To be effective in areas that require surveillance, security cameras are often strategically placed at the top of a light pole or on the side of a building. However, these locations pose several challenges for surveillance system technicians, designers, and installers, including the following.
- Climate — Outdoor security cameras are designed to operate in rain, sleet, and snow. The rest of the system, such as the switch, router, Ethernet extender, or media converter, needs to fit inside an appropriate NEMA enclosure to be protected against the elements. However, even inside an enclosure, this equipment must be rated to operate in temperatures of minus 40° to 70°C as a safeguard in hot and cold environments.
- Power — Light poles and building exteriors rarely have an AC or DC power source. Therefore, the cameras are generally connected to a PoE media converter, PoE Ethernet extender, or PoE switch that can supply up to 100 W of power over the Ethernet cable.
- Maintenance — Like most electronics, surveillance cameras sometimes need to be rebooted. Because they are spread out in hard-to-access locations, it is best if the PoE device supports the capability to reboot the attached cameras remotely.
- Aesthetics — Most municipalities would like the cameras and system enclosures to be discreet and blend in with the surrounding architecture. Because surveillance system equipment can be quite compact, custom enclosures are often designed to house everything.
Louis-Marie Bouvattier, project manager at Engie Solutions’ Ineo Infracom, shared his experience about a surveillance system the company deployed in France.
“Every surveillance system is different, but the core components of our build included the cameras, a Perle Managed Industrial Ethernet Switch, and a 24vDC PSU housed in a weatherproof enclosure,” he said. “The Perle Switches were chosen because they supported the required management features and allowed us to add secure authentication methods through IEEE 802.1X or MAC addresses.”
While this setup worked very well, there was one area in which Engie wanted to improve.
“Surveillance cameras can sometimes freeze, glitch, or be otherwise temperamental — requiring a reboot,” Bouvattier said. “With our existing setup, we had to send staff out to reset and reboot cameras regularly. This needed to change. On paper, the cameras we were using had power requirements of 30 W. However, we found that they sometimes operated erratically unless at least 60 W of power was available. A standard PoE switch would not be enough. We needed a PoE switch that supported IEEE 802.3bt.”
The Perle IDS-710HP-XT was the solution. Able to provide up to a total of 450 W of power across its eight ports to connected devices, it was also small enough to fit into enclosures designed to be discreet and blend in with the surrounding architecture. And, the PD Power Reset feature provides an easy way for the surveillance cameras to be remotely rebooted at any time.
With operating temperatures of minus 40°F to 158°F, extensive management features, secure authentication methods, and network connectivity through two SFP Slots supporting 1G/2.5G Fiber or 10/100/1000 Copper, the IDS-710HP PoE Switch will fit into any environment where extensive security, QoS, and network interoperability are required.
“The IDS-710HP-XT matched all our requirements, dimensional and technical,” Bouvattier said. “This was the missing piece to create a flexible solution that could be used in all urban security camera settings.”