Best PoE Home Security System for New Construction

Hey y’all. A bit new to home security and I’m looking for recommendations for a PoE system. I’m building new homes and I’d like to have these in place for the units.

Specifically, I’m looking for recommendations for outdoor cameras, doorbell, and home lock. Other sensors, like glass break detectors, are a plus.

Cloud backup, or the option for it in a reasonably priced plan, would be great to have as well. I’m not sure that the future owners will want to deal with on-prem storage, so that’s not a requirement.

Any favorites that y’all have that would meet the above requirements?

I’m doing a new construction house at the moment from my research I settled on Reolink as it is PoE, user friendly and you don’t need to use their cloud services if you don’t want to by using the NVR

Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

I second this. I pushed hard to make sure to get Cat6A put everywhere instead of Cat6 or Cat5E like they normally do

LocksmithLeo said:

Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

I second this. I pushed hard to make sure to get Cat6A put everywhere instead of Cat6 or Cat5E like they normally do

Why did you do cat 6A? unless your runs are more then 50 Meters you will still get 10Gig, also unless they used cat 6A jacks and shielded 8P8C Connectors you will still only certify at cat 6 spec. Not trying to be rude, just genuinely curious about what those runs would look like.

HyperSphinx said:

LocksmithLeo said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

I second this. I pushed hard to make sure to get Cat6A put everywhere instead of Cat6 or Cat5E like they normally do

Why did you do cat 6A? unless your runs are more then 50 Meters you will still get 10Gig, also unless they used cat 6A jacks and shielded 8P8C Connectors you will still only certify at cat 6 spec. Not trying to be rude, just genuinely curious about what those runs would look like.

As all the runs are centralized into the basement low voltage room and the house is a decent size Cat6A made sense especially as the exterior walls are concrete being ICF so upgrades are more difficult to do down the road to external locations.

LocksmithLeo said:

HyperSphinx said:
LocksmithLeo said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

I second this. I pushed hard to make sure to get Cat6A put everywhere instead of Cat6 or Cat5E like they normally do

Why did you do cat 6A? unless your runs are more then 50 Meters you will still get 10Gig, also unless they used cat 6A jacks and shielded 8P8C Connectors you will still only certify at cat 6 spec. Not trying to be rude, just genuinely curious about what those runs would look like.

As all the runs are centralized into the basement low voltage room and the house is a decent size Cat6A made sense especially as the exterior walls are concrete being ICF so upgrades are more difficult to do down the road to external locations.

Very good reasons indeed.

LocksmithLeo said:

Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

I second this. I pushed hard to make sure to get Cat6A put everywhere instead of Cat6 or Cat5E like they normally do

Why not just go with fiber, since we’re throwing logic and technical aspects out the window. LOL

There is no logical reason to run Cat6, and especially not Cat6a to any camera. Y’all internet folks be killing me. LOL

LizCampell said:

LocksmithLeo said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

I second this. I pushed hard to make sure to get Cat6A put everywhere instead of Cat6 or Cat5E like they normally do

Why not just go with fiber, since we’re throwing logic and technical aspects out the window. LOL

There is no logical reason to run Cat6, and especially not Cat6a to any camera. Y’all internet folks be killing me. LOL

I’ve kinda mothballed 5e these days due to mainly running 6 to everything, but 6A to a camera is outrageous. Fair enough for switch uplinks and core backbone stuff but what the fuck kinda camera are these guys putting on the end that’s going to need anything close to even a gigabit throughput.

I’m with CJ.

LizCampell said:

LocksmithLeo said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

I second this. I pushed hard to make sure to get Cat6A put everywhere instead of Cat6 or Cat5E like they normally do

Why not just go with fiber, since we’re throwing logic and technical aspects out the window. LOL

There is no logical reason to run Cat6, and especially not Cat6a to any camera. Y’all internet folks be killing me. LOL

Regardless of bandwidth, since I’d imagine an IP camera isn’t going to need over 1Gb, but fiber will obviously not be able to provide PoE. You’d need to run actual copper to all your camera locations.

LizCampell said:

LocksmithLeo said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

I second this. I pushed hard to make sure to get Cat6A put everywhere instead of Cat6 or Cat5E like they normally do

Why not just go with fiber, since we’re throwing logic and technical aspects out the window. LOL

There is no logical reason to run Cat6, and especially not Cat6a to any camera. Y’all internet folks be killing me. LOL

Most devices have RJ45 plugins, not SFP ports.

