Block 2. Standards and Interoperability

1

ONVIF Explained for Engineers: Profiles, Discovery, and What It Really Standardizes

What is ONVIF, and what does the protocol actually standardize? A plain-language guide to ONVIF profiles, device discovery, and the vendor-SDK boundary.

2

ONVIF Profile S, G, T, and M — Which Profile Your Product Needs

ONVIF Profile S, G, T, or M — which does your camera or VMS need? A plain-language decision guide to what each profile guarantees, device vs client.

3

RTSP, RTP, and How Surveillance Video Moves on the Wire

ONVIF vs RTSP confuses most buyers: one finds the camera, the other controls it, and RTP carries the video. How surveillance streams move, explained.

4

PSIA and the Other Interoperability Standards

PSIA vs ONVIF, OSDP vs Wiegand, MQTT, IEC 62676: a clear map of physical-security interoperability standards and which does which job in 2026.

5

Proprietary Camera SDKs: When ONVIF Is Not Enough

ONVIF is a baseline, not a ceiling. When camera vendor SDKs (Axis, Hikvision, Dahua, Hanwha, Bosch) are worth the integration cost and lock-in.

6

Camera Discovery and Onboarding at Scale

How a VMS discovers IP cameras with WS-Discovery, why multicast stops at the router, and how to onboard hundreds of cameras securely and by template.

7

Events, Metadata, and the ONVIF Analytics Interface

How ONVIF events, metadata, and the analytics interface let a camera and a VMS agree on a detection — pull vs push, scene description, and Profile M.

8

Interoperability in Practice: The Multi-Vendor Reference Pattern

How a VMS unifies cameras from many makers: try ONVIF first, fall back to RTSP for video, reach for a vendor SDK only for named features.