ONVIF (the Open Network Video Interface Forum) is a global and open industry forum with the goal of facilitating the development and use of a global open standard for the interface of physical IP-based security products. ONVIF creates 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.[1]
It was officially incorporated as a non-profit, 501(c)6Delaware 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.
ONVIF concerns itself with standardization of communication between IP-based physical security products to achieve open interoperability between equipment from different manufacturers. The ONVIF protocol offers API endpoints for configuring, controlling, and managing IP-based physical security products. While ONVIF can facilitate access to streaming URLs, the actual streaming is handled through protocols like RTSP. One of the most common use cases for ONVIF is in IP camera.
Members
In December 2009, the ONVIF member base had grown to 103 members. This comprised 12 full members, 13 contributing members and 78 user members.[2] In December 2010, the forum had more than 240 members and more than 440 conformant products on the market.[3] By January 2015, this had grown to more than 3,700 ONVIF conformant products and 500 members.[4] By August 2016, this had grown to more than 6,900 conformant products on the market but shrunk to 461 members.[5] In February 2020, ONVIF reached more than 14,000 conformant products.[6] As of June 2022[update], there are 496 members and more than 23000 conformant products.[7]
Name
ONVIF originally was an acronym for Open Network Video Interface Forum. The longer name was dropped as the scope of the standard expanded beyond video applications.[8]
Specification
The ONVIF Core Specification aims to standardize the network interface (on the network layer) of network video products.[9] 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 version 1.0:
