ampleworks 0 Posted January 6, 2011 We have a system that has approximately 100 different varieties of cameras installed by a vendor who didn't think much about the future. All wires are located under a 28" counter in a dark control room. All of the 24VAC power supply units are positioned so close together, you cannot even open them all the way. Nothing is labeled nor is there a map. Six GE SymSafe Pro recorders are in portable racks that loop into a GE switcher = 200+ coax cables laying on the floor) so its pretty much impossible to see where things are going and to troubleshoot camera outages. Since all of the cabling and racks are sitting on the floor, they are easily (inadvertently) bumped, moved, and kicked by staff whom work the control room. Lots of the cable is either off-brand plenum that I cannot find compression connectors to fit (good) or junk Chinese cable. I'm looking for input on the best course of action to solve these issues. I'm wondering if there is really a feasible alternative to re-cabling the entire facility (55K SQFT) into a new room with full racks and cable management. Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted January 6, 2011 How well are the cameras working now, particularly the ones on the "cheap" cable? If they're good, I'd probably forgo rewiring - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Of course, if too substantial a number need to be rewired, it might become more efficient to just redo them all. I've never worked a job this big, but I have run into this sort of situation several times. My preference in such a situation (short of complete rewiring into racks with cable management, which is the ideal) would at the very least be taking everything offline, disconnecting all the cables and untangling them (as much as possible), tracing all the runs and labeling them properly, then bundling them in some sort of orderly fashion - a bundle for each recorder, organized by coverage area or camera purpose or camera type (fixed/PTZ/etc.), or whatever makes sense - then trimming them to length (along with a suitable service loop) and re-terminating them. Same applies to the power supplies. Obviously this promises to be a monumental task, especially tracing of the runs... I could see a couple days being dedicated just to that task, and of course, you'd be offline the whole time. Might not be that desirable. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SEANHAWG 1 Posted January 7, 2011 Just sell all of the used equipment to us and start over with brand new equipment. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ampleworks 0 Posted January 11, 2011 Days without cameras in correctional facility not exactly ideal. My plan is re-cable everything sans termination. Once everything is cabled, do the swing shift moving a couple recorders at a time while inmates are locked down. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soundy 1 Posted January 11, 2011 Sounds like a good plan! We have a lot of that going on around here these days with bridges and overpasses... they're replacing probably a dozen overpasses as part of a major highway expansion, so they're building all the new ones, diverting the roads to them, then demolishing the old ones Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
