With video surveillance becoming a prime requirement across all areas of the passenger transportation industry, helping to increase passenger safety and prevent vandalism, Ethernet and IP technologies have come to the fore as the most flexible and cost-effective means of networking these surveillance systems. A typical installation will see multiple IP-enabled cameras all connected to an Ethernet switch, in turn feeding the video to a mobile video recorder and perhaps a wireless transmitter. A key benefit of modern Ethernet switches is their ability to provide Power over Ethernet (PoE) to drive the various IP-enabled cameras, DVRs and transmitters, dramatically reducing installation complexity and costs by eliminating the need for costly cabling back to a central power source.
But in video surveillance networks on buses and some other transportation applications, this benefit cannot be realised because of the standardisation on 24V for the power supply. Delivering 48V PoE from the switch’s Ethernet ports requires a 48V power input. Now GarrettCom Europe has addressed this issue with the introduction of a compact, industrially rugged power supply that boosts the 24V up to 48V, to provide PoE for up to 8 ports.
