Utp Molded
2009
 |
| No items matching your keywords were found. |
Utp Molded
Proven Strategies For Designing An IP Camera System
Hard Knock lessons from a veteran of CCTV systems massive and small
When you're looking at coming up with an IP camera system normal rules for cabling the cameras and recording the cameras go out the window. Below I have listed three design characteristics that have changed from conventional coaxial-based camera systems to IP based camera systems.
Rule 1 : Infrastructure Design
2 years back I was presented with a large camera system that required over 90 cameras in a building that was over 750,000 square ft. The challenge, using conventional camera design, was cabling each camera back to a central location where the command console was located. In some instances, camera locations were over 1,500ft from the command center. Since coaxial cables limitation for RG59 and RG6 cable are between eight hundred and 1000ft, solving the distance limitation problem was vital. Using the methods open to me at the time, I had a choice between fiber optic cable or UTP ( unshielded twisted pair ) cable. Though fiber optics generally will produce a clearer picture with less distortion, it was cost prohibitive for the project. I selected UTP cable and with an active receiver at the command console and passive transmitter at the camera. This provided for cable runs of up to 3000ft. UTP cable is just CAT3 or CAT5 cable ( typically referred to as Ethernet cable ), which is used for telephone and data networks. One of the 4 pairs of wires sends video down the cable. The twisting of the cable provides its unique benefits. This gives the cable its name of unshielded twisted pair. At the time, now more than 4 years ago, this was the best solution for the application as it met the factors for broadcasting the video and met the customer's budget.
IP Video changes everything.
Using IP cameras presents a new set of rules for transmitting video. Where before we were able to transmit a video signal up to 1000ft using coaxial cable we are now limited to only 300ft or a hundred meters. Initially, this may appear to be a disadvantage. To anyone that's acquainted with planning a computer network it is apparent that this layout is really a benefit. Imagine the application below:
You have five cameras you would like installed. They are all located along a back wall of the building looking out to the shipping and receiving area. The recorder is found at the front of the building in an IT closet. Under standard video design, all five cameras would have a coaxial cable installed from the camera to the recorder. In this example, we could say the distance is a mean of 500ft from the recorder to a camera. 5 cameras at 500ft each would require 2,500ft of coaxial cable. Employing a network solution the following cabling would be required. A single cable, typically fiber, would be pulled from the front of the building to the back. At every end of the fiber, there would be a termination point. The termination point at the front of the building would be considered the Main Distribution Frame or MDF. The point at the back of the building would be the Intermediate Distribution Frame or IDF. An IDF is defined as a location between the MDF and the end device, in this case the camera. All of the cameras would be cabled to the IDF location. For our example, we will say it's a mean of 100ft from each camera to the IDF. We would require 500ft of network cable. Conclusion is that rather than pulling 2500ft of coaxial cable you are installing 500ft of CAT5e cable and 500ft of fiber.
The large Bonus behind IP Video
The chief benefit behind a network solution is scalability, that leads to significant long, and short term savings. When you have five locations all with 5 cameras and all 500ft from the recorder, the expenses add up quickly with normal systems. In this position the cost savings can truly start to add up. Going back to our example for a minute, let's say you want to add a new camera to view the inside shipping door. The infrastructure is already in place . Now all that's's required is pulling a single CAT5e cable from the new camera location to the IDF. Maybe this is only 50ft away. Using the old design, you would need to pull another 500ft of coaxial cable back to the recorder. This adds up to a wire savings and a major labor cost reduction.
Rule 2 : PoE - The'Power' of a Single Cable
PoE or Power over Ethernet is just the transmission of power together with data over the standard Ethernet cable. In a Power over Ethernet system, a PoE network switch provides up to 15Watts of power to the end device. This could be a telephone, camera or any other device that sits on a network and needs no more than 15 watts of power. When planning an IP camera system you should look for cameras that use this technology. There are 2 basic benefits when using PoE for your system layout.
Benefit 1 : only one cable is critical to each camera for both power and video transmission. Versus a traditional camera system that uses a Siamese cable for both video and power. A Siamese cable has a coaxial RG59 cable and sometimes an eighteen gauge 2 conductor wire molded together to form a single cable. This gives the appearance and straightforwardness of pulling a single cable to each camera. The flaws to Siamese cable compared to CAT5 cable is it is seriously more expressive. Siamese cables contain more copper, which is a costly commodity in today's market. Siamese cable is also harder and cumbersome to install.
