ONVIF

ONVIF – formally known as the Open Network Video Interface Forum

In the early 2000’s, my company Bristol Systems Inc. got into IP cameras and access control HID security cards as part of our comprehensive security program for our customers. Sadly, ONVIF had not yet been formed.

ONVIF was formed in 2008 by Axis Communications, Bosch Security Systems, and Sony. The video security market at the time was formed of companies who made and/or sold video cameras and recorders. In the worst case, each pair of such devices had proprietary programming interfaces and proprietary protocols for communication between the cameras and recorders. This was an interconnect nightmare for customers who might want to add a camera to system with a recorder or wanted to update their recorder. The idea of ONVIF was to standardize communication APIs and protocols between these devices, in order to permit interoperability independent of vendor, and to be totally open to all companies and organizations in this space. Its goals, beyond interoperability, are flexibility, future-proofing (your camera will continue to work in a heterogeneous system even if its manufacturer goes belly-up), and consistent quality.

The forum has now dropped the longer name as its standards have expanded beyond video, for example, to storage and to access control. It is now known simply as ONVIF.

The ONVIF standards are comprised of a core standard and several additional technical standards called “profiles”. All ONIVF conformant devices must conform to the core standard and to one or more profiles. One can think of the profiles as groups of features. This grouping provides some sanity in this market: if a vendor decides a particular profile is necessary or desirable then this vendor must implement all of the (mandatory) features of the profile. A device that only implements some of one profile and some of another cannot be ONVIF compliant.

The Core Specification 2.5 (December 2014) is rather comprehensive. This spec is around 150 pages and includes device and system management, web services, framework for event and error handling, security, ports, services, device remote discovery (necessary for plug and play interoperability), and encryption for transport level security. It includes data formats for streaming and storing video, audio, and metadata. It also includes a wide variety of service specifications, e.g., access control, analytics, imaging, pan-tilt-zoom, recording control, replay control, etc. It uses IETF, and other networking standards.

The current profiles are identified by the letters: S, C, G, Q, A, and T. Thus we have Profile S, Profile C, Profile G, Profile Q, Profile A, and (draft) Profile T. To remember which is which, I use:

• S = “streaming” for sending video and audio to or from a Profile S client or device. Basic camera controls.
• C = “control” for basic access control such as door state and control, credential management, and event handling
• G = “gigabyte” for storage, recording, search and retrieval
• Q = “quick” for quick installation, device discovery and configuration
• A = “additional access” for more on access control, configuration of the physical access control system, access rules, credentials, and schedules
• T = “ tampering” for compression, imaging, and alarms for motion and tampering detection.

In each profile, support for a feature is mandatory, if any aspect of that feature is supported by the device, otherwise it is conditional. For example, Profile S specifies compliance requirements for pan-tilt-zoom, which would be conditional on whether the camera supported aspect of pan-tilt-zoom. In which case, the camera would have to support all Profile S features of pan-tilt-zoom. If the camera does not support pan-tilt-zoom, then it can still be Profile S compliant.

In future posts, I’ll write about selecting a video (and audio) security system for my home, and about integrating my system into the neighborhood watch, which is a heterogeneous collection of security systems. In particular, exactly how the various profiles come into equipment decisions will be detailed in depth.