Multi-Vendor CCTV Integration: Getting Old and New Cameras on One Screen

Cameras are rarely all bought at once — a site adds a few during initial construction, more during an expansion, and replaces individual failed units over the years, often through whichever vendor was available at the time. The result is a mix of brands and camera generations, each with its own recording software and login, none originally designed to share a screen with the others.

Most professional-grade cameras, regardless of brand, support the ONVIF standard — a common protocol for video streaming that lets a unified video management platform pull feeds from multiple vendors into one interface. Where a camera predates ONVIF or uses a proprietary format, a gateway or bridge can often still pull its feed in, though with some limitations depending on age.

Very old analogue cameras without any digital output typically can't be integrated directly — their video signal needs to be digitised first through an encoder, which is usually still cheaper than full camera replacement. A proper site audit, camera by camera, is what determines the realistic integration path rather than a blanket assumption either way.