130 foot run for video cameras?

IVB

Senior Member
Anyone ever done or heard of 130' runs for a CCTV camera? I have a spare Vitek 480TVL 1/3", but could get another one if it'll make any difference.

My neighbor is doing construction on his house for the next several months, and I offered up some of my spare channels to him.
 
Anyone ever done or heard of 130' runs for a CCTV camera? I have a spare Vitek 480TVL 1/3", but could get another one if it'll make any difference.

My neighbor is doing construction on his house for the next several months, and I offered up some of my spare channels to him.

I installed a couple of cameras at my office that were around 150 feet using RG6QS/18-2 wire. Those two cameras had noticably lower quality images than some of the other cameras that were closer, but the image is still plenty good enough. The cameras I used were pretty cheap too.
 
I ran a camera out about 120 feet to a gate. Used Cat5 and balums on the end to connect a regular non-ip camera. The image was comparable to the 3 other cameras on site.
 
Anyone ever done or heard of 130' runs for a CCTV camera? I have a spare Vitek 480TVL 1/3", but could get another one if it'll make any difference.

My neighbor is doing construction on his house for the next several months, and I offered up some of my spare channels to him.

130' is no problem, you can go out past 500' on 95% RG59u.


Is this perminent or a temperary, protect tools and materials thing?


I would have him wire his house up with RG59u and then bridge between the houses with direct burial Cat5. Make him use a power supply at his house to power the cameras over there. Otherwise you risk a difference in ground potential that can cause video issues.


I installed a couple of cameras at my office that were around 150 feet using RG6QS/18-2 wire. Those two cameras had noticably lower quality images than some of the other cameras that were closer, but the image is still plenty good enough. The cameras I used were pretty cheap too.

RG6 QS is almost certainly the wrong wire, thats why you see degraded video. It seems like a good thing however the aluminum shielding doesn't protect the low frequency baseband video feed. If you modulate and demodulate the camera the degredation will disappear, unfortuanately so will several hundred dollars. :rolleyes:

All copper RG6 is good out past 1000' however the stuff is not easy to find. It's still special order through my distributors, if they carry it at all.
 
It's a temporary setup, but that means 6-9 months, and is protecting *thousands* of dollars of tools, fixtures, etc.

Email me - let's chat about the wire, camera suggestions, etc. Plan A is to use what I currently own (Vitek camera, RG6), but if it doesn't look good or we need more, i'll need you to get me "the right stuff".
 
Is this guy interested in CCTV in the future as perminent?

I hope so as this will cost enough that most wouldn't want to buy.



Basically what I would suggest is wiring the house for CCTV and run extra drops to the garage or wherever the tools/materials will be stored.

Homerun all that RG59u back to where a DVR would live in the future.


Link the two DVR locations with direct burial Cat5.

His side would only have the drops (4 max per Cat5 link) that will get cameras protecting the garage. Each with a balun (passive) connected to the Cat5.

On your side you would have a balun for each cam connected to your DVR.



This way in the future he can relocate the cameras for better coverage outside and just hook up a DVR to the pre-existing wires.

Also you guys could split a T1 or something by reconfiguring the link.

Otherwise you'll waste a bunch of RG59 home running each cam to your DVR and in the end they'll probably get whacked off.
 
I tested a camera of mine over 130' of CAT5e using baluns. It worked fine. This wasn't an exhaustive test, but I didn't notice any degradation of picture. It was actually just a test within the remaining CAT5 that I had in the box, so it didn't actually go the distance - but just around in circles.....
 
CollinR: All that stuff you're talking about sounds great, but his house is currently elevated and sitting on some steal beams. He's gutting the first floor totally, and adding a second. Power is about all he's got right now. Well, that and thousands of dollars in stuff that could be stolen, and there's been 2 construction theft sites within 2 blocks in the past 7 days.

He is interested in CCTV in the long term, so I suppose it's all a question of how much that Copper RG6 costs, and whether it would be cheaper and better to get wireless video transmitters.
 
CollinR: All that stuff you're talking about sounds great, but his house is currently elevated and sitting on some steal beams. He's gutting the first floor totally, and adding a second. Power is about all he's got right now. Well, that and thousands of dollars in stuff that could be stolen, and there's been 2 construction theft sites within 2 blocks in the past 7 days.

He is interested in CCTV in the long term, so I suppose it's all a question of how much that Copper RG6 costs, and whether it would be cheaper and better to get wireless video transmitters.


That doesn't change anything for me. What will help is IIRC you can buy direct burial Cat5 locally at Lowes / HomeDepot. Copper is expensive and there isn't much of it in Cat5.



Alternatively, you could invest in IP and use wifi to come across. Not really cheaper but you can use the cameras yourself later and little wiring cost. I have some open box stuff and whatnot that might be able to be utilized there for now and then finalized at your house. Still though the best bang:buck is RG59u in the house and Cat5 as a link. I would hide it behind something as the phone co uses the same stuff for telco lines.


You could also run a motion over there that trips your M1 to do something. Thats probably the outright cheapest method of adding protection.

I HIGHLY suggest you convey to him to put the stuff in the garage or some other restricted space. All too often they scatter the stuff through the place making it impossible to cover.
 
Like Collin eluded to, cameras don't "protect" anything unless you are doing live surveillance, but there is a slight chance they could give you some information on who already stole your stuff.

A locked shed or storage container would be better than any number of cameras. If you can hook it to an alarm, even better.
 
Hi,
I hope I can help here. 130' for rg-59 is not a problem at all. I am in the CCTV Bussiness., Have been doing large installs for the past 20 years(I mean Large). You can run 500'-600' on rg-59. after that you should step up to rg-6(not CATV rg-6), then you should be good for quite a few more hundred feet.

Hope this helps,

Mike
 
Like Collin eluded to, cameras don't "protect" anything unless you are doing live surveillance, but there is a slight chance they could give you some information on who already stole your stuff.

A locked shed or storage container would be better than any number of cameras. If you can hook it to an alarm, even better.

True. His approach is to do everything concurrently.
- Remove everything removable daily.
- Lock up that which can't or shouldn't be removed
- Motion Sensor Lights and alarm where possible
- CCTV to check up on it.

Much of this is also the "fear of the unknown"; he is currently visiting the jobsite daily as he's a GC for a living too. He has a newborn and a 2yr old, so he's also hoping using a camera, potentially multiple with PTZ capability, could give him the "piece of mind" that the workers actually did work during the day.

I have to admit, hooking this into my Elk wasn't something I had thought about, but that could be a great idea. Or, perhaps jury-rigging an Elk in his shed that isn't going to be torn down...
 
Well y'all were right once again. This is what the picture looks like with 3 different runs of old RG59 connected together. Looks pretty darn good.
 

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