Recognising the increasing adoption of surveillance cameras and network video recorders (NVRs) in commercial and residential applications, Control4 has improved the interoperability of different models within its systems. Five leading security monitoring manufacturers have implemented Control4’s Simple Device Discovery Protocol (SDDP). This means that there is now SDDP driver support for two brands of NVRs and more than 1,500 models of surveillance cameras.
Control4 has also developed IP camera driver-creation tools that will simplify installation and provide new features that are said to deliver a robust and accessible remote security monitoring experience for homeowners and commercial facility managers.
“We’ve seen a big uptick in the integration of security and surveillance into Control4 systems in recent years — in fact, nearly one-third of projects with Control4 systems now include some form of security,” said Paul Williams, Control4 vice president of security & communications. “With the vast number of surveillance cameras and two brands of NVRs now supported by our SDDP technology, which automatically identifies and loads drivers for supported IP-connected devices, we expect security automation in Control4 projects to grow even more. Our Dealers will be able to integrate a broader range of security monitoring options into homes, multi-dwelling units and commercial projects.”
Watch Control4’s Paul Williams discussing camera interoperability at ISE 2014 here.
To make deployment and integration of surveillance systems less time consuming and more feature-rich, Control4 has provided security camera manufacturers with access to a newly published camera proxy API, available in the Control4 DriverWorks SDK. This API will enable security manufacturers such as Channel Vision, Lilin, Planet, QNAP, and Snap AV to develop Control4-certified drivers that will take full advantage of the capabilities of each of the individual models that they manufacture. And since SDDP will be deployed in these new cameras, integrating popular features into the Control4 ecosystem – like facial and numberplate recognition and advanced motion detection – will be a simple matter of dragging and dropping the driver into place within Composer Pro. Network set-up will also be more efficient because Control4-certified cameras will no longer require a static IP address.
In addition, all of Control4’s mobile apps will fully support H.264 video streaming.
The enhanced functionality, new tools and interoperability with cameras via SDDP will be available with the release of Control4 OS 2.5.3, which is scheduled to be released later this month.
