ONVIF held its annual membership meeting recently, providing members with an overview of activities of 2019 and plans for the year ahead. Attendees heard presentations on the growth of ONVIF, as well as plans for new profile development.
Chairman Per Björkdahl highlighted the forum’s achievements over the past year, particularly the market’s continued support for the profile concept, with the number of conformant products surpassing 13,000 earlier this year. With six profiles to choose from and additional ones in development, profiles have increasingly been included in various bid and specification processes in projects. Björkdahl also noted the continued involvement of ONVIF in the International Electrotechnical Commission’s work on international standardisation, in addition to new proposals for cloud connectivity and interoperability between multiple systems.
As is tradition, ONVIF recognised the contributions of multiple individuals from various committees. Steve Wolf, who served on several committees on behalf of Pelco, received the ONVIF Service Award, which acknowledges individuals who have provided a long-term commitment to the organisation. While serving on the Technical Committee, Wolf led the Security Working Group, and was also an active participant in the Video Enhancement Working Group, contributing to a number of improvements in how ONVIF approaches video.
Andreas Schneider of Sony received the ONVIF Distinguished Service Award, which recognises individuals who have made significant contributions to the scheme over many years in multiple functions. Schneider’s long-term service to the Technical Services Committee has positioned him as a major facilitator of the organisation, with contributions to multiple profiles.
“The overarching goal of ONVIF is to provide to the market a single interface through which every system can operate,” said Björkdahl. “Our honourees have shown significant and long-term commitment to our organisation, in turn making this goal a reality one profile at a time. We thank both of our recipients for their innovation, hard work and service.”
ONVIF Technical Committee Chairman, Hans Busch of Bosch, spoke to members about the specification development roadmap, which highlights plans for future profile development, as well as the continued alignment to the standardisation activities within the IEC TC 79 working groups for video surveillance and physical access control standards. Specifically, Busch covered what specifications are being examined for future profiles, and how they complement and further enhance existing ONVIF profiles.
As chair of the Technical Services Committee, Sony’s Schneider gave an overview of the committee’s work on new and existing profiles, client and device test tools, updates to the conformance process and tools, and the Developers’ Plugfest. Shi-lin Chan of Axis Communications, who serves as chair of the ONVIF Communication Committee, provided a recap of ONVIF communication efforts in 2019, and discussed plans for the launch of a Mandarin website later this year.
