IP Surveillance Standards just around the corner

It was recently announced that three heavyweights (Sony, Axis, and Bosch) of the IP surveillance world will be working together to standardize an interface for all network video products. As you may or may not know there is currently no such standard. With Sony’s history of being a proprietary monger I must say I am quite shocked that they would agree to this. Everything they have ever touched is SONY ONLY. “In Sony we trust,” if you will. Well this is no longer at least when it comes to interfacing standards in the IP security and surveillance world.

So, what does it mean to not have standards? Well it means that without any standards for determining how IP network cameras talk to video encoders and recording software it can be difficult to get products from different manufacturers to communicate. Yes of course I know there are always workarounds, but wouldn’t it be nice to simply plug and play? Of course it would!

What they’re most likely looking to do is deliver a new standard of specs for video streaming, locating IP devices, and intelligence metadata, amongst others, with the end result being greater interoperability for network video products. Which would make everyones life a lot easier.

This would give the end user the ability to choose from different manufacturers…sweet. Sony = sweet? Yep, I said it. In pushing forward with a consensus on standards, it should open the market up a bit more and give both home and corporate users more choices.

Most importantly the three companies will set up an open forum for all groups to participate in discussions about guidelines and a framework for the standard. This framework will be released next fall.