LAS VEGAS: Pathfire, which claims to be a leading business-to-business provider of digital media content management and distribution services. has introduced Pathfire Ads. This is a new application for the Pathfire Digital Media Gateway (DMG) automated digital IP-multicast distribution platform.

Pathfire Ads is a complete digital media distribution and management solution that simplifies and streamlines the aggregation, archiving and downstream equipment transfer process for broadcast stations and decreases costs to manage, deliver, track and verify ad and promotional materials.

The Pathfire DMG, already in use by over 900 US broadcast stations, eliminates the need to monitor and roll tape on scheduled satellite feeds. Content is delivered digitally directly to desktops through the DMG, making access to material quick and convenient. Many broadcast stations are using the DMG to receive and manage their news and syndicated programming. Now Pathfire extends those benefits with the addition of the Pathfire Ads application, to include ad and promotional content as well.

An official release states that once ad materials have been received at broadcast stations personnel can sit at their desktop computers and use Pathfire Ads to search for specific materials, preview spots and meta data and drag and drop selected content to other station gear such as tape decks or edit suites. All this simplifies the process for preparing ad materials for broadcast. The Pathfire ads application can be installed on multiple desktops so that programme directors, traffic managers and others who need to work with ads and promotional materials have easy access.

Pathfire's customers include ABC NewsOne, CBS, CNN Newsource, Getty Images News Services and Image Bank Films, National Geographic Television, NBC.