Design of new system. Need help looking for problems.

[Aces_WA]

I'm designing a surveillance system for our house with a detached garage. There are several challenges I need to deal with. The most notable is that half the cameras will be on the Garage. I assume I'll want to have the NVR (or computer w/blue Iris) in the house. But I did hardwire a Wi-Fi router in the garage already. So maybe it could go in either house or garage. It's 40' of aerial to run CAT6 between buildings. So, I think that means using a non-PoE NVR. But not sure. The Garage is unheated, but insulated. So, I'd expect some significant temperature swings on any hardware in the garage attic (Winter mid teens F; Summer 110 F or so,).

I created a to scale plot of buildings and camera locations on the attached pdf. As you will see, I have 8 cameras, labeled "C1" thru "C8". In the table I list the distance to the area of interest, and the desired width to cover at that distance. I also tried to explain what I hoped to capture with each camera. Here are specific notes on what my goals are:

• C1- Goal is to capture vehicle information on anything that pulls into driveway. But it should also capture face ID of any one coming thru 20' wide fence opening, which is at 50' away. It will also see passing cars; but not important info for me. This is a dead-end cul-de-sac, with 5 other homes. It could show me if our mailman has been by.
• C2- Goal is to see any packages left in front of Garage doors. Also see activity of people on foot towards house of entering greenhouse. Depending on Camera placement it would be nice if I could tell if a garage door has been left open. Coverage is out to 30' and a width there of 20' (or more).
• C3- Goal is face ID of any foot traffic coming toward house. Location will be right below a motion-sensor spot light. At night if someone rounds the corner of the garage, the light coming on will illuminate face and reaction would likely be to look up. This will also catch side view of anyone entering the greenhouse. Not sure if the variation between south facing camera (Sun effects), night light levels, and sudden night-time illumination of subject from spot light will cause problems for camera.
• C4- Goal is primarily to catch activity near electrical meter/shut off switch. It will also see activity approaching man-door entrance to garage. But since this is a secure door, so its coverage not really critical.
• C5/C6- Goal is face ID and to see packages at front door of house. Likely to be a "Boobie Camera" for the combo. The camera can also see activity between the house and garage. But that's not as important.
• C7- Goal Face ID on walking path leading to deck stairway, at 15' away. It should also see activity near a screen door at a further distance (30'). And it may be helpful to see any activity underneath deck.
• C8- Goal See activity on or around a 12' long party Boat at our Dock, that's 110' away. Facial recognition would be nice, but not required. Anyone messing around here will be arriving by boat. So, I could use other clues to ID. Also would like to see activity in a wider width (55' wide at 70' distance). So setting for this coverage, and maybe more pixels to get better info around boat? Or maybe just go for good coverage just at boat/dock.

I want to get started running CAT6 soon. But as others have noted, if I can figure out what cameras I'd likely need, get them on order sooner, may save me some money. With PoE cameras, I'm not sure the best way to structure the wire runs. Would it make ant sense to have two NVR's; one in garage and other in house? if I did that, would it be a pain to see all cameras? Right now the design is for 8 cameras. I imagine I will want to get hardware to handle 4 more cameras if I buy those later. Any and all ideas are welcome!

 

[The Automation Guy]

Does the detached garage have power? If so, I would highly suggest using a fiber cable between your two buildings, especially since it is an arial run. When you have long runs of network cable installed outside, there is always a potential for nearby lightning strikes to transmit energy through the cable. It basically functions as a long antenna after all. Unless you ground each end of the wire run properly (harder to do than you think), there is a pretty good chance that at some point you are going to have this happen causing damage to your other network equipment. How much damage is a variable we cannot predict, but it will take out devices for sure. By using fiber, you completely remove this potential since the fiber is non-conductive. Of course this only works if the detached garage has power because the fiber won't transmit POE power either, so you'll need to be able to power the devices on the garage side using power already supplied to the building.

It is pretty inexpensive to run premade fiber cable (you can even have the fiber custom made for your exact length needed) and you can either use fiber converters at each end of the run, or integrate network switches that support fiber (usually through SFP+ ports) natively. Just make sure you get aerial rate cable if you aren't going to bury it. It is more expensive than non-aerial cable, but it is designed to support itself between spans while non-aerial cable is not designed to support itself. Obviously this is an important design element to have in this use case. LANshack.com has aerial options with a 2 fiber 65' cable running about $165. I normally get my cables from FS.com, but I couldn't easily find aerial rated cable on their site. I would suggest calling them directly to see what they offer before making any purchases.

Long story short, it is probably a couple hundred dollars more expensive to run fiber with converters at each end vs cat6 cable, but the long term costs will likely be less because even one lightning event with the cat6 cable could destroy more than a lot more than $200-300 worth of equipment.

 

[Aces_WA]

Does the detached garage have power? If so, I would highly suggest using a fiber cable between your two buildings, especially since it is an arial run. When you have long runs of network cable installed outside, there is always a potential for nearby lightning strikes to transmit energy through the cable. It basically functions as a long antenna after all. Unless you ground each end of the wire run properly (harder to do than you think), there is a pretty good chance that at some point you are going to have this happen causing damage to your other network equipment. How much damage is a variable we cannot predict, but it will take out devices for sure. By using fiber, you completely remove this potential since the fiber is non-conductive. Of course this only works if the detached garage has power because the fiber won't transmit POE power either, so you'll need to be able to power the devices on the garage side using power already supplied to the building.

