PTZ Camera RS-485 Cable Maximum Distance

A customer contacted CCTV Camera Pros with the following questions related to RS-485 PTZ camera cabling distances:

We are building a surveillance system with 4 PTZ cameras. The furthest camera from the location of the DVR will be 1700 feet. Can you please let me know if RS-485 will work at this distance using CAT-5? If not, can you please let me know if there is another way to setup an analog PTZ at this distance. We are planing on using active video baluns to transmit the video signal. It is the RS-485 that I am unsure of.

CCTV Camera Pros provided the following information:

We strongly recommend using 18-2 wire for the data transmission wire for CCTV PTZ cameras. If using CAT5 wire then we recommend using shielded CAT5 and at least one pair of wires going into the leads. For video baluns we highly recommend shielded CAT5 to reduce the amount of interference along the run.

PTZ communication configured at 2400 bps has the specified maximum distance is 1800 meters. The actual maximum safe distance for data transmission over RS-485 is about 3000 to 4000 ft. The wiring is also recommended to be daisy chained from one PTZ to another when using multiple PTZ cameras and a single controller or surveillance DVR.