We are thrilled to introduce Roberto Licari, the very first ONVIF Ambassador! 

Roberto brings a wealth of experience from his extensive career in the physical security market, where he has focused on physical security, IT security, and data protection for the past three decades. His passion for interoperability and integration, honed through years of working with international companies and founding his own consultancy, will be instrumental in his new role. 

As an ONVIF Ambassador, Roberto will help to spread the word about the ONVIF organization, our culture, and our people, and highlight the many opportunities for the industry to become involved in shaping the industry’s future standards.

Roberto shares more about his background, perspectives and passion for interoperability in our Q&A below. 

• Please tell us about your experience in the physical security industry. What kinds of roles have you held throughout your career?

I have spent my entire career in security. In the first half of my career, I was involved in IT security, specifically relating to the data protection business. During those years, I owned two companies active in the Italian market that offered storage and backup solutions, along with some standardization work. In the second part of my experience, I have spent actively working in the physical security market, beginning when the IP camera was first introduced, working for many international companies such as Bosch and Verint. I also spent many years in the Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) market, reaching a very high level of expertise particularly with integrated solutions and open protocols.

Most recently, I have run my own consultancy company, working on many interesting and challenging international projects. This has allowed me to expand my technological knowledge into many devices, technologies and solutions for the safety, security and building management markets. 

• How has that shaped your views on the physical security industry and the future of this market?

Acting as consultant and advisor, directly managing large projects in multiple vertical markets, has given me a very wide view of the global security market and has enabled me to engage with many different companies and products around the world. My focus has always been on integration, with a holistic approach that encompasses the multiple elements of a solution – interoperability between hardware devices, software solution integration, as well as the organization’s SOPs (Standard Operating Procedure), process review and auditing. 

I am a consistent advocate of open platforms and interoperability between vendors and I am strongly convinced this will continue to be the winning trend for years to come. The main reason is that end users will be able to protect their security investments by selecting the best available technology for their needs at any time during the security system lifecycle. 

• Can you share with us your perspective on the current trends in the physical security market?

At the moment, I see a very dynamic market but also a chaotic one.  New technologies and trends seem to be emerging every other day, certainly with AI but also within PSIM, integration, cloud, PIAM (Physical Identity Access Management) and in many more areas. On the other hand, there is a growing gap of knowledge and technical preparation for these new offerings, combined with confusion in the market on the usage and definition of the different terminologies. Technology is moving so quickly that I can see a widening gap between the specifications in project tenders and the features and technologies that are introduced to the market by the time the project comes to fruition. The result is that some projects are sometimes executed with products that do not provide the latest features available. This is the area where open protocols can be crucial to a project’s ultimate success!

• How do you see those trends presenting opportunities and challenges to ONVIF in the future?

ONVIF is a perfect example of what I discussed above. In general, systems integrators, resellers and end users are overloaded with the wide array of available technologies, but they do not have a clear picture of how to use them and what are the full benefits for their implementations. This has made it very important to educate and properly describe the actual benefits of these technologies. Being a standard in this somewhat confused market is, in my opinion, both a nice challenge and opportunity for ONVIF. When there is chaos, standardization brings order and continuity to markets that are undergoing technological disruption and transformation. ONVIF represents end user needs by shifting the focus to product functionality instead of specific brands. 

• What will be your role within ONVIF?

In my role as ONVIF Ambassador, I will be out in the “community” (conferences, trade shows, other industry events) interacting with as many people as possible to discuss the value of ONVIF. This feedback will continue to help shape how we support all of our stakeholders – manufacturers, service providers, software developers, consultants, systems integrators, end users and more. My hope is that these interactions will help to grow ONVIF membership – both in numbers and in scope – to help us continue to standardize the technologies that our industry needs both now and in the future. 

I encourage anyone with thoughts and ideas to reach out to me at roberto.licari@onvif.org to discuss or to arrange a meeting at a future event.