We’ve been very busy in the past few months, focusing mostly on the development of a new ONVIF camera profile. ONVIF is an industry standard interface used to monitor, control and administer IP cameras and NVR/DVR devices. With one single standard we will be able to support over 7000+ compatible hardware products. This is far better than the 200+ custom drivers we have authored over the past 8 years.
ONVIF Profile S and Profile G will provide RTSP media streams (audio and video), JPEG snapshots, PTZ control, motion detection and recorded video playback for devices that support the ONVIF versions of these APIs. A word of caution however, even if your device claims ONVIF compliance it doesn’t mean that all of these features are implemented. Most of our test devices do not seem to implement the event notifications for motion, or the recorded video playback. All of them will have video as this is a requirement of the standard, but even audio and PTZ are optional features for a manufacturer to claim ONVIF compliance.
This means that in some cases our existing custom drivers will be much more full-featured than an ONVIF equivalent. A good example is Foscam, with ONVIF compliance for audio/video/PTZ but no support for motion detection or SD card playback. Our existing Foscam driver is the better choice for these.
Work continues, with a release planned prior to the December holiday season…..