All you need is a PathFinder Producer’s Station, video camera, power source and Internet connection. Just plug in the Producer’s Station’s power supply and Internet connection, play your video source (connect video camera), and click broadcast on your Producer’s page on PathFinderTV.net. It’s that simple…Plug. Play. Broadcast.
PathFinder TV is designed to deliver the best quality broadcast available using the public Internet. The broadcast quality is ultimately based on the Producer’s Internet connection and the Viewer’s Internet connection. With this in mind, PathFinder TV gives the Producer control over the broadcast quality with the option of Good (250 kbps), Better (500 kbps) or Best (750 kbps). The PathFinder TV system automatically runs a speed test to determine the Producer’s upload speed. If the Producer does not have adequate bandwidth (speed) for the quality selected, PathFinder will scale the broadcast quality to maximize the available bandwidth.
All you need is a PathFinder Producer’s Station, video source (camera), power source and an Internet connection. To deliver maximum portability, PathFinder TV provides the option of a 3G Broadband Interface connection for your Producer’s Station. The PathFinder TV system can work with any type of high-speed Internet connection, including Internet by satellite. In addition to the physical mobility of the Producer’s Station, the PathFinder TV system is designed to allow you to manage the Producer’s Station (and ultimately the broadcast) from any computer. This allows you to have multiple Producer’s Stations in the field and manage each broadcast from a single location.
Additionally, you have complete control over who watches your event and how they gain access to the event. Our simple management console allows you to invite as few or as many viewers to an event as you want with a click of a button. The Producer can choose to make the event available by invitation only, pay-per-view, or a sponsored event accessible by a coupon code. With PathFinder TV and a couple clicks of the mouse, you can be broadcasting within minutes.
As you build an event and select the distribution options, the PathFinder TV system calculates the cost based on the maximum number of viewers you have invited. If fewer viewers than expected login and view the event, the system will adjust the cost and you are charged only for actual usage.
PathFinder TV delivers a turnkey solution to monetize your live broadcast. With our system, you can easily create pay-per-view events and use the automatically-generated e-mail invitations to market the event to your viewer base. As viewers login to view the event, PathFinder TV collects their money, deducts the video delivery cost, and pays you, the Producer. PathFinder TV does the work; you reap the benefits.
Once the event is over, PathFinder TV provides all the resources you need to continue to earn revenue from your content with our VOD options. Click here to learn more.
For a low monthly fee, you can utilize the PathFinder TV system to build a new business with your existing content. Just upload your content, add poster art and a trailer, and enter information such as title, description, and any keywords that would help viewers search for your video. As the Producer, you decide the price to your viewers and if the video can be downloaded, streamed or both. You can take your business to the next level with a branded site where only your content is available. Click here for more about branding.
The PathFinder TV system is your one-stop turnkey service; this includes storage. Once you upload your content, you do not have to worry about PathFinder TV “dropping” your stored content for any reason. Similar companies to PathFinder TV “drop” content if viewer hits drop below a certain level. With PathFinder TV, the content is yours; we do not determine how it is available or when it is removed. Our Producers are in control.
As a Producer, you do not have to have a merchant account. You decide how much to charge your viewers; PathFinder does the rest. We collect from the viewers and deposit the proceeds into your account.
82 Enterprise Lane
Cleveland, GA 30528
Phone: 404.478.2080
Toll-Free: 888.650.1838
Fax: 404.592.6284
E-mail: info@pathfinderdigital.net
![]() |
||
![]() |
MobileCast Live |
|
![]() |
Southern PRO Video Productions |
|
![]() |
Studio 26 Productions |
|
PathFinder TV is an all-inclusive service that enables you to create a branded portal to distribute your video content via the public Internet.
PathFinder Producers can easily broadcast live events, upload and distribute VOD content and create linear channels. All you need is a Producer’s Station, a video camera and an Internet connection. All broadcasts and videos can be watched from any standard web browser on a Mac or PC. You manage and schedule your content online via the PathFinder TV website.
PathFinder TV is an all-inclusive service. This means you do not need separate CDN service, IT person, website or your own Merchant Account. You can create your own branded portal that looks like an extension of your own website – with your own color scheme and logo. PathFinder also gives you the ability to create and collect revenue directly from our site; we collect from the viewer, deduct the video transport fees, and deposit the proceeds into your account.
With simplicity and cost-effectiveness in mind, PathFinder TV strives to maintain an affordable and professional solution for online video distribution.
The secret ingredient to make this happen is real life experience.
PathFinder founders together contribute over 100 years of real life experience covering all areas of the video broadcasting industry including satellite, terrestrial, cable television, off-air television & radio broadcast, Internet, fiber, broadband, complex traffic & networking, satellite news gathering, and Telco IPTV. Experience in these area entail R&D engineering of hardware & software platforms, high volume manufacturing, integration & implementation, operations, proprietary and standards based digital video compression systems; just to name a few.
