In today’s digital age, vast amounts of data are being generated and exchanged across different systems and platforms, including security systems, IoT devices and other types of sensors. Metadata is crucial for organizing, discovering, and managing this vast amount of information, but without standards for handling metadata, the process can become chaotic, making it difficult to search, reuse, and share data across different systems.
Four of the leading companies in video surveillance – and ONVIF members – share their thoughts on the importance of standards for the true useability of metadata.
How important are standards to the evolution of metadata?
Rudolf Spielberger, Solution Business Partner Program, Bosch Security and Safety Systems: Adhering to common standards – such as ONVIF Profile M for metadata and events for analytics applications – is vital to making metadata reusable and ensuring system interoperability. Combining different metadata sources for verification purposes or building solutions that work with metadata from other sources will help our customers create even more thoughtful and tailored solutions, far beyond security and safety alone.
Gunnar Erlandsson, Global Product Manager, analytics, Axis Communications: Standards are very important. ONVIF Profile M has been instrumental in the security industry’s adoption of metadata to ensure effective interoperability between system components. Further, customers can trust that they do not rely solely on one vendor and do not risk being stuck with legacy systems that cannot be expanded.
Todd Dunning, Director, Product Management, Video Security & Analytics, Pelco: Standards make integration easier, whether it is across companies or within a company. Documented ways to communicate often accelerate end solutions for customers. Although standards are not always the fastest path forward, in the end, it helps manufacturers anticipate technical requirements and can reduce costs and time for integrators, granting them brand flexibility in finding solutions for end users.
Barry Norton, VP of Research, Milestone Systems: Standards are essential in moving beyond basic and generic video analytics to more complex domain-specific solutions. Standards lower the cost barriers and therefore accelerate the adoption process because they scale beyond a single vendor and allow a common interpretation of interconnected data, including video metadata, across the value chain.
