Monday, I talked about network plug-and-play. Today, let’s explore how to get your IP camera to work with an MVaaS provider. To start with, you probably need to go hunting for someone with some FM skills. Why? Because there are not yet standards defined to allow any IP camera to communicate with any MVaaS provider.

Why would I want my IP camera to work with an MVaaS provider? There are several reasons. The first one is simple: youtube. Why is youtube successful? Very simply, it’s because video files are big, easily 1 megabyte/minute for low resolution (320×240). You can’t send a 5 minute video to a friend via email because the attachment is just too large. But, you can upload that video to a central site, and then send a link to your friend. There are probably 50 youtube clones out in the Internet today for just this reason.

What else can MVaaS do for my IP cameras? It can provide tools for sharing. It can provide an integration of your video with other business data such as Point of Sale events. It can persist (save) your video indefinitely. It can provide a high-volume, reliable distribution point for streaming your clip to others that is unaffected by your local Internet broadband capacity. It can provide an interface to video analytics services. The list is limited only by your imagination and wallet.

What kind of innovation would help customers use IP cameras with MVaaS? What types of standards would be helpful?

How about a dynamic configuration protocol designed for a wide area network? A protocol that would allow an IP camera to register itself with an MVaaS, exchange configuration information, and begin streaming video to the MVaaS remote storage. How could I use that if it was implemented across MVaaS and IP camera vendors? Simple: I could plug any IP camera in, anywhere in the Internet, and it would start inter-working with any MVaaS provider, automatically.

And most importantly, it would work without the need for any FM!