
It is an easy way to get away from aging and difficult/impossible to repair/replace matrix switchers and DVRs while making the video more easily accessible over any area served by a connectable IP network. Reusing existing analog cameras with new encoders is the option which has the lower immediate cost, and so may be easier to select. So which one is better? That answer depends heavily upon budget and other requirements specific to your organization. This method provides all of the benefits of newer, more advanced IP cameras while still making use of the extensive past investment in coaxial cabling. Another EoC converter on the far end receives the EoC signal and converts it back to standard Ethernet for input to an IP network. The EoC converter does exactly what it sounds like it does, and sends the Ethernet signal from the new IP camera over the coaxial cable. Category 6) cabling, Ethernet over coax (EoC) converters are required to reuse the existing coax.

Because IP cameras output their signal as Ethernet over standard twisted pair (e.g. The second option is to replace the analog cameras with new IP cameras while still maintaining the existing coaxial cabling. The chip sets for newer IP cameras are much more advanced and provide much more detail, resolution, quality, and imageryoften with better construction.

Alternatively, IP cameras are frequently more technically advanced in that these settings can be manipulated remotely and even have upgrades uploaded. For the most part, the achieved video stream is whatever the analog camera’s native resolution, iris, average white balance, and so forth, when that camera was first manufactured. The encoder streams the video onto the network to make it available for IP network-based viewing and recording. The encoder is a hardware device that takes the native output of the analog camera and converts it into the digital/IP realm we wish to achieve. The first option is to maintain the existing analog cameras and coaxial cabling and simply take the coaxial camera into an encoder. These options can be differentiated principally by the use of either encoders or Ethernet over coax (EoC) converters. With various permutations, there are two main options that do not simply “rip and replace” everything, and so present cost savings through the reuse of existing infrastructure and/or equipment.

But what is the best way to transition from an existing analog CCTV system to an IP video surveillance system? Most brand-new installations will use IP cameras and leverage IP networks for the many associated benefits (which are outside of the scope of this article, but are one of our favorite topics). But as newer IP cameras have rapidly gained advanced features and dropped in price, they have become very desirable. Many video surveillance systems which were installed 8+ years ago use analog cameras, coaxial cable, matrix switchers, and DVRs.
