What do most of you do for runs over 350 feet?

ingeborgdot

Pulling my weight
May 7, 2017
721
171
Scott City, KS
My friend wants to put a camera at the far end of his building and up at the top. The building is 20' high, and 320' from the source. The cable run will be around 360 when all things are said and done with the up and down walls etc.
What would you do to make this work properly? I have run a lot of cable, but never over the limit, so I need some advice.
Thanks.
 
It may be that he can't run as long as he wants me to. This is in an outdoor metal building. It will be a storage facility for all of his large equipment. It is 3/4 covered. The front is open and exposed to the elements. The way it is setup it will be hard to add power to a lot of the places that would need it. That is my big problem. If it were inside, and had access, I know power could be run, but out here due to it's large size and open vastness, it will be tough to get the power needed.
If I did fiber, would I not need power at the end by the camera to make it work? I have not used fiber, so I am not familiar with how this would work.
 
It may be that he can't run as long as he wants me to. This is in an outdoor metal building. It will be a storage facility for all of his large equipment. It is 3/4 covered. The front is open and exposed to the elements. The way it is setup it will be hard to add power to a lot of the places that would need it. That is my big problem. If it were inside, and had access, I know power could be run, but out here due to it's large size and open vastness, it will be tough to get the power needed.
If I did fiber, would I not need power at the end by the camera to make it work? I have not used fiber, so I am not familiar with how this would work.
Yup. You need power at both ends with fiber.

There are ePoE (extended) devices you could look for that allow for runs over 100m. But if this is an outside metal building, you really should be running fiber to prevent lightning strike issues between both buildings. If lighting hits one then it can travel through your network cable and damage/destroy everything in both buildings that its connected to.
 
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Well, unless I can get power to the points I would need it, the only thing that will be able to run, will be cat6 cable.
I won't know until the building is finished to know how the facility will look for sure and if he is even planning on running any type of electricity to any parts of it.
 
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Well, unless I can get power to the points I would need it, the only thing that will be able to run, will be cat6 cable.
I won't know until the building is finished to know how the facility will look for sure and if he is even planning on running any type of electricity to any parts of it.
If the budling isn't built yet then putting power out there now is a no brainer. Way easier to do that before then to have to add it later.
 
The 328 foot limit isn't a hard cutoff point. It's the point at which specified performance is guaranteed. IP cameras don't come close to needing the specified performance of cat5e or cat6 cables and the endpoints. Running 23awg cat6 will help with poe power loss compared to 24awg cat5e. Which camera you use enters into it, i.e. a typical less than 10 watt camera, or a PTZ that draws 20 or more watts. If I were doing this, I'd try the 360 foot run and it would likely work just fine. As a fallback you can look at a couple of solutions mentioned earlier: (1) Leave a few feet of slack cable in an accessible location near the middle of the run to install a mid-span switch (which can be poe powered if need be), or (2) look at using epoe. From a dahua publication:

Capture.JPG
 
The 328 foot limit isn't a hard cutoff point. It's the point at which specified performance is guaranteed. IP cameras don't come close to needing the specified performance of cat5e or cat6 cables and the endpoints. Running 23awg cat6 will help with poe power loss compared to 24awg cat5e. Which camera you use enters into it, i.e. a typical less than 10 watt camera, or a PTZ that draws 20 or more watts. If I were doing this, I'd try the 360 foot run and it would likely work just fine. As a fallback you can look at a couple of solutions mentioned earlier: (1) Leave a few feet of slack cable in an accessible location near the middle of the run to install a mid-span switch (which can be poe powered if need be), or (2) look at using epoe. From a dahua publication:

It also depends on what he's using to supply PoE power to the camera. I don't think a fully PoE loaded NVR would have the power budget to support this, at least without intermittent failures. High thermal temperature exposure can also increase PoE power current draw. But he can certainly try it and see how it goes.
 
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If he needs to charge batteries or inflate vehicle tires or use a trouble light, you'd think he'd want at least a couple outlets installed.
 
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If the budling isn't built yet then putting power out there now is a no brainer. Way easier to do that before then to have to add it later.
That's all dependent on how much more he wants to spend doing this. It's not like it is cheap to build this building and will take a lot to get it wired since is is not an inside finished building. It would take hundreds of feet of conduit and electrical wire, and electricians. Probably a $20,000 or more job to get it semi done.
 
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is there any electricity at all going to the current building plan?
 
If so you could run an extension cord ( 100 footer) and put a small 4 port switch (or POE switch) and your 360ft would be 2 runs of 100 and 260.
 
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There is an additional advantage to running fiber in this case. It is the isolation it provides from lightning strikes and other potential problems (ground loops etc).

I would certainly make running power to this new detached structure a priority for lots of different reasons - most of them not related to CCTV.
 
That's all dependent on how much more he wants to spend doing this. It's not like it is cheap to build this building and will take a lot to get it wired since is is not an inside finished building. It would take hundreds of feet of conduit and electrical wire, and electricians. Probably a $20,000 or more job to get it semi done.

If he can do the electrical work himself then he can probably do it for less than $1,500.


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There is an additional advantage to running fiber in this case. It is the isolation it provides from lightning strikes and other potential problems (ground loops etc).

I would certainly make running power to this new detached structure a priority for lots of different reasons - most of them not related to CCTV.

I agree. But it sounds like OP's friend doesn't want to. In a scenario without AC power to this building, I'd do an extender and install a lightening rod on said building. Perhaps throw in more lightening protection like others have posted in past threads.
 
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