CCTV Baluns Can Help Produce High Quality Images Over Long Cable Runs

Often when installing a CCTV system professional engineers may require the implementation of a balun. This can be because the site owner has requested that Cat5 cables are to be used instead of the traditional composite cable. It could also be due to the length of the cable run which may be too long to run a video signal down a standard composite cable. Often over long cable runs, a standard CCTV cable loses the quality of signal. This means a poor image is returned on a users monitor or CCTV recorder. CCTV baluns are also useful if you need to transmit multiple video signals down just one cable. Cat5 cable are capable of transmitting signals down each of its twisted cores. Cat5 CCTV cable can have 5 or more twisted pairs which means they can carry more than one video signal. However Cat5 will not perform these tasks by itself so a CCTV balun is required to convert a composite video signal in to a balanced signal which can be transmitted down the cat5 cable. Baluns come in two formats a passive balun which does not require power and an active balun which does require power. A passive balun can be used to send a video signal up to 500 metres without any signal loss or drop in video image quality. A 4 way video balun may be capable of converting and sending the signals from 4 security cameras up to 500 metres down one single cat5 cable. This can greatly simplify a CCTV installation and help reduce material costs. An active balun is capable of sending composite video signals up to 1000 metres down Cat5 cable. They can be very useful for large applications which require cameras to be installed far from the CCTV control room i.e. where the monitor or DVR is sited. These active baluns are ideal for large applications such as schools, factories and warehouses. Cat5 cable can help produce excellent results over long cable runs but they will only do this with the addition of a CCTV balun.