Help with remote camera installation

[hahntim]

I have been installing Amcrest / Qcam 3MP 8 channel POE NVR kits in our condominium community. The last installation is a little more challenging. I am attempting to install 5 cameras in an outdoor remote mailbox area. With no shelter to store the NVR I have to run the camera feeds through a pre-existing conduit back to an area where I can safely store the NVR.

Since I can only fit one Cat5 wire through the existing conduit, would it be possible to run this single feed to the mailbox area where I plan to install the cameras, then add a POE switch that would feed all of the cameras? Theoretically they would receive their POE power AND ip addresses via the switch - I am not sure what the NVR would do with the signal it would receive on it's end. I'm thinking that if the NVR can receive wifi cameras via the network and process them, theoretically it may be able to do something with these 5 camera signals if I ran the single feed a) directly into the same router the NVR is plugged into or b) into one of the 8 ports on the back of the NVR. I'm just wondering if someone has tried this before.

If I have addressed the POE issue then it looks like all I have to worry about is if the 5 camera IP addresses will make their way to the NVR and be processed just as if they were running individually into the back of the NVR?

Thank you!

[Melvin]

Hello hahntim,
It should work both ways. I mean a direct cat5 connection to the NVR built in switch or another POE switch that is connected to the router. The NVR can scan and add these cameras through the IP channel settings as they are on the network through the switch. So a single cable to the POE switch and then run cable to all cameras from switch.