with different quality. There's all the features such as VCA, which are also connected. For the next four or five years, the market's open for everybody.
The next topic is going to be video management. We're starting to use that information better.