SVG All-Stars: Jason Hedgcock, Senior Director, Remote Technical Operations, MLB Network

SVG All-Stars: Jason Hedgcock, Senior Director, Remote Technical Operations, MLB Network During a decade of work at MLB Network (MLBN), has established himself as an irreplicable piece of the sports live-production puzzle.

From delivering critical video workflows at annual events like MLB All-Star, MLB Postseason, and the World Series, Major League Baseballs expansion into special events World Baseball Classic, MLB at Field of Dreams, international ventures like the London Series and Seoul Series wouldnt be possible without his hard work and expertise.

In this weeks edition of SVG All-Stars, Hedgcock shares his story, the technological innovations he has his eye on, and his advice for succeeding in dynamic livesports-production industry.

Television is an art form, and my responsibility first and foremost is to provide the tools to the artists.

In my role as senior director of remote technical operations, I help plan and execute the technical elements of remote programming for the MLB Network and NHL Network.

This includes not only the hardware like cameras and mobile units but also the software like the talented technicians that make everything possible.

I often say that I dont control what you see and hear but that you can see and hear it.

? The pandemic had a tremendous impact on our industry.

It greatly accelerated the shift to deliver content to the audience in two significant ways: fans want to watch their content not only on demand but on the device they have in their hand at that moment.

This has driven amazing technological leaps, but I think at the foundation of these leaps is risk tolerance.

We are in a unique time that has occurred at only a few points in the entirety of broadcast development.

Viewers have become less critical of minor flaws in a broadcast, and our senior leadership team is more open to taking chances in this post-pandemic landscape.

Prior to 2020, bonded-cellular transmission devices were certainly commonplace but not being used as creatively as they are now.

Putting an entire remote studio show on a bonded-cellular device clearly comes with risk but also allows for a show that might never have happened without bonded cellular.

The same can be said about REMI and cloud productions.

The drive to get live content to audiences while facing all the challenges brought on in 2020 forged a new, stronger relationship between what I have always viewed as the four sides of broadcast: production, operations, engineering, and administration.

Streaming has desensitized the audience to technical difficulties.

While that hasnt deterred anyone from striving for perfection in every broadcast, it has allowed all sides to take more risks with a lower chance of negative audience response.

As cliche as it sounds, treat others the way you want to be treated.

I think, at its core, its just that simple.

It is easy to deliver positive information to anyone, but how do you deliver negative information? I always try to empathize with others in a situation and handle any situation the way I would want it presented to me.

This is an incredibly hard question! I think I can narrow it down to four, and they each hold a special place in my growth in this industry.

In the summer of 2005, I had the opportunity to be a part of 50 States in 50 Days on ESPN.

I learned, often the hard way, how to be a human traveling on the road.

I had already spent some time on the road by then and thought I knew a whole lot more about the travel side of this business than I did.

My time on was an experience that solidified what I wanted to do in the industry and, more important, how I wanted to accomplish it.

[then operations producer, ESPN] taught me how to truly lead and manage a crew.

The crew taught me what it meant to be a part of this small industry.

Being at MLBN for 10 years, I could list another five events that I will always treasure, but I think I would have to settle on the 2017 World Baseball Classic and the 2024 Opening Series from Seoul.

The 17 WBC changed my perspective on how to approach scalable engineering models and make cohesive production executions on a global scale.

The Opening Series from Seoul proved definitively that, with the right team and maybe a dash or two of luck, extraordinary things are possible.

I got my first taste of national sports production at my first national-entertainment job.

In 2001, I started working for West River Light and Sound.

It was there that I split time between entertainment events and working on ESPNs .

The biggest piece of advice is something I used and will continue to tell anyone: you cant end up where you want to be without knowing how to get there.

For the most part, everyone in this industry is a bit of an oversharer when it comes to their craft.

Ask someone who is doing the job you want what you need to know.

This goes for tech and production.

No job in this industry is as simple as it may look from the outside.

Ask questions, pay attention to the answers.

Especially when you are starting out, if you find yourself without an immediate task, go learn about some building blocks for where you want to go.

I use this example often.

A fantastic utility asked me what he had to do to become a camera operator.

I told him to ask one of the camera operators to show him the basic functions of the camera and then practice.

The utility then asked how he could practice.

I said that I knew for a fact that, with almost every show, there was a lull in the early evening for the camera ops and the utilities and, as long as I could still get ahold of him and the camera op agreed, he should shoot whatever was going on in the stadium.

I dont know how many hours of random people walking around he shot, but it was a lot.

When the time came that we needed a camera op in an emergency, we were able to give him an opportunity to fill in, and he was able to shine.

We all know there are going to be unexpected things that happen.

When an opportunity to advance in your career appears, you want to be able to capitalize..

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