This part 2-3 of IEC 62676 defines procedures for communication between network video clients and video transmitter devices based on Web Services. This new set of specifications makes it possible to build network video systems with devices and receivers from different manufacturers using common and well defined interfaces. These interfaces cover functions such as device management, real-time streaming of audio and video, event handling, Pan, Tilt and Zoom (PTZ) control, video analytics as well as control, search and replay of recordings.

The management and control interfaces defined in this standard are described as Web services. This international standard also contains full XML schema and Web Service Description Language (WSDL) definitions for the introduced network video services.

In order to offer full plug-and-play interoperability, the standard defines procedures for device discovery. The device discovery mechanisms in the standard are based on the WS-Discovery specification with extensions. These extensions have been introduced in order to cover the specific network video discovery needs.

This standard is not limited to discovery, configuration and control functions, but defines precise formats for media and metadata streaming in IP networks using suitable profiling of IETF standards. Furthermore, appropriate protocol extensions have been introduced in order to make it possible for network video manufacturers to offer a fully standardized network video transfer solution to its customers and integrators.

A video transmission device supporting compliance to the requirements of this standard with the help of Web services according to the specification of this part is declared as compatible to IEC 62676‑2 Web service Interoperability.

The goal of this standard is to realize a fully interoperable network video implementation comprised of products from different network video vendors. This standard describes the network video model, interfaces, data types and data exchange patterns. The standard reuses existing relevant standards where available, and introduces new specifications only where necessary to support the specific requirements for network video surveillance. This is the Open Network Video Interface Forum (ONVIF) core specification. In addition, ONVIF has released the following related specifications:

The purpose of this standard is to define the ONVIF specification framework, and is divided into the following sections:

Specification overview: Gives an overview of the different specification parts and how they are related to each other.

Web Services Framework: Offers a brief introduction to Web Services and the Web Services basis for the ONVIF specifications.

IP configuration: Defines the ONVIF network video IP configuration requirements.

Device discovery: Describes how devices are discovered in local and remote networks.

Device management: Defines the network video transmitter management commands.

DeviceIO: Defines commands to handle physical inputs and outputs.

Display: Defines commands to deal with display devices.

Imaging and media: Defines the configuration commands related to imaging and media settings.

Real time streaming: Provides requirements for interoperable video, audio and metadata streaming.

Event handling: Defines how to subscribe to and receive data from network video events (notifications).

PTZ control: Provides commands for pan, tilt and zoom control.

Video analytics: Defines the ONVIF analytics model, analytics object description and analytics rules configurations.

Video analytics device: Defines commands to deal with a video analytics device.

Recording control: Defines mechanism for the configuring of recordings.

Recording search and replay control: Provides commands for retrieval of recorded media including metadata.

Security section: Defines the transport and message level security requirements on ONVIF compliant implementations.