ONVIF (Open Network Video Interface Forum) 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. ONVIF is an organization started in 2008 by Axis Communications, Bosch Security Systems and Sony.
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.
The cornerstones of ONVIF are:
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ONVIF offers three levels of membership: user, contributing and full member, to accommodate individual choices of participation. Full or contributing members can actively influence the development of the standard by participating in the work of the forum. The user member level is open to organizations that wish to use the network interface specification and have access to specification proposals but do not want to participate in any work of the forum. Technology and test tools are available to all ONVIF members to facilitate the development of conformant products.
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.
The benefits of an open standard for network video should include:
ONVIF is open to all companies and interest groups who would like to participate in the work of the forum. It is a non-profit organization with the goal to create a global standard for network video products. Membership comes at three levels of engagement, and the organization has clearly defined membership rules. This ensures that:
Product interoperability is a driving force behind ONVIF, and this means that there must a way for manufacturers to verify their implementation and to ensure that their products are conformant with the specification. ONVIF makes this possible by providing a test specification, a test tool and a formal conformance process.
ONVIF has moved forward following the plans laid out in 2008. The first versions of the ONVIF core specification and test specification were made public in the end of 2008. Since then, several working groups within the forum have been formed to develop the specification further and to enable the members to develop and market conformant products.
ONVIF members include companies active within video surveillance, in particular network video device manufacturers (such as network cameras/IP cameras and video encoders), integrators and video management systems companies.
The ONVIF core specification ver. 1.0 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 ver. 1.0:
ONVIF utilizes IT industry technologies including web services and video, audio and meta-data (VCA) streaming from Motion JPEG, MPEG-4, and H.264 network video devices. Later releases of the ONVIF specification (ver. 2.0) also covers storage and additional aspects of analytics.