IP Video Close to Standards???

Once a new technology gets media coverage, it's common to presume that it's immediately ready for prime time.  This week, a new article declares IP-based video close to standardization. Unfortunately, the article never defines how close is close. 

At the same time, the article bemoans the lack of standards in traditional video surveillance. However, analog video does have standards - it's NTSC and PAL. They work very well -- demonstrated by the fact that no one ever thinks about compatability issues when dealing with fixed analog cameras. This is in stark contrast to IP cameras where integrators must continuously figure out what IP cameras work with what VMS systems, what firmware the IP camera is using, what software version the VMS is using and what issues you might have between the two.

The reality is that commonly implemented standards for IP cameas are a number of years away. Right now, we have Version 1.0 specifications from competing groups. There's a lot of work to go from that to market acceptance (as we examined in the ONVIF / PSIA comparison).