PTZ Control Wiring

[CCTVBeginner 0]

What type of cabling is required for the control wire for a PTZ camera installation? I have one distributor telling me Cat3 is OK and another saying Cat5 is a minimum. Who is right?

[Michelangelo 0]

You need a unshielded twisted pair normally. Therefore you can use two of the wires of a CAT5. Just check if you need a ground also for your system then you need one extra wire.

[survtech 0]

What type of cabling is required for the control wire for a PTZ camera installation? I have one distributor telling me Cat3 is OK and another saying Cat5 is a minimum. Who is right?

Either. So is just about any twisted-pair cable; either unshielded or shielded; for runs of 1000 ft. or less. The difference is maximum distance: UTP CAT-5 or better will get you up to 4,000 ft. with RS485/422 signals. If you use shielded cable, only attach the shield to a ground at one end; usually at the "head end" (the controller). This will help prevent ground loops. Properly grounded, at one end only, it is more resistant to external interference. You can splice the grounds if you daisy chain multpile PTZ's, just don't connect them at any ptz or allow the shield to touch grounded metal. Trim the shield at the last PTZ in a chain and make certain it can't touch metal anywhere.

 

We used 22/2 shielded for years for runs up to well beyond 1,000 ft. with excellent results. We only started using CAT-5 for data when we started using it for video a couple of years ago. It works at least as good as shielded for data and is a bit easier to use because we don't have to worry about keeping the shield insulated from ground.

 

If your control signal is RS232 (rare these days), you do need shielded cable and the distances are severely reduced, to approximately 50 ft.

[Soundy 1]

I've used a variety of wiring for PTZ control - 18/2 shielded/untwisted, Cat-3, Cat-5e, 22/2 unshielded, etc. As others have noted, it depends partly on the distance.

 

We're running Cat-5e to cameras more and more often (to allow future expansion to IP cameras), using video baluns for analog video and running power over two pairs, and where PTZ is required, you then still have one pair available for serial.