Re: CCTV using Baluns

[G. Morgan <sealteam6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Wrote:

>I'm starting a CCTV job tomorrow in a small (30K sqft)warehouse using analog cameras over cat5. Up till now I've used siamese coax and 12vdc. I typically do more residential work than commercial so I usualy don't have to worry about voltage drop.
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>On this system I'm installing 10 inside cameras all with IR LED's. Each camera draws 700ma with IR LED's on. I've got 5 cameras that will be in the rear of the warehouse where there are no power outlets so the cameras will be aprox 100 to 150 feet from the 24vac power source. I bought Balun's with screw connections (rather than an RJ45 connector) for the Cat5 so that I could use six of the conductors for the power, giving me aprox a 19 guage wire. I figure that should give me a voltage drop of about 2 volts which is less than 10% of 24volts required by the cameras. I didn't do any research on what affect the distance of 150 feet over a 24 guage wire would have on the video signal. I don't think it'll be a problem but I can always switch one of the voltage wires over to the video terminals.
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>I'm just looking for some comments, suggestions and possible problems that I might not have thought of when using Baluns and Cat5 Any comments about longer distances using Cat5 would be appreciated also. I've got a couple more larger warehouse jobs coming up so voltage drop is going to be a bigger issue


I don't think you'll have any problems within 150'.  I switched to CAT5
exclusively for new installs a few years back.  It saves money on cable,
and it "future proofs" the install in case they want IP cams later.

I always use a different color cable than what their network is using to
avoid any confusion.  If the Ethernet network is using blue, I'll go
with yellow or something completely different so their network tech's
don't get confused.