By Juliane Pettorossi, Editorial Assistant, SVG
Earlier this year, SVG launched the Sports Asset Management (SAM) Committee, dedicated to advancing the sports-media industry's content-management and -storage capabilities and tools. This group, comprising asset-management leaders from each of the major U.S. professional leagues and college-sports entities, spearheaded July's Sports Asset Management Forum and will contribute in-depth content to the upcoming online SVG Sports Asset Management Playbook (to be unveiled later this year). SVG is profiling the careers of all eight SAM Committee members.
Always keep an open mind. This mantra has stuck with Mark Haden, VP of engineering and IT at MLB Network, throughout his entire career.
As a youngster in Binghamton, NY, he dreamed of a career in sports or music. When he was about 12 years old, his eyes were opened to the career fantasy of working in television.
Haden's mother had been an executive assistant for Sylvester (Pat) Weaver, president of NBC in the 1950s. When Haden went to visit her former colleagues at NBC's New York Studios, he was awed by the place and especially by the sight of a full-size replica of the lunar excursion module.
It was right then that I got the bug for television and for the creative side, says Haden.
Although he originally aspired to become a director, he had a great deal of technical aptitude handed down from his father, an accomplished dental surgeon. At 16, he worked at CBS affiliate WBNG Binghamton, where he was able to work with lighting, switchers, graphics, cameras, and film.
Whatever you wanted to do, they let you do it and learn from it, he recalls. It was a small station, and they only had a handful of people, so, if you showed the initiative, they would let you try your hand at just about anything.
Haden attended the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, graduating with a B.A. in television/radio. During his college years, he was music director at the school's radio station, WAER; program director of Union University Television; and also a DJ at local clubs to make a few extra bucks. Toward the end of his sophomore year, he was hired on at local PBS affiliate WCNY.
At Syracuse, I got much more involved with learning technology, he says. Out of college, I had pretty much six years of experience, which really gave me a leg up in the inevitable job search.
Following school, and after almost landing a morning-drive radio job in Chicago, Haden made the leap to New York City. He figured he could always go back to WCNY if he needed to, and he asked himself, If you don't take the chance now, when are you going to?
I was young and aggressive enough to say to myself, If you want to work in television, you have to go to New York, he says, It just felt right.
Moving from friend's couch to friend's couch and searching for work, Haden landed in a video-production house called Windsor Total Video in 1981, running camera, editing tape, running a Chyron, mixing audio, and learning lighting design. After a few years, he moved on to Modern Telecommunications, where he performed the same technical functions while learning video shading and the newly emerging Ultimatte system.
When Lifetime Television built its studios at Kauffman Astoria, Haden served as engineer-in-charge for over a year. In 1990, he became the field technical manager for USA Networks, where he got more exposure to sports: he was brought on to do the World League of American Football, along with Tuesday Night Fights (a weekly boxing series) and the French Open, US Open, and many other tennis events.
They were trying to bring their productions up to a higher level, he says, and they let me take risks and chances.
After six years, Haden joined HBO as director of East Coast production. He brought HBO up the HD path, as well as doing line producing, budgeting, and planning for the technical side of boxing series, documentaries, sports series, and selected entertainment shows. In 2003, he started his own company called Penguin Television, bringing technical innovations to such clients as USA Network and All Mobile Video. He also was lead technical producer for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup Soccer tournament, overseeing domestic and international productions, including ESPN's.
In 2004, ABC called, looking for a news technical manager. Since Haden wanted to get off the road and spend more time at home, he took the job and helped upgrade the network's Times Square studio to HD and supported Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and other shows.
In 2008, when MLB Network was in the planning stages and needed staffing, Haden was tapped to join the team to start up and run its Engineering/IT department in the lead-up to the network's record-setting launch in 50 million homes on Jan. 1, 2009.
At MLB Network, his varied background in technical systems, operations, and finance all came into play. He also understood that the network was going to have a more file-based, cutting-edge workflow.
I had a combination of knowledge of electronic newsroom systems, and they knew that I understood and loved sports, he says. I was immediately enthusiastic about having such an important role in building a network from the ground up - especially with a merged engineering and IT department.
Haden has faced two main challenges at MLB Network: to initially get the facility built in line with President/CEO Tony Petitti's vision and standards in a short time and to find staffers willing to put the work into a startup and be proud of the result. When it came to building the facility, many decisions were educated guesses, and Haden's job was to take what consultants had done and make it work for what the network wanted to showcase on the screen.
We h
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Following the successful launch of its inaugural APAC Mentoring Programme last month, the Rise AV APAC Regional Council will bring the conversation around mento...
02/07/2026
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K Used to Shoot Director Takahisa Zeze's Cry Out
Brie Clayton July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Highly mobile camera supports tense and de...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions acquires BFE, expanding its lead in European broadcast, medi...
02/07/2026
Berklee Alum and Faculty Perform at Boston Public Library's 250th Anniversar...
02/07/2026
Broadcast Solutions GmbH, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast media industry, is acquiring BFE Studio und Medien...
02/07/2026
Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has extended the ingest facility at leading Brazilian sports company LiveMode, work...
02/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/07/2026
Standalone processors acknowledged for the innovation and value they bring to Pro AV
Cobalt Digital, a leading designer and manufacturer of signal processing ...
02/07/2026
Synamedia announced today the appointment of Dr Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transitio...
By Juliane Pettorossi, Editorial Assistant, SVG
