Axis supports ONVIF network video standard in 'spy' camera

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 22 September 2009 08:15

Your IT - Home IT

It might not be the first company to deliver ONVIF compliant products, but networked camera specialist Axis has revealed the first of its products to support the open protocol.

The ONVIF (Open Network Video Interface Forum) specification defines a common protocol for the exchange of information between network video devices including automatic device discovery, video streaming and intelligence metadata.

The first ONVIF conformant products were released in August by Taiwan-based Merit Lilin. The models included dome cameras, external infra-red cameras, and a video encoder.

And earlier this month, ten vendors - Axis, Bosch, Canon, Hitachi, IndigoVision, Merit Lilin, Panasonic, Sony, Vivotek and Zuken - took part in the first ONVIF plugfest to demonstrate interoperability.

At the time, Markus Wierny, a member of ONVIF's technical services committee and the organiser of the plugfest, said "We are very pleased with the results from the plug fest as all companies successfully achieved the goal of interoperability with the other participants." Wierny is employed by Bosch Security Systems.

Now Axis - which scored a big contract with Swinburne University - has announced a firmware update for its P3301 fixed dome camera to deliver ONVIF support.

"This demonstrates our commitment to supporting the ONVIF specification in our products," said director of product management Erik Frännlid, who added "we will implement ONVIF support in the majority of our network video products, either directly at launch or in firmware updates."

Please read on for more on Axis's ONVIF announcement, and information about its latest models.