This International Standard is mainly for societal security purposes and specifies a common output file format that can be extracted from the video-surveillance contents collection systems (stand alone machines or large scale systems) by an exchangeable data storage media or through a network to allow end-users to access digital video-surveillance contents and perform their necessary processing. The means of exchange are not part of this International Standard.

This common output file format relies on a combination of several technical standards that individually are not restrictive enough to provide the requested interoperability. These standards are formally referenced to avoid duplications or divergence. When appropriate to improve the interoperability, subsets or a limited number only of these standards are called.

Since video-surveillance recording often includes taking records of citizens, requirements relating to privacy, use of the records and their disposal are also considered. Based on the above mentioned technical standards, the following format components are covered:
— Video;
— Audio;
— Metadata:
— Descriptive (location, camera identifier, etc.)
— Dynamic (date, time, pan, tilt, zoom, identification results, etc.)
— Encapsulation/packaging for the output file;
— Data/access security and integrity;
— Provisions for privacy;
— Informative data regarding the presentation to users.