You may remember in our July edition we did a feature on system integration "Integration the 'Holy-Grail", which explored the current state of integration in our industry. One of the main elements to emerge from the article was the lack of a standard equipment control protocol to allow products from different manufacturers to communicate with each other in an integrated system.

The article concluded that currently an integrated system can be defined as a 'system which incorporates products from different manufacturers all communicating primarily in their own language but with some products having the capability to communicate in another manufacturers language'. Not exactly the 'Holy Grail' we are all seeking !

The topic of the article as you would expect created a 'little' interest. One email we received was from a gentleman called Mr Steve Adnitt, current employment; CCTV Project Manager for the Metropolitan Police. Steve's email was to advise us that in our discussions concerning standardisation of product protocols we had overlooked what was taking place in London i.e. "The mandatory use of TVNP 3 (TV Network Protocol) as the control protocol across different CCTV systems".

TVN what ?

Intrigued as we were to ask some questions, we were also wary that this may turn out to be a little bit technical so we asked Stuart Meyers (Meyertech MD) if he would ask the questions.

Stuart Meyers: Who exactly has made it a mandatory requirement ?

Steve Adnitt: TFL and the Metropolitan Police have made it mandatory that any systems supplied to them must be TVNP compliant. It is also a requirement for any systems connecting to either TFL (Transport For London) or Metropolitan Police systems.

Stuart Meyers: What is the history of TVNP ?

Steve Adnitt: The TV Network Protocol or TVNP as it is more commonly referred to is an 'open network protocol' which means it is non-proprietary and was developed to enable CCTV systems from any manufacturer to be integrated into the existing CCTV network. Its roots can be traced back to the Highways Agency HDLC standard.

Stuart Meyers: Who developed the protocol ?

Steve Adnitt: The protocol was developed by Philips Projects now Tyco Integrated Systems. Tyco now acts as the standards and approvals house for companies who want to implement the protocol.

Stuart Meyers: Who owns the protocol ?

Steve Adnitt: TVNP is the property of TFL and is independent of any supplier.

Stuart Meyers: How many manufacturers currently support the protocol ?

Steve Adnitt: Currently there are about half-a-dozen manufacturers who have a partial or full TVNP interface.

Stuart Meyers: Steve, thank you very much for your time.

Whilst TVNP provides high levels of support for audio routing, video routing and camera control it does not yet provide support for DVR control, CCTV alarms, intruder alarm systems, access control, camera configuration etc.

Overall, Meyertech sees this as a positive move forward for the CCTV industry and fully supports the initiative.
More manufacturers will need to sign-up to its implementation if it is to become more than just another proprietary protocol albeit that everyone has equal access to. It will also require further development to cater for the wider market integration needs as well as being kept more up to date, the last issue of the protocol document was over two years ago.