With certain founders beginning their careers in the late 70's when analog communications for voice & video marked the beginning of commercial satellite broadcasting; which in turn introduced cable television to nearly every household in America; the individuals behind PathFinder have been involved in satellite & terrestrial communications and program / content distribution since the inception of delivering video to the masses.
Beginning with the design and manufacture of the first analog satellite earth station systems; from both fixed and mobile broadcast uplinks to satellite receive downlinks to cable television distribution to the 1st analog set top boxes as placed in the home; PathFinder founders have been directly involved in end-to-end communications for many years.
As the industry evolved, the founders stayed involved in the R&D and the integration & implementation of new technologies that have included scrambling & conditional access systems; the introduction of Ku-Band in satellite communications; the R&D and introduction of digital video; the analog to digital conversion; and the team continues to be on top of the technologies and systems in deployment today.
To round out the experiences, key PathFinder founders have been directly involved in the convergence of traditional broadcast technologies with the Internet; which as we see it is the migration to IP technologies. The most recent focus of the founders has been the convergence of content distribution via satellite with broadband (IP technologies) to better serve Cable Television, Telco Television, and the creation of a web based live event broadcasting portal to enable cost effective video broadcasting from anywhere in the world that can be delivered to everywhere in the world; PathFinder TV.
These real life experiences have provided a solid foundation for PathFinder to create and deploy a web based portal for video programming distribution that has taken into consideration the challenges we have been faced with since the late 70s. PathFinder TV enables anyone, even the non-technical, to broadcast live events worldwide.
PathFinder TV founders and executives have been involved from the beginning and are here for the long haul.
Rich Tarpley, President & CEO, and co-founder of PathFinder TV is a 29-year veteran of the satellite communication industry. He has been employed in senior-level positions with industry leaders such as Scientific Atlanta, Radiation Sytems/ComsatRSI, General Instrument/Motorola, BitCentral, and Wegener Communications.
Prior to founding PathFinder TV, during his most recent corporate position at Wegener, Rich was the Vice President of the company's IPTV business. For the last 9+ years of his career, Rich has been in direct involvement with all aspects of IP / IPTV / video over broadband industry.
Roger McGarrahan, COO and co-founder of PathFinder TV focuses on business development and operations of our broadband Internet based digital video streaming solutions including Broadband IPTV (PathFinder Broadband TV), and live video streaming (PathFinder TV).
Through our PathFinder World Video LLC business, Roger is responsible for the licensing of ethnic and niche linear channel and VOD content to CATV, Telco IPTV, Mobile and Broadband IPTV television operators. Previously CEO of a $60M division of an $8B parent (Thomson Broadcast & Multimedia - a Grass Valley company) that designs, manufactures, sells and supports terrestrial transmitters and digital video streaming products for the professional broadcast industry (terrestrial, satellite, cable and wireless) and telecommunications industry. Previously V.P. of Operations managing Field Operations, Program Management and Customer Service. Prior to that, fifteen years experience as division General Counsel to high-tech companies that design, produce and install systems to the communications, aviation and defense industries. International and government contracting experience Roger is experienced with intellectual property licensing and protection, M&A, regulatory issues, Mil-Spec and government contracting, and broad range of transactional issues.
Austin Snow, Vice President of Engineering brings 18 years of overall experience in analysis, design, and implementation of large-scale network applications that includes 10 + years of experience in the R&D of embedded software products. Austin's focus is on the development of PathFinder's proprietary software products and the integration of 3rd party hardware that is utilized in our all of our streaming media platforms.
Austin comes to us from Thomson Broadcast & Multimedia, a Grass Valley company (previously Thales) a leader in digital television streaming and broadcast solutions for professional broadcast, IPTV, Cable and Mobile TV markets. He has extensive experience in design, development & integration of middleware solutions for embedded IPTV and Mobility platforms, real time firmware development, digital signal processing, integration of conditional access systems, and extensive work with DVB, SCTE, MPEG, and OpenCable standards.
Viewer: Any person that watches an event or video.
Producer: Any person or organization that creates and broadcasts a live event or linear channel or uploads a video on the PathFinder TV system.
VOD (Video on Demand): The ability to deliver an event, movie or other program whenever the customer requests it.
SVOD: A service in which subscribers can watch a number of programs, at any time, during a set time from for a set subscription rate.
CDN (Content Delivery Network): A system of computers on the Internet that provides web content rapidly to numerous users by placing copies of data on multiple servers and directing the content to users based on proximity. Clients access a copy of the data on a server near their location, rather than one central server, to avoid a bottleneck at one server.
