The ISC West 2026 exhibition in Las Vegas a few weeks ago may have been one of the busiest shows in recent memory, and we were right in the middle of it! Strong booth traffic, hundreds of industry conversations, dozens of member discussions, and yes, several hundred chocolate cookies, each wrapped with a specific ONVIF Profile. The cookies were conversation starters by design, and they worked better than we could have hoped.

ONVIF Chairman Leo Levit and Ambassador Roberto Licari held press and analyst briefings throughout the show and also moved across the floor meeting with manufacturers, integrators, consultants, and end users — introducing ONVIF to new audiences and reconnecting with familiar ones. 

Stepping back from the bustle, what struck us most was the quality of the conversations. There was a genuine appetite to understand how ONVIF works — how profiles are developed, what conformance actually means, and how open standards translate into real-world deployment decisions. That curiosity extended across experience levels, from seasoned integrators to attendees who were encountering ONVIF for the first time. 

Cloud and AI were equally present in those discussions. Nobody was asking whether these technologies belong in physical security. They were asking how to deploy them well, at scale, and across complex multi-manufacturer environments without trading flexibility. That’s a meaningful shift, and one worth paying attention to.

Wider adoption has always been the trigger point for standardization. We saw it with IP cameras in the late 2000s, and the pattern is familiar again now with cloud-connected and AI-enabled systems. The opportunity to establish open frameworks before proprietary approaches become entrenched is one that ONVIF is extremely well-positioned to act on.

Which brings us to what we’re most excited to share. ONVIF is setting the stage for two significant new standardization efforts. The first is a deepening of our scope in access control. As deployments grow more sophisticated and the demand for seamless integration between access control and video systems increases, the case for open, standardized interoperability only grows stronger. More details on this initiative are coming in our next newsletter and across our social channels — stay tuned.

The second is a framework for interoperability within AI systems — addressing how AI-driven analytics communicate and share metadata across devices and platforms from different manufacturers. As AI becomes embedded across video surveillance, access control and other technology disciplines, common standards become increasingly important for integrators and end users managing multi-vendor environments.

We have already laid important groundwork here with Profile M, which standardizes metadata and event communication for analytics applications — from vehicle and license plate detection to facial recognition — and expands conformance to include cloud- and server-based services, not just traditional hardware. That foundation is what makes the next chapter of AI standardization possible.

We want your input on both efforts. If you’re working in access control, AI-enabled security, or both, please reach out to our Ambassador for more information at roberto.licari@onvif.org.

And if you missed us in Las Vegas — sign up for our newsletter at onvif.org to stay current on everything ahead.