One of the biggest issues a lot of homeowners and businesses face is to figure out how to wire a surveillance system. This blog will serve as a step by step guide to how to wire a surveillance system in a proper manner.
What Type of Cameras?
The first step would be to decide what kind of camera a homeowner or a business wants. That will be determined by whether you want to use CCTV cameras or IP cameras What is the difference? Most IP camera systems use CAT-5 cable. On the other hand, CCTV cameras use a different kind of wire called the coax cable. CCTV cameras use 1080p AHD cameras and TVI cameras. Why does that matter? If you are not sure what kind of cameras you are going to install, running both types of cables is a good idea since the cost will not go up by much. This might also allow room for using the other cable for later.
Where Are You Mounting Monitors and Cameras?

After wiring the house for the surveillance system, the next step is to decide where and how to mount the cameras. A big consideration has to be what devices are to be used including motion detectors and door sensors. What does that do you might be wondering. They trigger the recording of DVR and alarms. As a result, the mounting of the cameras and positioning of the monitors has to take that into consideration
Cables
If the cameras being used are HD over coax type, then RG59 cables are better. It is important to use RG59 cameras that have copper cores. Why is it so important? Because steel core coax cables do not work very well with CCTV cameras. If IP cameras are being used, CAT-5 cables need to be run to each camera location.
Motion Detector Security Camera Wiring
In order to get the alarms to a DVR, motion detectors require two wires. The other thing to consider is that they need to pair with another pair as well. Cat-5 has to be run from all the motion detector locations to the power supply box
Spot Monitor Security Camera Wiring
For this kind of scenario let us use an example. Let us say there is a monitor near the DVR that is situated in the office. For that set up, there would have to be two spot monitors. One would be set up in the family room and the other one in the master bedroom. That way, pre-wiring would not be required for the monitor in the office as it will just have to be connected to the DVR using a HDMI or VGA cable.
For the spot monitors, Cat-5, coax cable, or HDMI cable should be used depending on the outputs that you want from the DVR. Some DVRs use a BNC composite output for different monitors that have been set up. Why do that? Because if your DVR uses an HDMI connection, it is good to decide whether to use an HDMI cable or a CAT-5.
I have an old camera I have a yellow wire a black wire a red wire and a blue wire if the black wire goes to the black wire the red wire goes to the red wire what is the blue and yellow wire go to can you please give me a response to this answer as soon as possible thank you
Hello Robert,
For every camera and manufacturer the way they do cabling will be different. If you mean these wires for power, usually the yellow cable means that it is for grounding. But if the colors are for another function on the camera, you will have to contact the manufacturer for that kind of information.