Hikvision NVR and separate PoE Switch

[isofa]

On Hikvision NVRs (such as DS-7608NI-K2-8P) , do all the cameras have to connect directly to the PoE ports on the NVR, or can the cameras be connected to a PoE switch elsewhere and then just a single Ethernet cable connect the NVR to the switch, and PoE disabled on the NVR?

I'm planning a system at the moment, and the choice of site for the NVR to be secure and to mask the noise of the fan (which I read is quite loud), it won't be possible to run all the cables from each camera to the location, but it'll be possible to network 4 or 5 of the cameras to a PoE switch in a different central location and then run a single Ethernet cable from the switch to the NVR.

Thanks

 

[Phil]

You can mix & match e.g. connect some cameras either way.
Any mix; all connected to the NVR's POE ports / none connected.

NB - Regardless of how you connect the cameras you cannot exceed the NVR's stated camera count e.g. 4, 8, 16, 32 cameras. I say this because occasionally we have enquirers who believe it is the number of ports on the back of the NVR that causes the limitation of how many cameras you can connect - it is not - it is hard coded.

Cameras connected to your general LAN via POE switches will have to be manually added/configured:

 

[isofa]

Brilliant! Thanks for the speedy reply Phil.

 

[Jkousholt]

You can mix & match e.g. connect some cameras either way.
Any mix; all connected to the NVR's POE ports / none connected.

NB - Regardless of how you connect the cameras you cannot exceed the NVR's stated camera count e.g. 4, 8, 16, 32 cameras. I say this because occasionally we have enquirers who believe it is the number of ports on the back of the NVR that causes the limitation of how many cameras you can connect - it is not - it is hard coded.

Cameras connected to your general LAN via POE switches will have to be manually added/configured:

Is it possible to add cameras from other vendors on the PoE ports of the NVR?

 

[Dan]

Hikvision NVRs will support connecting 3rd-party cameras directly to the PoE ports, certain brands are supported fully but as long as the camera supports ONVIF you should be fine. The process of connecting a 3rd-party camera directly is slightly trickier though as the 3rd-party cameras will not support the auto-assign/Plug & Play feature of the Hikvision cameras, this means you first have to add the 3rd-party camera to your network using a PoE switch or Injector and then change the cameras IP address to match the subnet IP range of the Hikvision NVR. (e.g. 192.168.254.xxx)

Once the address has changed you can disconnect the camera from the PoE switch/Injector and connect it directly to the NVR, with it now using the same subnet the Hikvision NVR should detect the camera quite quickly.

You also need to make sure you change the protocol of the channel the 3rd-party camera will be using (see below) because if this remains as the HIKVISION protocol no 3rd-party camera will connect even if you change the IP address.