Support has also been added for Axis Communications’ Zipstream compression technology. This speedy adoption is possible due to the dedicated efforts from Milestone to drive the uptake of open platform technology in the physical security industry.

The Xprotect Device Packs include tested and certified drivers that are optimised to enable the relevant capabilities of a camera or other hardware device to be managed by the Xprotect software. Testing the drivers ensures the highest quality for a video surveillance solution, which is important for total system operability, efficiency and stability.

Milestone works closely with the device manufacturers in the Camera Partner Program (CaPP) to achieve the optimal interaction between their devices and the Xprotect VMS. Milestone has always promoted driver standards like ONVIF and remains dedicated to supporting the broadest range of cameras and devices on the market.

In the case of ONVIF supported devices, it is often assumed that a device that has passed the ONVIF test tool will just work in a given infrastructure. This is not always the case as there are marked idiosyncrasies that need to be taken into account to insure proper interoperability and to leverage full feature use of a device with a VMS. Before ONVIF supported devices are listed on the supported hardware list, they have been tested to ensure 100% functionality with the Xprotect open platform technology.

In the Milestone CaPP, this ONVIF functionality test can be done by Milestone, or the vendors can do the testing in their facility after they have completed a 4-day Milestone training class. The ability to do the complete Milestone certification test can save time and costs for camera manufacturers in their go-to-market strategy.

Device Pack 7.9 also includes support for the Axis Zipstream technology, an advanced mode enabling variable compression as well as variable bit rate. According to Axis, this can reduce the bandwidth up to 50% without major loss in picture quality.

This technology increases compression when less movement is detected in the video. Beyond reducing the bandwidth, the use of advanced compression technologies like Zipstream can also save disk space on the recording servers in a system. The Milestone VMS has been supporting advanced compression technologies since 2012.

Further support includes, extended support for Vivotek cameras, plus 64 new devices from Dahua have also been added, all based on ONVIF, where the compliance test was done by Dahua themselves. Other vendors with new device support in this release include Pelco by Schneider Electronics, Vicon’s Iqeye and Canon.