International. ONVIF, the global standardization initiative for Internet Protocols (IP)-based physical security products, held its annual member meeting in early November, with an overview of important 2018 activities and an outlook for the coming year.
Attendees heard presentations on the final launch of Profile T in 2018, a breakthrough that represents how ONVIF is keeping pace with technological advances affecting product development and interoperability between IP-based physical security products.
In recognition of its 10th anniversary, ONVIF President Per Björkdahl highlighted the forum's achievements over the past decade, and included an overview of ONVIF's six profiles, with an emphasis on the recently launched Profile T for advanced video streaming. Together, the profiles support more than 10,000 compatible products that are increasingly included in various bidding and specification processes in projects around the world. Björkdahl also cited ONVIF's continued involvement as part of the TC79 work of the International Electrotechnical Commission for International Standardization.
ONVIF also recognized the contributions of four people from different ONVIF technical committees for their work on different profiles and committees. Fredrik Svensson of Axis and Dora Han of Hikvision received the ONVIF award, which recognizes individuals and companies that have made significant contributions to ONVIF. As chair of the Profile T working group, Svensson represented a leading force in the development and successful final release of the Profile T specification. Han received the award for his extensions for the specification and for supporting the development of other members' extensions for the specification.
One of the two ONVIF 2018 Distinguished Service Awards was given to Baldvin Gislason Bern of Axis, for his role in developing and testing the concept of evolution as President of Evolution of Technical Services Device Testing Tools. Along with him, Panasonic's Dr. Hasan Timucin Ozdemir also received the award, who was chair from 2009 to 2018 of THE ONVIF Video Enhancement Working Group, responsible for formulating and prototyping new features for the ONVIF specification.
"The awardees have shown their serious and long-term commitment to the organization as a whole, and in return have shown a direct and positive impact on the work of ONVIF," said Björkdahl. "The success of our organization would not be possible without the innovative contributions and hard work of our members, and for that, we thank them."
ONVIF Technical Committee Chair Hans Busch from Bosch spoke to members about the specification's development plan and its convergence with standardization activities within the scope of IEC TC 79 working groups for video monitoring and physical access control standards. Technical Services Committee (TSC) Chair Andreas Schneider of Sony presented an overview of the committee's work on new and existing profiles, device and customer testing tools, process updates and compliance tools, and developer Plugfests. ONVIF Communication Committee Chair Tim Shen de Dahua offered a summary of ONVIF's communication efforts in 2018, with an ongoing focus on educating the market on specific profiles through presence at industry events and media activities. In addition, he reported on the success of the first ONVIF Open Source Spotlight Challenge that was held at the beginning of the year.
Kevin Schader, executive director of ONVIF, announced the results of the annual elections for ONVIF committees. Mayur Salgar of Honeywell and Stuart Rawling of Pelco by Schneider Electric were re-elected to the ONVIF Steering Committee. On the Technical Committee, Sujith Raman of Hanwha Techwin, Steve Wolf of Pelco by Schneider Electric and Stephen Serplus of Tyco Security Product were re-elected, while Dora Han of Hikvision joined the committee as a new member. Bob Dolan of Anixter and Giri Guntipalli of Honeywell were re-elected to the Technical Services Committee, along with new member Marwan Obeidat of Pelco by Schneider Electric. Dahua's Tim Shen, Hikvision's Jens Berthelsen and Honeywell's Xinming Kang were re-elected to the ONVIF Communications Committee, while Huawei's Cathy Zhou joined the committee as a new member. The founding members Axis, Bosch and Sony automatically retain their places on the Technical Services Committee, the Technical Committee and the Steering Committee.
Founded in 2008, ONVIF is a leading and widely recognized industry forum that drives interoperability of IP-based physical security products. The organization has a global membership base of established camera, video management and access control systems companies and more than 10,000 profiling products. ONVIF offers the Profile S for video streaming; the Profile G for logging and storage; Profile C for physical access control; the Profile Q for enhanced functionality; Profile A for greater access to control settings and Profile T for advanced streaming. ONVIF continues to work with its members to expand the number of IP interoperability solutions that ONVIF-compliant products can provide.
For more information on the ONVIF Profile T candidate version and supported products, including supported vendors and models, visit the ONVIF website: www.onvif.org
