Reyee PoE Switch Sizing Guide: 8/16/24 CCTV Sites

At a glance

Reyee PoE switches give UK CCTV installers a Hikvision-friendly alternative to UniFi and TP-Link Omada at noticeably lower cost. For most sites, the right switch is whichever model has roughly 1.5× your channel count in PoE ports, a PoE budget at least 1.5× the camera draw, and an uplink that is not the same speed as the camera ports.

As a starting point: 8-cam → RG-ES210GS-P (120 W, 8 PoE + 2 uplink); 16-cam → RG-ES220GS-P (240 W, 16 PoE + 4 uplink); 24-cam → RG-NBS3200-24GT4XS-P (370 W, 24 PoE + 4×10G); 48-cam → RG-NBS3100-48GT4SFP-P (370 W, 48 PoE + 4 SFP).

Reyee PoE switch sizing guide for 8, 16 and 24 camera CCTV installs — Reyee PoE switches map cleanly to 8, 16, 24 and 48-camera installs — the trick is matching ports, budget and uplink speed at the same time.

Most CCTV jobs that come into Netview's Leicester counter are 8-channel, 16-channel or 24-channel installs. The recorder side is straightforward — Hikvision K-series and VPRO AcuSense NVRs are stocked in those sizes. The switch side is where installers waste money: either over-spec a managed L3 switch when the site needs a cloud-smart 8-port, or under-spec a budget PoE injector that can't carry the heater load on a winter morning.

This guide cuts through the Reyee catalogue (over twenty PoE switch SKUs) and maps the right model to each site size. All prices, stock and specs are correct for Netview's UK warehouse as of May 2026. We're an authorised Ruijie/Reyee wholesaler so the part numbers below are what we actually ship — no link rot to discontinued lines.

Why Reyee PoE switches make sense for UK CCTV installers

Reyee is Ruijie Networks' SMB brand, designed for cloud-managed sites where a full enterprise stack would be overkill. For Hikvision, HiLook, Ajax and mixed CCTV/access-control deployments the appeal is three-fold: price (typically 30-40% under UniFi for similar specs), free Ruijie Cloud management with no licence creep, and 5-year hardware warranties on the NBS L2/L2+ ranges.

The catch most installers run into is that Reyee splits its switch portfolio across two sub-brands: the Smart Cloud ES-series (entry-level, web/app managed, configured by the IP-camera-recognition wizard) and the NBS-series (full Layer 2 / Layer 2+ with VLANs, ACLs, LACP, IGMP snooping). Both run on the same Ruijie Cloud back-end, so an installer who learns one learns the other. The right pick depends less on the brand prestige and more on whether you need VLAN segmentation between cameras and customer LAN traffic.

How to size a PoE switch — port count vs. PoE budget

A PoE switch has two independent capacity numbers: how many ports support PoE, and how many watts the power supply can deliver across all of them. Both have to clear the camera load with margin, or the switch will silently drop power to lower-priority ports under thermal stress.

Hikvision and HiLook's mainstream IP turrets and bullets pull 4-7 W each in normal operation — the DS-2CD23x6G3 4MP turrets and IPC-T240H/T280HA HiLook range all sit in that band (Hikvision DS-2CD2385G1-I product page). PTZs and varifocal bullets with active heaters can spike to 25-30 W in cold conditions; door stations like the DS-KV6114-WBE1 draw similar with the door release energised. The headline figure to plan against:

Standard 4MP/8MP turret or bullet: 4-7 W (PoE 802.3af class 0-3)
IR bullet with heater (winter peak): 8-12 W (PoE+ 802.3at)
PTZ or motorised varifocal: 20-30 W (PoE+ 802.3at, sometimes Hi-PoE)
Video intercom / TalkVu door station: 8-12 W (PoE+)
Wireless access point (Reyee RG-RAP): 12-25 W (PoE+, varies by model)

The rule of thumb we sell on the counter: assume 10 W per camera as a planning average even if the spec sheets say 7 W, and add 30% headroom on top for heater current draws on January mornings. An eight-camera site then needs at least 8 × 10 W × 1.3 = 104 W of PoE budget, and a sixteen-camera site needs 208 W. Match those numbers to the Reyee range below.