Merchant Account: A type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by credit or debit cards and also serves as an agreement between a retailer, merchant bank and payment processor for the settlement of credit and/or debit card transactions.
Bandwidth: A measure of the speed of an Internet connection, given a maximum number for how much data can be sent or received in a given time period, expressed in bits per second (bps).
Kilobits per second (Kbps): Measure of data transmission equal to one thousand bits per second.
Megabits per second (Mbps): Measure of data transmission equal to 1000 kbps or one million bps.
Bit Rate: The measure of how many bits are used to store one second of a digital video and/or audio sequence. A low bit rate means lower quality and a smaller file size, while a high bit rate means higher quality and a larger file size.
Broadband: High-speed data transmission in which a single cable can carry a large amount of data at once. The most common types of Internet broadband connections are cable and DSL modems.
Buffering: Downloading a certain amount of data before starting to play the audio or video file to prevent disruption if there are momentary delays in transmission while the file is being played.
Producer’s Station: A self-contained, plug-and-play device that enables an event to be broadcasted on the PathFinder TV system. The Producer’s Station contains all hardware and software needed for audio and video processing and video encoding.
Streaming Video: Content sent in compressed form over the Internet and displayed by the player in real time. The media is sent is a continuous stream of data and is played as it arrives, so the user does not have to wait to download the file to play it.
You need to contact a member of our sales team to create a Producer account.
There isn’t a charge to create a Producer account, although there is a monthly fee. If you want to broadcast live events, you must purchase a Producer’s Station. Please contact a member of our sales team for more information.
There is a $9.95 monthly fee. This enables you to be connected to the PathFinder TV system.
We do not require you to sign a contract in order to use our system.
You can broadcast live events with most high-speed Internet connections available.
This depends on your broadcast quality. You need an upload speed that is at least equal to your broadcast quality – which is 250, 500, or 750 kpbs.
Usually your outbound, or upload, speed is 10% of your inbound, or download, speed. If you have a 10 Mbps connection, that means you have roughly 10 Mbps of outbound bandwidth and 1 Mbps of inbound bandwidth.
The PathFinder TV system will perform an available bandwidth test before your event begins to verify you have the needed bandwidth for your chosen broadcast quality. If there is insufficient available bandwidth, the PathFinder TV system will automatically scale the broadcast quality to the maximum available bandwidth.
The quality of broadcast you choose is dependent on two things: your available outbound bandwidth and your viewers’ available inbound bandwidth. We offer three options for broadcast quality: Good (250 kbps), Better (500 kbps) and Best (750 kbps).
Yes. We offer mobile VSAT systems for Internet by satellite. Please contact a PathFinder TV representative for more information.
We have 3 options for broadcast quality, ranging from 250 kbps to 750 kbps. Please contact a PathFinder TV representative for custom broadcast bitrates.
The Producer’s Station supports RCA connectors.
No. You do not need to install any software in order to broadcast a live event. The Producer’s Station is a self-contained, plug-and-play device.
There is no maximum number of viewers. You can broadcast to as many people as you would like.
There is no minimum number of viewers. You can broadcast to as few people as you would like.
At this time, we do not support HD broadcasts.
Your Viewers will access your broadcast via your branded portal on PathFinder TV using their unique usernames and passwords.
You can choose to make your events, videos, and channels only available on your branded portal or make them available for public viewing on www.PathFinderTV.net. If you are broadcasting a live event, you can choose to invite your Viewers; only allowing those with an invitation to view your event.
Yes. You can use video editing software, video switchers, etc. in conjunction with PathFinder TV. If using a Producer’s Station, make sure you still have RCA connectors for the audio and video. If uploading archived or VOD video, make sure the file type is .mov.
You cannot embed the player on another website. However, you can create a link from an existing web site to your branded portal on PathFinderTV.net.
You can create an archive or VOD video for later viewing on your PathFinder TV portal. You have the option to create an archive of the event on your Producer’s Station, or you can use the output of your video camera (tape, DVD, file) to create the video file.
Yes. You can archive your live events for later viewing. You can also create VOD videos from past events that were not broadcasted live using the PathFinder TV system. Your video files must be in .mov format in order to upload into our system.
No. You do not need a Producer’s Station if you are not broadcasting live events.
At this time, VOD and archived video files must be in .mov format.
You can place any type of advertising you wish into your broadcasts. The ads must be inserted before uploading your content to the PathFinder TV system.
You must have an Internet connection speed of at least the broadcast quality (250 – 750 kbps). Most high-speed Internet connections will support this bandwidth.
There is no charge to create a Viewer account.
We use Adobe Flash Player, which you probably already have on your computer.
Yes. You can watch an event, video or channel using a Mac or PC.