A method for facilitating exchange of multimedia information between one or more camera devices and a plurality of user devices, comprising: receving by a bridging apparatus, multimedia data via an Internet Protocol, IP, interface from one of the one or more camera devices; transcoding, by the bridging apparatus, the multimedia data from an IP format to a peripheral bus format; outputting, by the bridging apparatus, the reformatted multimedia data on a peripheral bus interface to one or more of the plurality of user devices; translating, by the bridging apparatus, a first control message received on the IP interface from one of the one or more camera device into the peripheral bus format; translating, by the bridging apparatus, a second control message received on the peripheral bus interface from one of the plurality of user devices into the IP interface format; transmitting, by the bridging apparatus, the translated second control message via the IP interface to one or more of the camera devices; wherein the translating comprises looking up a look-up table, LUT, for translation of the control messages; wherein the LUT has multiple columns corresponding to multiple peripheral bus protocols, and multiple rows, wherein each row provides a translation of a uniform single control protocol command to a peripheral bus command; receiving, by the bridging apparatus, control messages from the one or more of the plurality of user devices for controlling the one or more camera devices, wherein each of the user devices uses its own peripheral bus protocol to send the control messages to simultaneously access and control video streams provided by the one or more camera devices; and controlling, by the bridging apparatus, the one or more camera devices with the uniform, single control protocol. receving by a bridging apparatus, multimedia data via an Internet Protocol, IP, interface from one of the one or more camera devices; transcoding, by the bridging apparatus, the multimedia data from an IP format to a peripheral bus format; outputting, by the bridging apparatus, the reformatted multimedia data on a peripheral bus interface to one or more of the plurality of user devices; translating, by the bridging apparatus, a first control message received on the IP interface from one of the one or more camera device into the peripheral bus format; translating, by the bridging apparatus, a second control message received on the peripheral bus interface from one of the plurality of user devices into the IP interface format; transmitting, by the bridging apparatus, the translated second control message via the IP interface to one or more of the camera devices; wherein the translating comprises looking up a look-up table, LUT, for translation of the control messages; wherein the LUT has multiple columns corresponding to multiple peripheral bus protocols, and multiple rows, wherein each row provides a translation of a uniform single control protocol command to a peripheral bus command; receiving, by the bridging apparatus, control messages from the one or more of the plurality of user devices for controlling the one or more camera devices, wherein each of the user devices uses its own peripheral bus protocol to send the control messages to simultaneously access and control video streams provided by the one or more camera devices; and controlling, by the bridging apparatus, the one or more camera devices with the uniform, single control protocol.