Reyee PoE switch range at Netview: 8 / 16 / 24 / 48-port

The simplest way to choose is by port count and budget. Every switch in this table is in stock at Netview's Leicester warehouse for next-day delivery to UK installers. Each entry runs IEEE 802.3af/at on the PoE ports, supports auto-MDIX, and integrates with Ruijie Cloud out of the box.

Reyee PoE switch range comparison: ports, PoE budget and uplinks — Reyee PoE switch range at Netview, ordered by PoE port count.

Site size	Reyee model	PoE ports / total	PoE budget	Uplink	Class
5-cam	RG-ES205GC-P	4 / 5	54 W	1×1G	Smart Cloud
6-cam	RG-ES206GS-P	4 / 6	54 W	2×1G	Smart Cloud
8-cam	RG-ES210GS-P	8 / 10	120 W	1×1G + 1×SFP combo	Smart Cloud
8-cam (managed)	RG-NBS3100-8GT2SFP-P-V2	8 / 10	125 W	2×1G SFP	L2 NBS
16-cam	RG-ES220GS-P	16 / 20	240 W	2×1G + 2×SFP	Smart Cloud
18-cam (long range)	RG-ES118GS-P	16 / 18	240 W	2×1G	Smart Cloud
24-cam	RG-ES228GS-P	24 / 28	370 W	2×1G + 2×SFP	Smart Cloud
24-cam (managed)	RG-NBS3100-24GT4SFP-P-V2	24 / 28	370 W	4×1G SFP	L2 NBS
24-cam (10G uplink)	RG-NBS3200-24GT4XS-P	24 / 28	370 W	4×10G SFP+	L2+ NBS
26-cam	RG-ES226GC-P	24 / 26	370 W	2×1G	Smart Cloud
48-cam	RG-NBS3100-48GT4SFP-P	48 / 52	370 W	4×1G SFP	L2 NBS

The 370 W ceiling on the bigger NBS models is the crucial constraint to plan against — it's plenty for any reasonable mix of 4-7 W cameras, but it tightens fast if you start daisy-chaining PTZs, intercoms or PoE-powered access points off the same chassis. We cover this in the headroom section below.

8-camera site: smart cloud or fully managed?

For a typical 8-camera Hikvision K-series install, the RG-ES210GS-P is the right answer 90% of the time. It has 8 dedicated PoE+ ports at 30 W each, a 120 W total budget (clear of the ~80 W you'd see from eight 802.3at cameras at full draw), and a 1×Gigabit + 1×SFP combo uplink that drops cleanly into a customer LAN or a separate camera VLAN trunk.

Switching capacity is 20 Gbps with a 14.8 Mpps forwarding rate (Reyee RG-ES210GS-P product page). The fanless design matters in a domestic install: if the switch is being mounted in a hallway riser or a kitchen cupboard alongside the recorder, no fan noise carries into the customer's living space.

Pair it with a DS-7608NXI-K1/8P(D)/Alarm4+1 8-channel K-series NVR if you also want the recorder's built-in 8-port PoE for the cameras and the switch only for AP / intercom / Hik-Connect uplink — that is often the cheapest layout for a residential job. The switch then carries the access point, the customer's smart-home gateway and the door station.

Pick the RG-NBS3100-8GT2SFP-P-V2 instead when the site needs proper VLAN segmentation — for example, when the customer's IT contact insists on isolating CCTV from the office LAN, or when the building has a guest Wi-Fi network running off the same physical infrastructure. The NBS gives you 802.1Q VLANs, port isolation, IGMP snooping and full Ruijie Cloud config templates, with two 1G SFP uplinks for fibre runs to a head-end MDF.

16-camera site: where the 16 PoE+ port range fits

16-channel jobs are the toughest sizing call because the standard Reyee 16-port options sit very close to their PoE budget ceiling. The RG-ES220GS-P has 16 PoE+ ports and a 240 W budget. Sixteen 4MP turrets at 7 W each only consume 112 W, but pull two of those for outdoor IR bullets with heaters and add a Reyee RG-RAP access point and a Hikvision intercom and you're suddenly at 200 W on a January morning.

240 W is enough — but it's not enough plus a future expansion. If the customer might add four more cameras in 12 months' time, plan up: the RG-ES228GS-P is the same 1U form factor, the same Smart Cloud management UI, and gives you eight more PoE ports plus a 130 W extra budget for £30-50 more on the trade price.

