Standard Advantages

• By Brent Dirks
• Mar 24, 2010

With ISC West officially beginning this morning, one of the largest and most influential tradeshows in the industry should be off to a running start with a large focus on the trend of physical security migrating to network world.

A major trend IP side of the industry is the move to standardization. One of the advantages of network-based security is the possibility for the plug-and-play interfaces based around the standard way of transmitting data across the network.

A move to standardization makes it much easier for end users to pick exactly with type of technology would best fit the situation while leading to fewer installation headaches for integrators. Manufacturers also do not have to worry about devising customized drivers for different types of equipment

The two players in the arena -- the Physical Security Interoperability Alliance and the Open Network Video Interface Forum -- are both hosting plugfests Thursday afternoon at the conference. Both events are open to all ISC West attendees.

With 64 companies as members, PSIA will be showing various specification-enabled products, including video surveillance, access control and intrusion detection during its event starting at 3 p.m. in Room 803.

“This technology showcase demonstrates the progress we have made over the past six months in reaching our goal of developing specifications that enable an entire IP solution,” said Roger Richter, chairman of PSIA Systems Working Group. “The steps we have made with all of our protocol and data definitions is truly significant, but the ultimate standard of interoperability is only achieved when all the pieces of the security ecosystem work together, without custom integration, in a cohesive fashion.”

ONVIF, which currently has a membership of more than 150 companies, will have 25 participants in the interoperability demonstration at 4:30 p.m. in Room 2203.

“This is a great step toward global interoperability,” said Andreas Schneider, Sony Corp. and chairman of ONVIF’s Technical Services Committee. “We are excited to see a mix of video surveillance product manufacturers and video management software providers among the participating companies. Visitors will get a clear understanding of what a global standard will mean for the market, and how it will be possible to use products from different vendors in the same surveillance system without any costly integration work.”

There are currently more than 70 ONVIF produces released by 11 companies.

I’ll be attending both events and look forward to reporting back. As always, follow me on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/BrentDirks) for up-to-date reporting from the show floor.