Mark Aitken Promoted to Vice President of Advanced Technology

BALTIMORE: Sinclair Broadcast Group announced today that Mark Aitken has been promoted to vice president of advanced technology for Sinclair Television Group. The announcement was made by David Smith, president and CEO of Sinclair.

“This is a well-deserved promotion for Mark, an undisputed industry leader in the broadcast technology arena,” Smith said. “His work with the ATSC on the mobile DTV standard and the Open Mobile Video Coalition was crucial in developing a mobile digital television standard for the American television broadcast industry. We are proud of Mark’s role in providing our industry the opportunity to develop a usable mobile technology. Our industry now stands at a crossroad. As broadcasters, we have a greater responsibility to our communities, and we are confident that Mark’s continued efforts will contribute to us fulfilling those obligations.”

Aitken joined Sinclair Broadcast Group in April 1999 and most recently served as director of advanced technology, for which he was responsible for representing Sinclair’s interests in industry technical and standards issues, DTV implementation, and representing Sinclair within the ATSC, OMVC, Mobile500 and other industry related organizations. Aitken is the chairman of ATSC TSG/S4, the specialist group responsible for Mobile DTV standardization, and has been involved in the broadcast industry’s migration to advanced services since 1987 when he first became involved with the FCC’s Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service activities.

Prior to joining Sinclair, Mr. Aitken held various positions with the COMARK Division of Thomcast (now Thomson Broadcast), including manager of the systems engineering, RF engineering and sales engineering groups, as well as director of marketing and sales support, which included DTV strategic planning responsibilities. While with COMARK, Aitken was part of the Emmy Award-winning team that revolutionized the broadcast industry by bringing IOT technology to the marketplace.

He is a member of the AFCCE, IEEE and SMPTE, and is the author of many papers dealing with innovative RF product developments, advanced digital television systems design and related implementation strategies, holds patents for various RF devices, and was a recipient of the “Broadcasting and Cable” Technology Leadership Award in 2008.