How Much Time and Money Will You Save with the IPCP-212X PoE Combiner and Splitter?

How much time and money could you save on your next IP security system installation by laying half the amount of cables? How much could you save in a week? A month? A year? If you found a product that could reduce your cable usage by 50%, what would that do for your business? Well, we found a product that can help you do just that: the IPCP-212X PoE Combiner/Splitter Pair.

It's a small box, and as you can see, there's not a whole lot to it. Inside you'll find your combiner, your splitter, three weatherproof grommets, and a quick start guide. But while it may not look like much, this little tool has the potential to save you a bunch of time and resources when it comes to cabling.

Do you install IP cameras? Throw some of these in your bag to save yourself time and money!

Laying Cable Sucks

There are all different kinds of security professionals out there. Maybe security installation is your passion. It’s what gets your out of bed in the mornings. Or maybe it’s just a good job that puts food on your table. Wherever you find yourself on this spectrum, there’s one thing we can all agree on. Laying cable sucks.

It’s laborious. It’s time-consuming. It’s costly. But it’s also one of the most important aspects of a professional CCTV installation. It has to be done, and it has to be done well.

At IPCamPower, we have one goal: to make your life easier. And since working with cables is probably one of the more difficult parts of your job, that’s where we tend to spend a lot of our focus. We believe that if we can make it easier, faster, and more cost-effective for you to lay your cable runs, you’ll be able to spend more time, energy, and resources on growing your business. The IPCP-212X combiner and splitter can do that for you. Here's how.

Wanna speed up your cable workflow without cutting corners?

Two Use Cases

Here's the basic idea. You plug the combiner into two ports on a network PoE switch or an integrated NVR PoE switch. Depending on the device, you may have to switch modes on the PoE combiner.  Then you connect it to a single Ethernet cable. At the installation site, you connect the other end of the Ethernet cable to the weather-sealed splitter. And boom! You now have two PoE outputs to install two separate IP cameras, both powered by a single cable run back to the PoE switch. Sure, it’s a simple concept. But most revolutionary ideas are.

There are two primary use cases for the IPCP-212X: installing a system from scratch and adding cameras to an additional installation.

Starting from Scratch

Let’s say you get hired for a brand new residential installation. It’s a small system; just four cameras. One facing the driveway, one facing the front door, one facing the back door, and one on the side of the house. With four IP cameras installed using PoE, you only have to run one cable from the switch to each camera, four cables total.

PoE already saves us some cabling, since we only have to run four long cables to each camera. But now with the IPCP-212X, we can take this another step. Notice how the security camera in the back and on the side of the house are pretty close to each other? And we’ve got two cameras right there at the front of the house. You thinkin what I’m thinkin?

Instead of four long cables running from the PoE switch to the outside of the house, we can run just two long cables: one to the back and one to the front. To do this, we’ll pop two PoE combiners into four ports on our PoE switch. This gives us two PoE outputs to connect our two long cable runs. Once we connect an Ethernet cable into one of these combiners, we essentially have two PoE ports pumping two ports worth of power and data into one Ethernet cable.

Once we lay our two cables, we can now install our two cameras in the back and our two cameras in the front. To do this, we’ll attach the splitter at the end of each Ethernet cable, and our four short Ethernet cables to each end of the splitter. (Pro tip: if your splitter is located outside, be sure to seal your cables using the included weatherproof grommets.)

We’ve essentially created a highway system for our IP cameras. We have two main highways running the data and power to the front and the back of the house. From there, the main cables split off into smaller “roads” that then take the power and data to their final destinations.

Adding to a Current Installation

Now let's look at this from another angle. Let's say you install this nice camera on a corner of a building and your client loves it!

But your client calls you a week later and says "I really love the camera, but I think I need another one in the same area pointed in the opposite direction to cover a blindspot." You are happy to get the added business, but you start sweating at the thought of running another cable, as you remember that the original cable run was quite the doozy. But then your initial anxiety is washed away with the relief that you have a few pairs of these IPCP-212X combiners and splitters.

Here is a diagram of what the current cable run looks like with just the camera installed.

To install a new camera, you have two options which are illustrated below. On your left, you'll see a standard installation with two long cables running from the PoE switch to the installation site. But to avoid all this extra work, check out the image on your right. For this, you can just pop in a combiner at your PoE switch, slap on a splitter at the other end of the long cable run, and add a couple short cables to each camera. No more crazy exhaustive home runs back to the switch!

With the IPCP PoE splitter and combiner, you can take advantage of the cabling infrastructure that you already have in place to increase your speed and efficiency. Around here at Nelly's we call this "working smarter and not harder." You're happy, because you have more time to do more business. Your client is happy because you did the job in record time. It really is a win-win for everyone.

Adding to a previous installation? Work smarter not harder with the IPCP-212X!

What's the Real Benefit of Using the IPCP-212X?

Sure, using the IPCP-212X could save you some cabling costs in certain scenarios. But the real savings with this useful tool is TIME and headaches! As an installer, you know time is money. And who doesn't want to avoid a good headache? So be sure to keep a stock of these on hand in your truck to save alot of time, make more money, and have less headaches.

You can pick up your IPCP-212X PoE combiner/splitter everywhere that IPCamPower is sold. You’re probably reading this blog post on our website, so the easiest way for you to order right now is through IPCamPower.com by clicking the button below.

If you wait until you need 'em, it might be too late. Be proactive and get yours today!

We’d love to know how you’re using these IPCP-212X combiner/splitters! Send us some pictures of your installations and let us know in the comments below. How have these little tools improved your security installation workflow?