Multiplexing

[Thomas Covenant]

Hi.

I have a 16 Channel Hikvision NVR. I have (2) Cat5 cables crossing a parking area where I would like to install (4 to 6) IP cams. But each camera needs a dedicated homerun cable back to a port on the NVR from each camera. I only have two cables to the camera location. Does anyone know of a multiplexer/de-multiplexer setup that can accomplish this? My initial web search didn't turn anything up.

 

[wittaj]

Simply throw a POE switch on the parking area side to connect those cameras to and then that cable that goes back to the NVR WAN/LAN port. Or if needed, a switch next to the NVR where the internet, this wire, and the NVR all get connected into the WAN/LAN port.

 

[Thomas Covenant]

Simply throw a POE switch on the parking area side to connect those cameras to and then that cable that goes back to the NVR WAN/LAN port. Or if needed, a switch next to the NVR where the internet, this wire, and the NVR all get connected into the WAN/LAN port.

So, the separate ports on the NVR are not needed if you provide POE support separately? You can just plug them all into the WAN/LAN port through a standard ethernet switch? That's surprising. I was really overthinking this. Thanks!

 

[wittaj]

That is correct. You just cannot add more than the number of channels the NVR has, which in your case is 16.

Some have been successful plugging the switch into the NVR POE port, but it isn't designed that way so it may or may not work, but doing it the way I suggested will work.

The difference is you will have to manually input the cameras into the NVR as it probably won't self-populate them like they would being plugged in to each NVR POE port.

 

[bigredfish]

Im not familiar with HiK NVRs but assuming they are much like Dahua NVRs you can do either or both

A- homerun each cable back to a corresponding PoE port on the NVR which typically puts them on the internal switch of the NVR and a different subnet than the main NVR and autimatically assigns them IPs
B- As @wittaj suggests, plug them into network switches to provide power then run a single cable back to the NVR LAN port or to a switch where the NVR also is plugged into and from that switch to your LAN/Router
C- mix and match both methods

The difference is when plugged into the PoE ports of the NVR that internal switch will assign IPs in a range differen than the LAN/NVR, something like.10.1.1.X, which helps protect the cams but you have to go through the NVR to reach them. If you use an external switch the cameras would in theory be on your LAN and be assigned IPs by it, and typically you would need to manually assign a unique IP to each camera on your network (ex: 192.168.1.100, 192.168.1.111, etc)