Port and Poe questions

[radiohead319]

I'm new to this CCTV stuff but have some IP experience. I have two questions - see below.

Background
I'm planning to buy a standalone NVR - the Hikvision DS-7616NI and 7 or 8 cameras. I'll have 3 IP cameras that are remote from the house - so I plan to connect those to a 4/5 port POE switch and then backhaul them back using a couple of 5GHz WiFi AP's (Ubiquiti or Trendnet) to the NVR in the house.

My questions
1. Would that NVR allow me to connect the combined 3 cameras into one port of the NVR? ie: I'm asking does the NVR act like a normal layer 3 switch and would the NVR software allow me to search for the cameras (presumably by static IP address) and connect to them? Sorry if this is a stoopid question!

2. PoE. The Hikvision DS-2CD2032-1 cameras say they are 802.3af compliant. This standard is 48v, yet I also have read several places that the cameras need 12v PoE. Is it safe to connect them to a 802.3af compliant switch without risking blowing them? ie: will they step-down the voltage?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Bob]

Each of the PoE ports on the back of the NVR also represent one camera channel, so you can't have a switch with multiple cameras running into the back of one of the PoE ports of the NVR. You can, however, search your network for cameras that are on your network (assuming they are powered up and connected to your network) and add them via their IP address.

As for the PoE involved, all Hikvision cameras tend to use 802.3af (With the exception of some of the PTZ Cameras) but also have the optional power option of using a 12v power supply which is possibly confusing you. Regardless, PoE is smart, so it will never send too much power to a device (They can communicate with each-other) meaning you don't have to worry about overloading a PoE device via a PoE source.

Any further questions feel free to ask below.

 

[radiohead319]

Many thanks Bob. I also emailed Hikvision UK last night and got a response this morning (see below) confirming the PoE point. I've searched far and wide on the internet without getting a really definitive answer on this - so hopefully from now on, this thread can be the definitive answer!
Great stuff. Thanks again.

Email from HikvisionUK:

Please see the attached datasheet. If you scroll down you’ll see the camera can either be 12VDC driven, or POE 802.3af. So yes, it can connect to standard POE switch no problems.
I hope this helps.
Best Regards
Matt England
Pre-Sales Technical Support
Hikvision UK Limited