How do you ground your cameras and is it necessary?

[rufunky]

Just as the title states. How do you ground your cameras and is it necessary?

 

[ThomasPI]

I'd run a grounding wire to a common ground in your equipment rack/room and also add a surge protector between each camera and your POE switch.

 

[NoloC]

The answer will depend on your circumstances and environment.

For most home installs it is not required. In fact it can be difficult to implement since most cameras do not provide a convenient way to connect a ground.
There are circumstances where extreme RFI or EMI stuff would require grounding to mitigate interference. As long as it is implemented correctly, it can't hurt.
It will be quite a bit more work though.

Was there a specific reason you are concerned?

 

[rufunky]

Was there a specific reason you are concerned?

While trying to decide what Cat cable to get I figured I would go with the Cat6e shielded ftp so it got me to wondering about grounding the cameras and how it would be done.

 

[NoloC]

If it's for your house, I wouldn't bother. My two cents. Some will point out lightening storms in their areas could be a problem but I'm in SoCal.

STP is harder to work with and needs to be grounded at least at one end or it will actually be worse than UTP as the floating shield will act as a sort of antenna.

This forum has an excellent search feature and if you search this topic lots of info and some controversy!

 

[c hris527]

Depends on where you are putting them, Most commercial install i have seen do not put grounds on their cams. I know I do not. However if you are mounting a PTZ on a roof then you might think about it. Most installers do not use shielded cable either, I went that route before and it was a pain in the nuts and that was because somebody else specked out the cable. When I install wireless cisco AP's i will put a surge gate on it for sure and give the AP its own private ground. If you are in a prone area, get yourself a surgegate and ground it.

Link: CAT6-75-110 In/RJ 45 Out

 

[rufunky]

STP is harder to work with and needs to be grounded at least at one end or it will actually be worse than UTP as the floating shield will act as a sort of antenna.

Oh ok, thats good info! I have a few houses I will be doing after my own so I was just going to buy 1000 foot spool of cat6e ftp and use it on all the houses. I don't want to put in unnecessary work for the other homes. Do they even make cat6e non shielded UTP or will I have to go with regular cat6?

 

[rufunky]

Most installers do not use shielded cable either, I went that route before and it was a pain in the nuts and that was because somebody else specked out the cable.

Good point on the PTZ on a roof. Well I suppose I was just trying to go that extra step when it really isn't necessary. Thank you for the info

 

[NoloC]

Oh ok, thats good info! I have a few houses I will be doing after my own so I was just going to buy 1000 foot spool of cat6e ftp and use it on all the houses. I don't want to put in unnecessary work for the other homes. Do they even make cat6e non shielded UTP or will I have to go with regular cat6?

I don't believe there is a cat 6e cable standard. Many folks here use monoprice cable and rate it highly. Prices are very good as well. Just stay away from any CCA cables as they are junk. Monoprice sells high quality bare copper cable. Cat 6 utp solid should be fine for fixed runs.

 

[SherW]

We had a surge protector. So I think there is no need of any grounding.

 

[NoloC]

We had a surge protector. So I think there is no need of any grounding.

Yikes.
Two different concepts. Do some research before posting bad advise.

 

[SherW]

I don't think there is a need of grounding since you have a surge protector.