I'm curious how many of you install a surge protection product on feeds from outdoor speakers, cameras, WAPs, etc..

It seems like a sensible thing to do, though I have the sense that it is seldom done because a) none of my colleagues do it, b) I've never seen this on a takeover job, and c) if it were more common, SnapAV would sell a solution.

If you do use a product for this, would be great to know which.

I do it every time.  It's not worth losing thousands of dollars of equipment.

Panamax has good options as well as Ubiquiti.

[Link: panamax.com]

[Link: ui.com]

To be clear, everything that goes into the ground (not fiber) gets surge for sure as well as an antenna for a wireless bridge mounted on a building.

Cameras on a house or soffit, not so much.

Panamax offers solutions for this. They've been doing this since well before Snap came into being...

I know this is a picky point, but it really helps to think about things the way they are, so let's keep our thinking clear here: There are no "feeds from outdoor speakers." There are feeds to and from cameras, etc.

Meanwhile, what products are available to provide surge protection on the hot lead and the ground lead of a power amplifier output? On an HDMI signal?

These should indeed be used!


LMFTFY:
If you do use a product for this, what the hell is it?

For those that are protecting the devices are you running a separate bond wire from the house or are you just connecting a wire/screw to a piece of metal which appears to be grounded?

Doing this incorrectly isn't providing any benefit and may cause more harm than good by creating two paths to ground.

Looking at the Ubiquiti option and how they show to "ground" the device is not the proper way. You should be either pulling a separate bond wire OR be using a cable that has the bond attached. This bond wire should then be connected to the electrical ground within the building.

I know the US has different rules for electrical but here in Canada (Ontario specifically) there can only be one ground. Ground rods are a thing of the past unless you are dealing with transformer vaults and grounding grids. Outside of that all new buildings must only have ONE grounding point. All devices that are connected to that electrical service (including out buildings) must be BONDED to this one ground. We should be bonding all LV devices to the same electrical ground and not just to the pole that the device is attached to.

Speakers:
[Link: l-com.com]

I use L-com.

And, proper bonding. Bonding is usually the hardest part, depending on where the equipment and wire entrance points are located.

'Sensible thing to do' is not the reason to do it.  IT IS CODE!  Although it is rarely inspected, which is a shame.

I can't recall the exact code reference at the moment, but i think it is covered in Article 250.

All low voltage cabling and services are supposed to be grounded and protected when they enter the structure.  This also means that low-voltage cable between a main house and a guest house needs to be grounded and protected when it enters BOTH structures.

I always ground everything - satellite, CATV, phone, data, speakers, keypads, all of it.

PolyPhaser for satellite and CATV
Panamax for speakers & keypads
Grommes-Precision for 70v speakers
A mix of ITW Linx, Panamax, and Edco for voice & data depending on what it is.
Crestron sells a protector for Cresnet which I've also used for other similar cabling.

Oh - the other thing I have seen:  a company may indeed use a sufficiently matched protector for thier incomming cable, but then not actually ground it to anything!  Umm, surge protection really doesn't work this way.

For copper:

[Link: surgepack.com]

If you are using TCP/IP between structures, fiber is your best friend. Ethernet switches with fiber ports are widely available.

If you know it's a picky point then why bother?  This is a forum, not an encyclopedia.  It ain't got to be perfect to get da point across......

https://transientprotectiondesign.com/ -these guys have most bases covered and all the grounding and bonding parts as well. Give them a case with usage and they’ll write up a BoM quickly. Great support too.

Cameras and speakers get surge protection. We connect buildings with fiber so thats not an issue. The only thing i can think of that we have not put protection on is the occasional covered porch lutron or crestron keypad.

If I've got the terminology right, a "connector" in the electrical world is, for instance, the piece that attaches an EMT to an electrical box, not at all what we non-electrical world people think of as "connecting." And what we'd call "connecting" is, or is close to, what the electrical world refers to as "bonding."

No matter how wildly inaccurate that might be, can someone please add a definition of "bonding" to this discussion? The importance of bonding is quite appropriately being stressed here. It would be good to have a definition to go along with the discussion.

Thanks.

From the NEC:

"Bonding: The permanent joining of metallic parts to form an electrically conductive path that ensures electrical continuity and the capacity to conduct safely any current likely to be imposed".

That being said, you can't just wrap tinfoil around two conductors and expect that to meet code. This is because the code also states that any equipment used must be listed for the use intended.

"Bonding" used to be called "Grounding". It was changed because they are two different things. You can "Ground" a "Neutral" wire and it becomes the "Grounded Conductor". Two metal electrical boxes can be "Bonded" together. The "Grounding" terminology never fully went away, which is why we still say "Ground Wire" or "Grounding Screw" even though we mean to say "Equipment Grounding Conductor" (Although Bonding Conductor would be more correct).

The English have always used the term "Earthed" instead of "Grounded" which helps avoid confusion.

So a typical residence may have a 120/240 Split-Phase service. The Neutral Conductor at the Service Disconnect is Bonded to the Service Disconnect and a System Grounding Electrode Connector is connected to that Neutral on one end and to the Grounding Electrode at the other (Ground Rod, Rebar, Copper Water Service, Structural Steel etc). Somewhere along the path of this Service Grounding Electrode Conductor there must be an accessible System Bonding Terminal. This is where any cable, phone, antenna wiring gets Grounded. Well, it's supposed to.

"Bond" is what a lot of people at Riker's Island can't post because they are too poor. Pass the Corona!