Continental View

The Taiwan-based CCTV equipment manufacturer Merit Lilin has scored something of a coup, becoming the first company to release ONVIF conformant products.

According to an ONVIF announcement released today, Lilin’s ONVIF compliant products include high-speed dome cameras, external IR cameras and a standalone video encoder.

From the press release:

“We congratulate Merit Lilin on launching the first ONVIF conformant products,” says Andreas Schneider, Sony Corporation and Chairman of ONVIF’s Technical Services Committee. “Having the first conformant products on the market is an important milestone for ONVIF. It also proves that the ONVIF specification, test tool and conformance process enable manufacturers to easily develop and verify ONVIF conformant products, which is key to achieve global interoperability.”

According to an announcement from Lilin, this is just the beginning of its line of products that will meet ONVIF specifications:

Lilin believe IP CCTV is about to overcome many of the obstacles that has stopped it replacing analogue systems. Over the coming months further announcements will herald the release of more segments of the Lilin product range compliant with the Onvif standard, resulting in a full system offering and extended camera range.

Not only will this allow Lilin to supply full IP systems with future proof interoperability but will also provide users with the option to select third party Onvif compliant products for integration, including Video Analytics and Video Management Software.”

Lilin may be the first, but it won’t have the field to itself for long. As ONVIF steering committee chairman Jonas Andersson confirmed to me recently, at a minimum, all three ONVIF founders (Axis, Bosch and Sony) have pledged to release ONVIF compliant products before the year is out.

The latest count has ONVIF membership at more than 70 companies, and ONVIF said it will be keeping track of those releasing compliant products on its
Web site.