ONVIF Profiles S, T, G & M
Profiles are the heart of ONVIF interoperability. A product certified on a higher profile is certified on every lower one too — so "Profile S" on a camera means it will do discovery + streaming, and "Profile T" on an NVR means it can pull streams from any S/T camera.
Profile S — the baseline every setup uses
Discovery (WS-Discovery): the NVR finds the camera on the LAN without manual IP entry. Stream setup: RTSP-style pull of live and recorded video. PTZ & events: pan/tilt/zoom control and motion alerts over the wire. This is what 99% of "will camera X work in NVR Y" questions reduce to.
Profile T — one stream, many viewers
Transmission profile adds RTP multicast sessions and N-to-1 stream sharing. If five operator stations watch the same 4K camera, without T each station would pull its own stream and the camera would burn 5× the bandwidth. T-certified products can share one encoded stream across clients.
Profile G — manage the camera remotely
Device management: remote firmware upgrades, config backup/restore, log retrieval. Enterprise VMS deployments require G to roll firmware across hundreds of cameras. Consumer NVRs rarely exercise it.
Profile M — analytics on the wire
Media analytics: motion detection rules, object tracking and counting sent as structured events rather than raw frames. This is the tier that lets a third-party NVR or VMS surface "person crossed the line" without buying the camera brand's own software.
The practical matrix
| Goal | Camera needs | NVR needs |
|---|---|---|
| Basic live view + record | Profile S | Profile S |
| Same feed on many clients | Profile S | Profile T |
| Firmware / config management | Profile G | Profile G |
| Third-party motion / tracking events | Profile M | Profile M |
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