"New digital technologies for IP video require new standards for cameras, encoders and video analytics if these components are to integrate, or converge, into today's enterprise security systems," said Per Hanssen, president of Salient Systems and chair of SIA Standards' Component Subcommittee. "SIA has published two ANSI standards for digital video which are part of the OSIPS family - 'Framework' and 'Digital Video Interface' - so these revisions ensure that our standards are current and meet the needs of both product developers and product users."

OSIPS modules for access control are to be released for public review in April, but SIA is already developing the "bindings" standards so that access control and digital video systems will be able to operate on a common network, according to Hunter Knight, president of Integrated Command Software, Inc. and chair of SIA Standards' Pan Industry Data Model Subcommittee.

"The heightened demand for standards is leading to the formation of many ad hoc standards efforts in the security industry," Knight said. "We are pleased that SIA is able to offer a public, no-cost, official standards venue for industry groups to bring their contributions for consolidation and harmonization into a single, published standard for public use."

SIA is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards developing organization, and it follows a prescribed process for standards development. SIA standards participation is open to the public. Anyone interested in participating can find information and meeting schedules on the SIA Web site at http://www.siaonline.org/.