Washington said:

LizCampell said:
LocksmithLeo said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

I second this. I pushed hard to make sure to get Cat6A put everywhere instead of Cat6 or Cat5E like they normally do

Why not just go with fiber, since we’re throwing logic and technical aspects out the window. LOL

There is no logical reason to run Cat6, and especially not Cat6a to any camera. Y’all internet folks be killing me. LOL

Most devices have RJ45 plugins, not SFP ports.

If only they made devices with both. LOL

Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

Cat6A can probably handle more than 10x any through put any consumer 4K security camera is going to be pushing. Then you want to throw a crappy Swann or Lorex system on it. Waste of money on both options there IMO.

Magdlina said:

Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

Cat6A can probably handle more than 10x any through put any consumer 4K security camera is going to be pushing. Then you want to throw a crappy Swann or Lorex system on it. Waste of money on both options there IMO.

The camera system itself is not the important part. Those will get changed out over the years and is very much down to user preference. The cable may never be changed. Regarding the Cat6a choice, who knows what technology will demand in 30 years time. Perhaps a new POE standard will come out requiring Cat6a for the increased wire size? 8k streaming is on the horizon, what comes after that? A newly built home will be there for 100 years. To say that Cat5e is more than enough, is like saying IPV4 will never run out of IP addresses. You can’t predict the future. So don’t skimp on something that is next to impossible to change out or very costly to do so.

Bodhi said:

Magdlina said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

Cat6A can probably handle more than 10x any through put any consumer 4K security camera is going to be pushing. Then you want to throw a crappy Swann or Lorex system on it. Waste of money on both options there IMO.

The camera system itself is not the important part. Those will get changed out over the years and is very much down to user preference. The cable may never be changed. Regarding the Cat6a choice, who knows what technology will demand in 30 years time. Perhaps a new POE standard will come out requiring Cat6a for the increased wire size? 8k streaming is on the horizon, what comes after that? A newly built home will be there for 100 years. To say that Cat5e is more than enough, is like saying IPV4 will never run out of IP addresses. You can’t predict the future. So don’t skimp on something that is next to impossible to change out or very costly to do so.

A single 4K camera encoding in jpeg is around 24 Mbps, H.264 is maybe pushing 8 Mbps, H.265 is even less than that. You’d need one heck of an increase in both frame rate and pixel density to come anywhere close to what’s needed for a single camera on a line that can easily carry 1000 Mbps not accounting for any advance future compression from the camera itself.

I’ve worked on civil surveillance projects with the Panasonic WVS-8544 with the WV-X6531NS and Cat5e is still way more than enough for that setup. Any single camera for a consumer or even prosumer, not going to need anything over Cat5e.

Trunk lines between network components or NVR, I’m all for the better cable there.

Magdlina said:

Bodhi said:
Magdlina said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

Cat6A can probably handle more than 10x any through put any consumer 4K security camera is going to be pushing. Then you want to throw a crappy Swann or Lorex system on it. Waste of money on both options there IMO.

The camera system itself is not the important part. Those will get changed out over the years and is very much down to user preference. The cable may never be changed. Regarding the Cat6a choice, who knows what technology will demand in 30 years time. Perhaps a new POE standard will come out requiring Cat6a for the increased wire size? 8k streaming is on the horizon, what comes after that? A newly built home will be there for 100 years. To say that Cat5e is more than enough, is like saying IPV4 will never run out of IP addresses. You can’t predict the future. So don’t skimp on something that is next to impossible to change out or very costly to do so.

A single 4K camera encoding in jpeg is around 24 Mbps, H.264 is maybe pushing 8 Mbps, H.265 is even less than that. You’d need one heck of an increase in both frame rate and pixel density to come anywhere close to what’s needed for a single camera on a line that can easily carry 1000 Mbps not accounting for any advance future compression from the camera itself.

I’ve worked on civil surveillance projects with the Panasonic WVS-8544 with the WV-X6531NS and Cat5e is still way more than enough for that setup. Any single camera for a consumer or even prosumer, not going to need anything over Cat5e.

Trunk lines between network components or NVR, I’m all for the better cable there.

Current cameras absolutely are not going to saturate a Cat5e connection.

The issue is the future. You don’t know if that network cable ran to the backyard eve is going to be functioning as a wired back haul for a wifi 10 (?) AP in 10 years time in addition to a camera. You just don’t know.

Bodhi said:

Magdlina said:
Bodhi said:
Magdlina said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

Cat6A can probably handle more than 10x any through put any consumer 4K security camera is going to be pushing. Then you want to throw a crappy Swann or Lorex system on it. Waste of money on both options there IMO.

