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IPVM has released its cabling calculator, improving our popular Design Calculator, now quickly and easily estimate how much cabling one needs for every camera and for the entire project.
Costs for providing and installing cabling are a significant portion of most video surveillance projects. Doing it manually can be time-consuming and error-prone as professionals try to guess how long each run is by looking at prints or walking around a facility.
Leveraging Google maps, we do the cabling distance calculations for you, instantaneously, you just simply drag the route from any camera to the closet you want it to go. Immediately, the total distance is displayed.
The GIF below demonstrates the one-click process of connecting the camera to the closet:
Alternatively, connect from the closet to cameras by drawing the cable path:
We have included a user-adjustable per-cable Service Loop length (20feet/6m default) as shown below, per user feedback:
This value represents the total extra cable length on the ends of each horizontal cable run, for example, 10' (3m) at the camera plus 10' (3m) at the closet.
Plus, you can then export reports of cabling, with cable paths and connection details, to share with customers and technicians:
Up next from IPVM is adding in access control, which will let you design systems including readers, controllers, and common peripherals (e.g. door contacts, request-to-exit buttons)
The work in the cabling calculator is fundamental to our expansion into various connected systems, such as access control, alarm monitoring, IP networks, etc.
I want to recognize Seth Bartynski for his work developing the front and backends of this, as we mentioned in the last section, this sets the groundwork for significant expansion in new systems for the Calculator.
Plus, there are some advanced features that were mentioned in our feedback request thread that we plan to add later this year:
Cable Type (fiber - multi/single-mode, copper - Cat5/6/7, buried, aerial)
Cable Naming (e.g., labeling each cable with a unique number or alphanumeric code)
Total project length (currently only list per-closet length)
Further, we plan to expand the cabling calculator with more networking features, including switches, wireless links, PoE, and other network peripherals.
If you have feature requests, please email me directly at sean@ipvm.com
Absolutely thrilled about this update. One question I do have: Will it be possible to add just cable runs without necessarily having edge devices (ie: just plotting out simple network drops to locations)?
Chris, thanks for the feedback. A couple of followup questions so we can understand how we might be able to address your use case quickly:
Are you looking to connect to other non-camera device types, or just "spare" planning/generic end-point?
If we added in a "Generic Device", would that address your use case?
We have inter-closet connections on the roadmap so that users can build out more complex networks, and we do not support cables that do not have an endpoint (e.g. closet to camera). This could be a relatively quick addition to add in a Generic Device.
Absolutely fantastic adition to an already amazing site and calculator. This has been on my wish list for years, not only for camera installations but for general network cabling installation as wel.
@Sean Patton: a generic device will be a great way to do it although one can always use a 'fake/dummy' (and since 'fake' anything' is popular these days...) camera on those positions as wel (but it generates a lot more unneeded data in this case)
Really great new Feature! And thanks for adding.however, would it be possible to connect closet to closet?Seems like you can only connect closet to camera or vice versa...
Thanks for the feedback Hamza! We will be adding closet to closet connections in a future update. This will also include cable type selection (e.g. Fiber, Copper) as this is much more common when interconnecting closets.
What a great tool! What if the network closet is on another floor and there is additional cable routing required once you've gone up/down the cable riser between floors? Unless I missed something, I don't see a manual way (outside service loops) to enter additional cabling. Thank you.
