Jim DeFilippis, senior VP and principal engineer, digital television technologies and standards at FOX Entertainment Group, reports that his company is getting 10 to 15 percent of commercials from its advertisers delivered in HD. This is still a relatively low percentage in an HD transition that began nearly a decade ago.

But DeFilippis believes the industry has reached the tipping point. "It is not the dominant viewing experience, but it is becoming a significant factor in the market," he relates.

SHOOT sat down with DeFilippis at the recent Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) Conference and Exhibition, where he was inducted as a SMPTE fellow.

He reported that with the start of the NFL season, FOX began using an HD playout server for spots. "FOX has installed a new HD playout server for commercials to give advertisers the same flexibility as we offer in SD," he explained. "We are ready. It is capable of playing HD commercials on any HD program."

SHOOT also discussed with DeFilippis the confusion that is still a part of the HD transition on the part of advertising, due to such factors as consumer sets with different aspect ratios, a mix of HD and SD reception and varying networking delivery requirements. He suggests communication. Generally speaking, he encourages advertisers and agencies to ask specific questions about their commercial buys. "Don't assume anything," he emphasizes.

He also adds, 'We'd like to hear the needs and concerns of the advertisers."

DeFilippis also offers some suggestions for production, post and delivery, designed to help navigate through today's multiformat landscape.

He starts by emphasizing the issue of aspect ratio, and recommends that commercials be composed for 16:9—not letterbox—and protecting for 4:3.

"To insure compatibility over all possible delivery methods, protecting 4:3 is a best practice," he says. "The Hollywood [episodic series] production companies have embraced the concept of shooting 4:3 safe in 16:9 work."

But DeFilippis also emphasizes that his network is aiming to be flexible in this area. "We'll work with [agencies]. If they want to supply 4:3, we will accommodate that.

"Also, you should not loose sight of audio," he adds. "We believe the HD experience includes 5.1, but we can accept stereo or two-channel surround and will process it for 5.1.

"Finally, in acquisition and postproduction, we recommend progressive images because that is the highest quality," he relates. "I think advertisers should look at 1080p/24 for postproduction. 1080p/24 is the universal format. From that, you can easily convert to 1080i, 720p...that is a delivery mechanism." (Incidentally, FOX is a 720p network; DeFilippis says these commercials may be delivered in HD D5 or HDCAM SR.)

Looking ahead, the executive reports that FOX is looking forward to file-based delivery, explaining that while tape is fine, the file method would offer still more flexibility. "We are looking into what the encoding, file wrapper and protocol should be," he says. "This is what we want to get into...it's a work in progress."

By Carolyn Giardina - Reported in Shoot Magazine November 17, 2006