For installs that need a single switch covering a 16-cam camera VLAN and a separate 4-port wireless AP/access-control VLAN, the managed RG-NBS3100-24GT4SFP-P-V2 is the right answer — 24 ports of headroom, full L2 management, four SFP uplinks and the same 370 W budget the 24-cam jobs use.

24-camera site: managed Layer 2/2+ switches

Once you're past 16 cameras, the calculation changes: most 24-port commercial installs bill enough labour that the £40-80 difference between a Smart Cloud and a managed L2 switch is irrelevant against the time saved configuring VLANs and link aggregation properly. We default to the RG-NBS3200-24GT4XS-P for any 24-port job that touches a customer's existing LAN.

The key spec is the four 10G SFP+ uplinks. A 24-channel Hikvision NVR running 4MP cameras in H.265+ at 4 Mbps each will average 96 Mbps incoming, peaking around 130 Mbps under motion — well under a 1G uplink. But factor in the iVMS-4200 client streaming from the NVR back across the LAN, plus Hik-Connect cloud relay, plus the customer's office traffic, and a 1G uplink starts queuing. 10G SFP+ is the cheapest piece of future-proofing on the bill of materials.

Switching capacity on the NBS3200-24GT4XS-P is 128 Gbps with a 96 Mpps forwarding rate (Reyee RG-NBS3200-24GT4XS-P product page), and the L2+ feature set adds static routing, ACLs, LACP/LAG, IGMP snooping, DHCP snooping, ARP inspection and SNMP — everything an enterprise-leaning installer is likely to need short of full Layer 3 OSPF. For sites where 1G uplinks are still the standard, the RG-NBS3100-24GT4SFP-P-V2 is the same 24-port footprint at a lower trade price.

Reyee PoE switch sizing decision tree for 8 16 24 32 camera CCTV installs — Sizing decision tree: start at the channel count, branch on management requirement, finish at the in-stock SKU.

32+ camera sites and headroom planning

For sites with 28 or more cameras, the 48-port RG-NBS3100-48GT4SFP-P is normally the right answer rather than stacking two 24-port switches. The total PoE budget is the same 370 W — Reyee did not double the budget when they doubled the ports — so you have to ration. Plan that the extra 24 ports on a 48-port chassis are for low-PoE-draw devices: access points, door stations, controllers, or PoE pass-through powering small intercoms.

The honest constraint: 48 fully-loaded cameras at 7 W average pulls 336 W, which is right against the 370 W ceiling. If the site has 36+ cameras with any heater load, split into two switches. The RG-NBS3200-24GT4XS-P + RG-NBS3100-24GT4SFP-P-V2 as a primary/secondary pair is £40-50 more than a single 48-port and gives you 740 W of total PoE budget plus link redundancy via LACP across the SFP+ trunk.

For odd installs where you're one port short, a single-port PoE+ injector like the RG-POE-AT30 is £15-20 of trade margin and saves having to step up an entire chassis class.

Cabling, uplinks and 10G future-proofing

One bit of installer folklore worth correcting: the 250m extended range mode that several Reyee Smart Cloud switches advertise is real, but it drops the affected port to 10 Mbps half-duplex. That's enough for a single low-resolution camera or an intercom, but it will not carry a 4MP H.265 stream cleanly. Use it as a last-resort extender for short-cable troubleshooting — never as a planned design choice on a multi-megapixel install.

For uplinks, the RG-ES range gives you a copper Gigabit uplink and (on most models) one or two SFP slots. The SFP slots are 1G, not 10G — that's reserved for the NBS3200/5200 ranges. If the installation will eventually live on 10G fibre between MDF and IDF, plan with the NBS3200-24GT4XS-P at the riser and reserve a slot for a 10GBASE-LR transceiver at the head end. The RG-NBS3300 multi-gigabit range can also drop in for sites with Wi-Fi 6/7 access points where 1G uplinks would bottleneck the AP itself.

Cable-wise, all PoE+ devices on these switches need Cat5e or Cat6 unshielded twisted pair, terminated to T568B at both ends, with a maximum 100m total run including patch leads. Cheap CCA cable is the single most common cause of "the switch keeps cycling" calls — see our Securiflex pure-copper Cat5e and Cat6 stock if the customer's existing cable runs aren't documented.