It is pretty inexpensive to run premade fiber cable (you can even have the fiber custom made for your exact length needed) and you can either use fiber converters at each end of the run, or integrate network switches that support fiber (usually through SFP+ ports) natively. Just make sure you get aerial rate cable if you aren't going to bury it. It is more expensive than non-aerial cable, but it is designed to support itself between spans while non-aerial cable is not designed to support itself. Obviously this is an important design element to have in this use case. LANshack.com has aerial options with a 2 fiber 65' cable running about $165. I normally get my cables from FS.com, but I couldn't easily find aerial rated cable on their site. I would suggest calling them directly to see what they offer before making any purchases.

Long story short, it is probably a couple hundred dollars more expensive to run fiber with converters at each end vs cat6 cable, but the long term costs will likely be less because even one lightning event with the cat6 cable could destroy more than a lot more than $200-300 worth of equipment.

The Garage has power. But I'm not that concerned about Lightning strikes. This area is less prone for thunderstorms. And there are significant Trees close enough (but not too close) to be more likely hit.

Not having used PoE before, my concern with the setup is will it make viewing the recordings or feeds a pain if I have two separate NVRs. And at some point, I have to consider how I protect the cameras from hacking. Right now, the Wi-Fi router in the garage is daisy chained from the primary one in the house. If I could have the cameras on the Garage use it's router to send feed to the house, that would be awesome.

 

[The Automation Guy]

You know your area better than any random guy on the internet. But just to clarify - the lightning doesn't need to strike the buildings or ethernet wires directly to be a potential problem. The ethernet cable can literally act like a giant antenna and absorb energy in the air from a nearby strike. So even if the lightning hits a nearby tree or ground strike, you could sustain damage through the ethernet cables. You don't have to look very hard to find people's horror stories regarding this exact thing.

 

[looney2ns]

Lightning strikes can cause "Induced Surges" from up to 1.5 miles away and cause all sorts of havoc, direct hits are not the only threat as stated.

I had a lightning strike that occured last summer, that was probably around a mile away.

I had two zwave wall switches fried, and 6 of my magnetic door alarm contacts were fused in the closed position and had to be replaced.

Don't mess with Mother Nature, because she will win.

 

[Simas123456]

Fiber is so cheap, just do it. You can get premade cables up to 500 meters. Use POE switches with sfp ports.

By the time you buy a 500' roll of burial rated CAT6, you could probably get the right length fiber cable. If you are going to use CAT, if had better have a burial or outdoor UV resistant rating. Regular CAT will absorb water and give you all kinds of wonky issues if buried, and if sun hits it day in, day out, it will crack eventually and get water in it.

I have yet to meet a person who regretted running fiber between buildings, but I have seen plenty of issues with CAT between buildings testing bad because of water intrusion. Sometimes it was even burial rated or outdoor rated CAT that was nicked during installation.

I use a lot of TrueCable. I have never had issues. They have given me nothing - this isn't some paid add. I buy their stuff. Just pay attention to what is outdoor UV resistant and what is burial rated. They are different. You can't get a wire with both. Of course, I use regular CAT if there is no sun or water hitting it.

I also use the TrueCable crimper/cutter. It scores the outdoor and indoor CAT outer sheith without cutting the cat. It's way better than trying to strip some with strippers and then use the "CAT hair" to strip it.

If you choose to do fiber, there are a few things you should know about about SFP vs SFP+ and 1G switches, but I'll let you make a decision and then I can explain it before you buy parts. The fiber has to match the module which has to be compatible with the network switch.

 

[Aces_WA]

Fiber is so cheap, just do it. You can get premade cables up to 500 meters. Use POE switches with sfp ports.

By the time you buy a 500' roll of burial rated CAT6, you could probably get the right length fiber cable. If you are going to use CAT, if had better have a burial or outdoor UV resistant rating. Regular CAT will absorb water and give you all kinds of wonky issues if buried, and if sun hits it day in, day out, it will crack eventually and get water in it.

I have yet to meet a person who regretted running fiber between buildings, but I have seen plenty of issues with CAT between buildings testing bad because of water intrusion. Sometimes it was even burial rated or outdoor rated CAT that was nicked during installation.

I use a lot of TrueCable. I have never had issues. They have given me nothing - this isn't some paid add. I buy their stuff. Just pay attention to what is outdoor UV resistant and what is burial rated. They are different. You can't get a wire with both. Of course, I use regular CAT if there is no sun or water hitting it.

I also use the TrueCable crimper/cutter. It scores the outdoor and indoor CAT outer sheith without cutting the cat. It's way better than trying to strip some with strippers and then use the "CAT hair" to strip it.

If you choose to do fiber, there are a few things you should know about about SFP vs SFP+ and 1G switches, but I'll let you make a decision and then I can explain it before you buy parts. The fiber has to match the module which has to be compatible with the network switch.

I'll second your comment about True Cable. Because I needed to install a router in the garage, I've already gone with their outdoor rated CAT6 with Messenger wire. I was very impressed with the quality of the way this wire is built. Steel for the Messenger wire. Substantial insulation, that remains intact when you separate the Messenger wire from it.

 

[Simas123456]

Yes. With junky aerial CAT it is hard to separate the messenger from the cable jacket without it tearing the jacket. The true Cable stuff just requires you start the separation with a knife, then you pull it to the length you need. It even works well if you separate it in two directions on an intermediate pole. I think it does separate a little better when it is colder and more brittle.

With other wires you sometimes have to cut the whole way, and it is easy to nick the conductors.

I've used True Cable for everything outdoors for two years of my own business, and I also used it with my previous employer for about 5 years before that. Zero issues. Reasonable price. Enough options to make sense but not be so many you wonder what to buy, and fast delivery through Amazon. No CCA, either. That stuff is junk!