Standards Battle Expands to Access Control

While IP cameras were the first battleground for establishing standards, the fight is now expanding into access control. ONVIF, the group led by Axis, has now announced its intent [link no longer available] to develop standards for access control. Contrast this to the PSIA who has positioned itself since launch in 2008 to cover access control.

On the other hand, neither group has actually released even draft specifications for access control. PSIA informed us that they plan to release their access control draft in October 2010 during ASIS [Note PSIA refers to their efforts as Area Control as they plan to incorporate intrusion detection as well]. ONVIF informed us they have no timetable for releasing a draft Access Control specification.

While this has zero practical impact on systems today (no specs means no real world use), this does have an important signaling effect. One of PSIA's most consistent arguments for their group was their broader interest beyond video surveillance. With ONVIF announcing its intentions for access control as well, this differentiation is weaker.

Nonetheless, ultimately impact will be determined by actual execution. PSIA has been talking about access control for almost two years now without any actual output. ONVIF just started to make claims this week.