Wiring Issue?

[jdowning 0]

Hi there,

 

I own a restaurant and will want to be putting a CCTV system in.

 

If I use CAT5 cable (exterior), I should put a balun at the end of the camera.

 

I'm just wondering - it's a bit of a hassle to bring all the wires back to the DVR in one.

 

Is there any way I can bring all the CAT5 cables from the cameras into a garage, a distribution point there & then a few cables going underground to the DVR in the house?

 

Thanks

 

Jack

[Soundy 1]

Yes, you can do that... you can actually run four video signals over a single Cat5e cable (or Cat3, or Cat6, or whatever).

[SDM Group 0]

You could use a punch down block and run a multi conductor back to the head end

[jdowning 0]

Ok so is this how it can work??

 

individual power going to cameras individually

 

Balun at camera end, CAT5 to another balun.

 

balun to this:

http://www.henryscctvcentre.com/cctv/twistpaircomponents.htm

 

8 baluns plugged into the 8 x video inputs

2 CAT5 cables running back to DVR underground

 

specific pair for each video is hooked into balun at DVR end

 

can i do that?

 

I'd like for the 8 camera video cables to run into a point in the garage and only for maybe 2 wires to go back to the DVR for simplicity?

 

will this work?

 

thanks!

[rory 0]

balun on camera end

cat5 from camera to punch block

no balun needed at punch block

single multipair from punch block to DVR

balun at DVR for each camera on that multipair

may want to power the cameras by the punch block

may want to run individual 18awg power cable to each camera

 

??

[Soundy 1]

Those four- and eight-channel units are functionally just a bunch of single baluns in one box, so all you'd be doing is going camera->balun->cat5->balun->short coax->balun->cat5->balun->DVR: there's a whole extra balun->coax->balun stage there that's unnecessary complexity and cost.

 

As rory says, a punchblock can make it easy, but it's not necessary - I've done it both ways, in fact. In one, we used five Cat5 runs to feed 14 cameras and three monitor returns between buildings.

 

My standard setup is to use the blue pair for video (with simple screw-terminal or toolless baluns, rather than fancy RJ45-terminated, power-included baluns), and orange and green pairs for power, so in this case, I'd split out the power pairs and extend them (if necessary) with 18/2 to the power supply, then connect the blue pair from each run to one of the four pairs in the "interconnect", and terminate each of those in a balun at the other end (although one of the four-channel boxes could be more convenient at that point, too).

[rory 0]

@ Soundy

 

How are you splitting the cat5 to 18awg, spliced or using something else?

Also at the DVR end do you use single baluns plugged into each channel or a 16 way receiver?

And if so what brand/model?

 

On another topic..

I came across a job that has the quad cat5 (eclipse model) at the DVR end.

They had like 9 or so DVRs (not all channels being used)

Maybe like 24 of these quad things all mounted down 2 walls with RG59 off to the DVR channels.

I didnt get to see the other end of it but i imagine its 1 cat5 for a set of 4 cameras then spliced somewhere near the cameras, but wondering why they would use those quads at the DVR end and not a couple 16 channel receivers which would be neater? Then multipair to each large area with a punch block and a cat5 to each camera with a balun. Or maybe they used another quad at the camera ends and used RG59 off to each camera?

[Soundy 1]

How are you splitting the cat5 to 18awg, spliced or using something else?

I've actually only had to do this once, and we just used beanie crimps. Most of the time we try to align the power supply and DVR so we can simply split out enough of either the video OR power pairs and connect them directly. The exact method varies depending on the site.

 

Also at the DVR end do you use single baluns plugged into each channel or a 16 way receiver?

For the instance I noted above, we were actually replacing a couple dozen coax runs through four or five separate conduits, with the half-dozen Cat5e runs in one conduit... in that case, we terminated the Cat5 into the "remote" building's electrical room with RJ45s, and used some MuxLab four-channel BNC baluns (or it might have been GEMs... I don't remember now... same idea, either way), and just connected the existing camera runs to those. That was a trick, too, because we had to go to three different suppliers to get five baluns on short notice (would have been two+ weeks to order more in)... since we didn't have enough to add more at the back end, and were actually running most (though not all) of them into a MUX first anyway, we just used individual baluns at that end.

 

Maybe like 24 of these quad things all mounted down 2 walls with RG59 off to the DVR channels.

I didnt get to see the other end of it but i imagine its 1 cat5 for a set of 4 cameras then spliced somewhere near the cameras, but wondering why they would use those quads at the DVR end and not a couple 16 channel receivers which would be neater?

Availability? Like I said, I had to go to three different suppliers just to find stock on the five quads I DID find, and one of those, I still had to wait two days to get two of them in...

 

Then multipair to each large area with a punch block and a cat5 to each camera with a balun. Or maybe they used another quad at the camera ends and used RG59 off to each camera

Same thing, I wouldn't be surprised if availability of multipair would be an issue here. Like... I would have no reason to STOCK any more than about 20' of 25-pair (and that would most likely be leftovers from removing something else), while it IS convenient for us to stock lots of Cat5e (my last shopping trip, I think I got my coworker and I four boxes EACH, since it's just so damn versatile). I like to make things as pretty as the next installer, but for something that's going to sit in a locked closet for 99.9% of its life and only ever be appreciated by another tech, I'm not going out of my way to spec, purchase, pick up and stock a bunch of multipair cable - it's just not cost effecting for something I MIGHT use once.

[jdowning 0]

Oh God, it's like you all are trying to teach me a different language!!

 

Camera to a balun, CAT5 connected to single balun, short coaxial (less than 0.5 metre?), going to another balun

 

I'm confused!

 

sorry for not understanding.

 

Those four- and eight-channel units are functionally just a bunch of single baluns in one box, so all you'd be doing is going camera->balun->cat5->balun->short coax->balun->cat5->balun->DVR: there's a whole extra balun->coax->balun stage there that's unnecessary complexity and cost.

 

As rory says, a punchblock can make it easy, but it's not necessary - I've done it both ways, in fact. In one, we used five Cat5 runs to feed 14 cameras and three monitor returns between buildings.

 

My standard setup is to use the blue pair for video (with simple screw-terminal or toolless baluns, rather than fancy RJ45-terminated, power-included baluns), and orange and green pairs for power, so in this case, I'd split out the power pairs and extend them (if necessary) with 18/2 to the power supply, then connect the blue pair from each run to one of the four pairs in the "interconnect", and terminate each of those in a balun at the other end (although one of the four-channel boxes could be more convenient at that point, too).