Benefit 2 : No extra power supply is needed for powering the cameras and it simply needs a single termination at the camera and switch location. These 2 extra features lead to the same benefits : cost benefits and a more flexible and scalable system solution. Scalability and space requirements are becoming an augmenting concern for many IT departments. When adding a network camera system the potential rack space needed for the present as well as future can be extremely important when coming up with a system. Using PoE can reduce space and reduce heavy, inflexible bundles of cables.
Rule three : Centralized or Edge Recording
There is no wrong or right when it comes to using edge recording or centralized recording. A majority of your decision will depend upon your own application and existing network infrastructure. A half-breed of the 2 styles could be the best solution but this can add extra cost and restrict your available camera options. In a meeting with a college district, I was questioned about which solution was better. I replied that I felt neither was a better solution ; both solutions have their benefits and it depends on the application. During my meeting I described the following advantages and drawbacks of each.
Centralized Recording:
Imagine you have a company that has five buildings ranging in size between 10,000 to fifty thousand square ft. All 5 of your buildings are found within a large industrial park. Each building has a limited number of fiber optic cables between them. Your company has a main server room found in the biggest of the five buildings. The IT department manages the server room and there is limited restricted access to that room. The remaining 4 buildings are accessible through fiber from the server room.
For this example, centralized recording offers you the most cost effective and scalable solution. Centralized recording works well here. There is a main server room and all the buildings are connected thru locally owned fiber. Using a single recording location is inexpensive because all of the recorded video is stored at a central location. A single server as opposed to five servers ( if using edge recording ) will record the video, leading to a significant savings. In each building, PoE network switches would connect to the cameras. The fiber optic cable would transmit the video back to the central server room for recording. This solution is also awfully scalable. Adding a camera to any location in the five buildings is as simple as connecting a camera to the closest PoE switch. In this application, centralized recording fits best due to the environment and infrastructure available. A drawback of centralized recording is if a fiber is cut between any one of the buildings and the server, all of the cameras inside that building will no longer be recorded or be ready to be viewed live. In this example, all of the video from these cameras will be lost.
Edge Recording:
In this example, you have a corporate office building and a producing plant. The 2 buildings are found about one mile apart from one another. You've a dedicated T1 connection between the 2 locations. The T1 is used to share data transmission between the 2 sites. The majority of the installed cameras will be at the producing plant so that corporate is ready to monitor the plant remotely. The corporate office will have 4 to 6 cameras installed to view the main entrance and employee parking area.
For this example, edge recording offers the most cheap solution for your company. Limited connectivity between the 2 locations is the largest obstruction. A standard IP camera requires about 2Mb per second available bandwidth. The first camera would consume all the available bandwidth of a T1 connection making centralized recording impossible. Edge recording doesn't prevent centralized viewing it only stops the recording of the camera centrally. For this example, you would use 2 network video recorders. You would scale each recorder to fit the amount of cameras they'll be recording. From the customer side or remote connection, you'd be able to configure the system as if it were a single connection. The only difference would be the refresh speed of the remote cameras. In this example, edge recording provides the most cost effective solution while still meeting the goals of your company. The downside, in this application, is the price of having 2 servers and slower live display rates of the cameras.
The Rule Summary:
By reading this, I'm hoping that you're able to see how IP video offers a very different design and new features that weren't possible or cost prohibitive with a conventional coaxial cable system. There are countless other benefits when using IP video. The three mentioned above are only some of the advantages that IP video technology has made available to the security industry..
About the Author
Modern day security can be very challenging. Before you invest in expensive security systems, go to Access Security, to get more information on card access systems and provides access control systems. Visit us today!
Radioshack Network cable for Xbox 360?
Will the radioshack StarTech.com 75-Ft. Molded Cat5e UTP Patch Cable (Blue)
work for an xbox 360?
source: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2281874&numProdsPerPage=60&y=8&x=7&retainProdsInSession=1
Yes, it'll work. Pretty long cable, but my friend had one slightly longer until he got homeplugs.
