Boss: "Hey Jon, I need you to go to Richmond and install some cameras."
Me: "Cool, what for?"
Boss: "A new psych ward, we're doing their PTZ monitoring system."
Me: "..."
So for the last month or so I've been taking the team up to Richmond to install cameras in hallways and padded rooms.
The interesting and insanely frustrating thing about this job is that the general contractor (guy in charge) has to make sure that EVERYTHING is tamper proof. That means no screws with phillips or flat head teeth, nothing can be installed that something could be hung over and all cables (even in the ceiling) must be run through conduit or raceways.
Ironically, the padded rooms are quite firm. We figure if you ran at the wall it would still knock you out, but I guess in extreme cases that's not really a concern.
In order to mount the cameras to the underside of the ceiling we had to find something that would hang a 20 lb. camera in 4" of gypsum/concrete. Mounting a flange to the ceiling we were able to fabricate a custom PVC threading solution that lets us just screw the cameras into the ceiling.
Later on, the GC will have someone come back in to retrofit a custom drywall "frame" in the hole we cut and the cameras will fit seamlessly into the ceiling.
These cameras are designated as PTZ which stands for Pan/Tilt/Zoom. Smaller flush mount cameras (which would have easily mounted to the junction boxes) were nixed from consideration because they had to be able to contain all the motors to have full control of the lens in the room. These cameras are powered by a Cat6 line and a 25v power control station. The long cable in the picture above is the Cat6 cable and the shorter one is control cable for the PTZ functions mixed with a 25v powered line. The control station is housed in the nurse's office and contains a DVR with a display system that allows for constant monitoring of all the hallways and isolation rooms.
Pretty crazy huh?
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