The camera system itself is not the important part. Those will get changed out over the years and is very much down to user preference. The cable may never be changed. Regarding the Cat6a choice, who knows what technology will demand in 30 years time. Perhaps a new POE standard will come out requiring Cat6a for the increased wire size? 8k streaming is on the horizon, what comes after that? A newly built home will be there for 100 years. To say that Cat5e is more than enough, is like saying IPV4 will never run out of IP addresses. You can’t predict the future. So don’t skimp on something that is next to impossible to change out or very costly to do so.

A single 4K camera encoding in jpeg is around 24 Mbps, H.264 is maybe pushing 8 Mbps, H.265 is even less than that. You’d need one heck of an increase in both frame rate and pixel density to come anywhere close to what’s needed for a single camera on a line that can easily carry 1000 Mbps not accounting for any advance future compression from the camera itself.

I’ve worked on civil surveillance projects with the Panasonic WVS-8544 with the WV-X6531NS and Cat5e is still way more than enough for that setup. Any single camera for a consumer or even prosumer, not going to need anything over Cat5e.

Trunk lines between network components or NVR, I’m all for the better cable there.

Current cameras absolutely are not going to saturate a Cat5e connection.

The issue is the future. You don’t know if that network cable ran to the backyard eve is going to be functioning as a wired back haul for a wifi 10 (?) AP in 10 years time in addition to a camera. You just don’t know.

I would know, because that future WiFi device, I ran a spare cable for, they’re in a better location than what the camera is in. Leave camera cables for cameras. Have to be smarter for other future device placements, run extras for those.

Magdlina said:

Bodhi said:
Magdlina said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

Cat6A can probably handle more than 10x any through put any consumer 4K security camera is going to be pushing. Then you want to throw a crappy Swann or Lorex system on it. Waste of money on both options there IMO.

The camera system itself is not the important part. Those will get changed out over the years and is very much down to user preference. The cable may never be changed. Regarding the Cat6a choice, who knows what technology will demand in 30 years time. Perhaps a new POE standard will come out requiring Cat6a for the increased wire size? 8k streaming is on the horizon, what comes after that? A newly built home will be there for 100 years. To say that Cat5e is more than enough, is like saying IPV4 will never run out of IP addresses. You can’t predict the future. So don’t skimp on something that is next to impossible to change out or very costly to do so.

A single 4K camera encoding in jpeg is around 24 Mbps, H.264 is maybe pushing 8 Mbps, H.265 is even less than that. You’d need one heck of an increase in both frame rate and pixel density to come anywhere close to what’s needed for a single camera on a line that can easily carry 1000 Mbps not accounting for any advance future compression from the camera itself.

I’ve worked on civil surveillance projects with the Panasonic WVS-8544 with the WV-X6531NS and Cat5e is still way more than enough for that setup. Any single camera for a consumer or even prosumer, not going to need anything over Cat5e.

Trunk lines between network components or NVR, I’m all for the better cable there.

Exactly. Unfortunately, people have no idea and most don’t care about the logical part of this argument. Facts, numbers, the technical aspects, etc. seems irrelevant here.

Bodhi said:

Magdlina said:
Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

Cat6A can probably handle more than 10x any through put any consumer 4K security camera is going to be pushing. Then you want to throw a crappy Swann or Lorex system on it. Waste of money on both options there IMO.

The camera system itself is not the important part. Those will get changed out over the years and is very much down to user preference. The cable may never be changed. Regarding the Cat6a choice, who knows what technology will demand in 30 years time. Perhaps a new POE standard will come out requiring Cat6a for the increased wire size? 8k streaming is on the horizon, what comes after that? A newly built home will be there for 100 years. To say that Cat5e is more than enough, is like saying IPV4 will never run out of IP addresses. You can’t predict the future. So don’t skimp on something that is next to impossible to change out or very costly to do so.

You’re only looking at a portion of the issue yet trying to make a decision about the whole. Do you know anything about H.263, H.264, H.265? Clearly the answer is no. You’re trying to determine how fast a car is by looking at the front tire.

If a 4K camera at 30fps used less than 15Mbps, and Cat5e is capable of 1,000Mbps, do you really think ‘what the future holds’ is going to be an issue?
Remember those H.xxx? That’s a really important part. Stop looking at the tires.

Bodhi said:
Provide Cat6A cable to all the usual places where a camera would be located, and I would be a happy buyer.

To go the whole hog, just any ole POE camera system from Swann, Lorex etc.

A more premium setup would be something from Ubiquiti, but much more $$.

Regardless, the Cat6A would handle anything. Me personally, I would be happy just to have the Cat6A.

Why would anyone run Cat6 to a camera?
I’ve seen a lot of people make this recommendation, yet no one is able to provide a technical or logical reason. That’s because there is none.

No one who understands CCTV and networking would recommend this. This must be one of those things that get circulated on the internet with no valid reasoning.