video ideas

[ronney 0]

We are a large camp/conference center and we are installing automatic gates with a electronic keypad at our front entrance. We have a guard house with a phone line there. We want to install a camera that our office personnel can monitor. Wireless has been ruled out because the distance to the office is to great. What other options might be available? Internet? phone line? Thanks for your help.

[Soundy 1]

If you're still in the process of installing all this, is it possible to run the needed coax (RG59 or RG6) along with everything else? Power for the camera could be drawn from somewhere closer, like the guardhouse or the gate controller.

 

If you can't add new wiring now, all you need for video is a single pair of unused wire, whether it's UTP (Cat5e, Cat3 phone runs, etc.), station wire, bell wire, etc. Basic passive baluns are good for up to 1000' (depending on which manufacturer claims you believe), and active baluns can give you over a mile on twisted pair.

 

Worst case, you could use a video-over-powerline option, or even a short-range, single-point DSL setup to run it over the phone line. Again, the power could be derived somewhere close to the camera - guardhouse, gate controls, etc. - and all you need to worry about is getting the video over that distance.

 

Personally, I'd look first into what wiring is in place for the phone - it's probably Cat3, and probably only using one pair (maybe two, if it's a digital system), so there are two or three spare pairs available there. With that setup, you'd probably run coax and power to the camera; connect the coax to the balun where the phone line terminates; then at the other end, tie in the other balun at the phone panel and run a coax line to the office where you can connect it to the monitor (and to a recorder, if you so desire).