ONVIF, a global standardization initiative for IP-based physical security products, announced that it held its sixth Developer’s Plug Fest earlier this month, an event that drew representatives from more than 20 different manufacturers that have implemented the ONVIF specification in their IP surveillance products.

Hosted by Anixter at its Chicago-area offices, the event was the first face to face opportunity for engineers to test their company’s implementation of ONVIF’s Profile S. Released earlier this year, Profile S describes common functionalities shared by conformant video management systems and devices, such as IP cameras or encoders, that send, configure, request or control the streaming of media data over an IP network. More than half of the nearly 30 devices and clients tested were prototypes that align with Profile S, the first in a series of profiles to be released by ONVIF that simplifies the selection process of compatible devices.

With a total of 257 hours of testing among 53 engineers, the plug fest was ONVIF’s second largest such event to date. The next developer’s plug fest, to be held in September in Asia, will bring this testing process to other member companies in that region. That event and other future plug fests will also provide an opportunity for members to test future profiles and other updates to the specification released by ONVIF over the coming months.

As of March 2012, ONVIF membership included more than 360 companies and nearly 1,600 conformant products available in the market.

For information, visit www.onvif.org.