Security
ONVIF
An open standard for IP video devices that lets cameras from one manufacturer work with recorders and video management software from another.
ONVIF is what keeps a camera fleet from being locked to one recorder brand. Conformant devices expose discovery, streaming, PTZ, and event handling in a documented way, so a VMS can operate mixed hardware.
Conformance is a floor, not a ceiling: analytics, smart codecs, and advanced configuration usually stay vendor-specific, available only through the manufacturer's own software. Design around ONVIF for the basics, and verify any feature you are actually buying the camera for against the specific VMS version.
Related terms
- IP Camera
- A network camera that encodes video onboard and streams it over Ethernet, typically powered by PoE and recorded by an NVR or video management software.
- VMS
- Software that records, stores, searches, and distributes video from many cameras, and hosts the analytics and access rules on top of them.
- H.265
- A video compression standard that delivers similar quality to H.264 at roughly half the bitrate, cutting storage and bandwidth for surveillance.
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