GarrettCOM’s latest power supply meets video surveillance needs on buses

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.

The power supply is suitable for use with any of GarrettCom Europe’s Ethernet switches offering up to 8 ports of PoE, including the PS14, PES42, 6KPL and 6KQEP.

Each of these hardened Ethernet edges provides connectivity for clusters of IP cameras and/or other security devices, and combines this with fibre optic connectivity to the mobile DVR for high-bandwidth transmission of video data. All this makes the products ideal for surveillance applications in buses and other mobile systems, allowing clusters of cameras and access control devices to be simply connected into the network via a single PES42P switch.

The ports which supply power feature an auto-sensing algorithm so that they provide power only to attached 802.3af PD devices. If proprietary PoE and non-PoE devices are attached, the auto-sensing feature ensures they will not be damaged. The PES42P ports discontinue supplying power when the PoE devices are disconnected, and support the PSE (Power Sensing Equipment) standard for over-current protection, under-current detection and fault protection.