The first thing you need to pay attention to is the cost of the cable.
The cost of a coaxial cable is, in principle, comparable to the cost of a twisted pair.
You can find both cheap and expensive cables.
But the advantages of IP video surveillance systems become obvious when assessing the possibility of expanding the infrastructure of the video surveillance system and the cable network:
1) Power for the camera.
Power for the IP camera can be supplied directly via the network cable if the camera supports PoE technology (more on this later). There are also combined coaxial cables with two cores for powering an analog camera. But such a cable is already more expensive.
2) The ability to transmit sound.
Both IP cameras and analog CCTV cameras have the ability to connect a microphone to transmit sound. However, in analog cameras, an additional cable will have to be laid to transmit sound to the surveillance post. In IP cameras, sound will be transmitted over the same twisted pair as video data.
3) Control of PTZ cameras.
Again, in CCTV cameras, such control is provided via the RS-485 protocol, which requires laying a separate cable from the control panel to the camera. In IP cameras, control is implemented via a twisted pair. The same twisted pair that transmits video and audio from the camera, and via which power is supplied to the IP camera.
4) With a large number of cameras at the site, there is a difficulty in pulling coaxial cables from each analog camera to the video recorder.
In the case of IP cameras, a cable goes from each camera to the switch, and from there further to the centralized monitoring point, one cable also goes.
Well, or in the case of a very large video surveillance system, when the cameras are combined into several switches, the final «cable mass» will still be less.
And you can also point out the advantages of IP video surveillance that are unattainable for analog cameras:
1) IP cameras are capable of transmitting multiple video streams for different users over a single cable.
2) IP cameras use open IP network standards.
Therefore, to organize video surveillance, you can use standard network equipment and, if possible, the existing network infrastructure (if, for example, «spare» twisted pair cables were laid during the design of the SCS).
3) IP technologies also allow the deployment of wireless video surveillance systems.
4) Using IP video servers (IP encoders), you can convert an analog video surveillance system already installed at the facility into an IP system.
Author: Dmitry Morozov, Personal and Business Security