Using POE switches to reduce cabling

Sometimes you need to run a cable longer than 300 feet. In that case you can either use a POE switch or a POE extender. Using a POE switch you can connect multiple cameras to one switch and then only have to run one ethernet cable back to the network that the NVR is connected to, but you can't plug a POE switch into the NVR directly. A POE extender can be plugged directly into a NVR, but can only connect one camera.

How it works:

For situations where home runs from each camera back to the poe ports on the the nvr isn’t ideal, you can use a POE switch to reduce your cabling. Using a POE switch you can connect multiple cameras to one switch and then only have to run one ethernet cable back to the network that the NVR is connected to.

POE extenders can plug into the NVR ports, but you can only connect one camera into each POE extender. See our Using POE extenders to run long cable runs Guide for details on using POE extenders.

Instructions

Step 1:

In order to use this method you will need to supply power to the POE switch (standard 110v wall outlet), but do not power on the switch at this time.

Step 2:

Connect each camera to the POE switch, be sure to keep one port open in order to connect the switch to the rest of the network.

Step 3:

Once the cameras are connected to the POE switch you will then connect the switch to either a router or another switch that the NVR is also connected to.

Step 4:

You can now power on the POE Switch.

Step 5:

Once the cameras are powered on you can then assign each camera a IP address.