Mobotix Criticizes IP Camera Standards Efforts

Published Dec 30, 2009 00:00 AM
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The January 2010 Mobotix Installer magazine posts a series of criticisms and concerns [link no longer available] on the developing PSIA and ONVIF interoperability specifications.

Mobotix specifically objects to:

  • The potential for VMS prices to be lower, claiming, "the capabilities and services built into the application will determine pricing more than anything else." To the contrary, consider the success of open source to release incredibly complex software with no license fee. As interoperability specifications allow broad camera support to be provided without complex integration, it's inevitable that suppliers will offer 3rd party camera support for free, pushing the market to lower prices.
  • "Customers will want access to the latest features much quicker than can be addressed by ONVIF or PSIA." Certainly some will but most will just want basic live streaming video.
  • Mobotix concludes: "Regardless of whose specification becomes a standard, if at all, the success of the camera to software integration will be mostly dependant upon the third party VMS vendors." While VMS vendors will still certainly remain important, camera interoperability will have an impact.
After concluding the critique, Mobotix pushes its 'decentralized' approach that does not require video recording servers (Mobotix video can be recorded directly to a NAS or on-board the camera). It contrasts to the continued need for centralized recording servers for other VMS even if they use ONVIF or PSIA.
 
While the decentralized approach does offer cost savings and simplicity in setup/administration, it also limits users to an all Mobotix solution, constraining users to only their cameras and the functionalities of their own VMS.
 
Mobotix may object but IP camera interoperability has a real risk of increasing Mobotix's position as an isolated outsider in a world of increasingly connected systems.