PSIA Standards Webinar Examined

Published Nov 05, 2009 00:00 AM
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A webinar sponsored by VidSys discussed how new security standards (specifically PSIA standards) for IP appliances and PSIM are helpful towards businesses.  The contributors in the webinar included representatives from the PSIA, GE Security [link no longer available] and VidSys. This webinar covers the basics and is not necessary for those who have been following the developments in standard in depth.

The webinar began with a historical background of the PSIA and pointed out how end users, integrators, and manufacturers would benefit the most from a unified standard. 

The PSIA has organized active working groups to focus on the development of standards in the fields of IP Video, RaCM (Recording and Content Management), Systems, Video Analytics, and Area Control (access control and intrusion).

They stressed the challenges of an industry without standards by pointing out cases of incompatibilities due to proprietorship and offered an analogy by discussing the differing standards in the television broadcasting industry (NTSC vs PAL).

The webinar concluded with a Q&A session that provided the following points of interest:

  • The IP Video working group released a specification called the IP Media Device API, which is a common API that can be implemented in camera and VMS systems. They noted that a number of VMS and camera manufacturers already implemented the specification however, as of November 2009, no products currently in production support the PSIA API.
  • The IP Video working group are developing compliance test tools but no date was mentioned.
  • The Video Analytics group will have a draft specification before the end of the year.
  • None of the speakers knew if PSIA standards are/will be interoperable with standards from SIA or ARTS.