Had to pick between PoE and wireless for a big commercial job in Denver

I was bidding on a warehouse retrofit about 6 months ago, 30,000 square feet with concrete walls everywhere. The customer wanted full coverage but didn't want to pay for trenching or conduit. So I had to decide between PoE cameras with all that cabling or going wireless with battery powered units. I ended up going with PoE because the reliability was better for their 24/7 operation, but running the wires through those concrete walls was a nightmare. Took me and my partner 4 full days just to fish everything through. The wireless option would have been way faster but I worried about battery swaps and signal interference from all the metal shelving. Looking back, the PoE works great now but the install labor nearly killed the profit margin. Has anyone else dealt with this kind of choice on a big space and regretted their pick?

2 comments

2 Comments

josephb351d ago

Whoa, hold on... 4 full days just for the conduit fishing? That's brutal. I did a similar concrete warehouse job a few years back, only half the size, and we spent three days just drilling and patching. PoE was solid in the end, but the labor cost just ate up everything. I still wonder if the wireless would have been a smarter call for the bottom line.

king.dakota1d ago

Oh MAN that concrete wall struggle is real. I feel your pain on that one. What a lot of people don't think about is those metal shelves really do mess with wireless signals. I did a smaller job with just a dozen wireless cams in a metal building and had constant dropouts near the racking. Had to add five repeaters just to get it stable so the PoE call was probably the right move even if it hurt up front.