The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance’s (PSIA) IP media device application programming interface (API) is gaining the attention of the industry’s leading companies involved in networked professional security and surveillance systems. This document, which was released at the ASIS conference in September, has already had more than 100 companies register to receive the specification.
“We anticipated a strong response from the professional security industry as the demand for networked systems continues to grow at a rapid pace,” said David Bunzel, executive director of the PSIA. “Companies offering networked solutions expressed strong interest in working with the PSIA to support standards that will further accelerate interoperability and seamless compatibility across a diverse range of applications including building management, access control, storage, and voice over IP.”
Because of the open nature of the IP Media Device specification, it is readily available by registering at the PSIA web site. One of the benefits of becoming a member of the PSIA is being able to participate in the working groups. This allows a company to provide contributions to specifications and have access to specifications at an early stage of their development. The PSIA remains dedicated to representing and reflecting the broadest set of inputs and industry perspectives, and supports industry specifications and standards that will enable all manufacturers and service providers to develop and deliver functionality and value to end users.
“GE Security is committed to the work of the PSIA, especially in helping drive the development of products that can be easily configured to support customer requirements,” said Tom Cashman, general manager, video products, GE Security. “A great example of this work is the PSIA’s IP media device specification, which has the potential to simplify integration, reduce costs for companies developing products, and facilitate faster growth of the industry.”
The PSIA held its fifth meeting at the ASIS show which included the election of officers, the addition of a second working group to address video analytics, and the formation of an ad-hoc group to support storage requirements. Rob Hile of Adesta LLC was elected chairman, Danny Petkevich of Texas Instruments was elected vice chairman, and Francis LaChance of Genetec was elected treasurer. The analytics working group will be led by Bob Cutting of ObjectVideo and the ad-hoc storage group will be led by Igal Dvir of NICE Systems.
“With analytics more and more becoming a core component within enterprise video surveillance systems, the market response to current standard protocol initiatives from analytic and video management platforms has been extremely positive,” declares Bob Cutting, who heads product management at ObjectVideo. “PSIA, with its membership representing the entire video ecosystem, provides an ideal channel through which we can collectively assemble a single standard to simplify video analytic deployment by system integrators for end customers.”
The PSIA is already taking steps to engage other industry and standards organizations to collaborate, advance specifications, and support open standards. The PSIA has been represented at CENELEC meetings in Europe and is working with other international standards bodies. The PSIA has also made contact with other industry standards groups and will work towards open standards and specifications which provide significant benefits to the industry.
About the PSIA
The Physical Security Interoperability Alliance (PSIA) is an open membership organization founded in February 2008 to promote the interoperability of IP-enabled security devices. Participating companies include Adesta LLC, ADT Security Services, Cisco Systems, CSC, DVTel, GE Security, Genetec, IBM, IQinVision, Johnson Controls, March Networks, ObjectVideo, Orsus, Panasonic, Pelco, Santa Clara Consulting Group, Stanley Security, Texas Instruments, Verint, and Vidyo.
