One of the most frequent support tickets in CCTV installations involves flickering video, rolling horizontal lines, or cameras rebooting repeatedly at night. In 90% of cases, the root cause is cable signal degradation and DC voltage drop over extended distances.
Understanding the Voltage Drop Problem
During the day, a CCTV camera consumes only 2 to 4 Watts of power. At dusk, when onboard IR or warm LED illuminators activate, power consumption jumps to 10-15 Watts. If poor quality or thin cables are used, the resulting resistance causes DC voltage to drop below 10.5V, forcing the camera into continuous reboot loops.
Extending PoE Up to 250 Meters
Standard IEEE 802.3 Ethernet limits cable distance to 100 meters (328 feet). However, CP PLUS and enterprise PoE switches offer an Extend / Long-Reach Mode. By reducing negotiation speed to a steady 10Mbps (which is more than sufficient for a 4K H.265+ 4-8Mbps stream), video and power transmission reaches up to 250 meters without needing mid-span repeaters.