Five common Reyee PoE sizing mistakes

1. Sizing on port count, ignoring PoE budget. A 24-port switch with a 370 W budget is fine for 24 turrets. The same 24-port switch with eight PoE+ access points hanging off it is not — APs typically pull 12-25 W each. Sum the device watts before signing off.

2. Daisy-chaining cameras off a switch's uplink port. The uplink is for the recorder/router, not for downstream cameras. Cameras go on PoE ports. Putting a camera on the uplink loses you the highest-bandwidth port in the chassis and creates a single point of failure for the whole upstream path.

3. Mixing PoE++ (60W/90W) draws onto a 30W per-port switch. The Reyee ES and NBS3100/3200 ranges are PoE+ only — 30 W per port maximum. Hi-PoE PTZs like the Hikvision DS-2DE7 series need a switch with 802.3bt support or a separate Hi-PoE injector. Check the camera datasheet's PoE class before quoting.

4. Forgetting the heater current draw. Spec sheets quote typical operational draw, not winter peak. An IPC-T240H bullet with a -30°C heater rating pulls noticeably more current when the heater is energised. Add 30% to the typical figure for any external camera north of the M62.

5. Buying the same brand of switch as the existing customer LAN, just because. Reyee is fully standards-compliant — VLANs, LACP, RSTP, IGMP snooping all interoperate cleanly with Cisco, Aruba, UniFi or HP at the IDF. Use the right switch for the camera VLAN; let the customer's existing LAN sit in front of it. The Ruijie Cloud login is separate from the customer's UniFi controller, which is what most installers actually want for support boundary clarity.

Frequently asked questions

Do Reyee switches work with Hikvision NVRs and cameras?
Yes. Reyee PoE switches are 802.3af/at standards-compliant and pair plug-and-play with Hikvision K-series, VPRO and HiLook NVRs. The cameras get IP from the NVR (or the customer's DHCP server), and the switch just delivers power and Ethernet. There's no proprietary handshake to worry about.

Do I need to register the switch with Ruijie Cloud?
No — Smart Cloud and NBS switches both work fully out of the box with default settings. Cloud registration is optional and free. We recommend registering for any commercial install: it gives you a remote portal for traffic graphs, port enable/disable, and firmware push without an on-site visit.

Is the 250m extended-range mode usable for CCTV?
Only for low-resolution cameras (under 1080p, single stream). The mode drops the port to 10 Mbps half-duplex. For 4MP/8MP H.265+ streams, stay within the 100m Cat5e/Cat6 limit.

What's the difference between Smart Cloud (RG-ES) and managed (RG-NBS) switches?
Smart Cloud switches have a wizard-style web/app UI and basic VLAN/port-isolation features. Managed NBS switches add full 802.1Q VLANs, ACLs, LACP, IGMP snooping, DHCP snooping, ARP inspection and SNMP. Both run on Ruijie Cloud — pick NBS if the customer's IT contact will be involved.

Can a Reyee PoE switch replace a Hikvision PoE NVR's built-in switch?
Technically yes, but it's not normally cheaper. Hikvision K-series and VPRO NVRs include 4/8/16-port PoE built into the recorder; an external switch is only needed when the camera count exceeds the NVR's PoE port count, or when cameras are physically too far from the NVR for a direct cable run.

Are Reyee switches NDAA-compliant?
Reyee/Ruijie is on the US Federal Communications Commission's Covered List, so the answer for NDAA-sensitive UK government and infrastructure work is no. For NDAA-compliant alternatives we cover the Vigitron range in our NDAA UK installer guide. For commercial/residential UK work, Reyee is fine.

What warranty comes with Reyee switches at Netview?
The NBS L2/L2+ ranges carry a 5-year manufacturer hardware warranty; the Smart Cloud RG-ES range is typically 3 years. As a UK Ruijie/Reyee authorised wholesaler, Netview handles RMA processing direct — no posting kit to a continental hub.

Order or get sizing help

All Reyee PoE switches listed in this guide are in stock at Netview's Leicester warehouse for next-day UK delivery. Trade installer accounts get bulk pricing on 5+ unit orders and same-day dispatch on orders placed before 3pm.

If you want a sizing check before committing — particularly on mixed PTZ + intercom + AP loads where the 30 W-per-port PoE+ ceiling is the constraint — call the Netview trade desk on 01163 800 838 with your camera list and we'll run the watt budget for you. Browse the full Reyee range or jump straight to the most popular sizing options: