Broadcast Wave Format
Broadcast Wave Format (BWF) is an extension of the popular Microsoft WAV audio format and is the recording format of most file-based non-linear digital recorders used for motion picture, radio and television production. It was first specified by the European Broadcasting Union in 1997, and updated in 2001 and 2003. It has been accepted as the ITU recommendation ITU-R BS.1352-3, Annex 1.
| Filename extension |
|
|---|---|
| Internet media type | audio/x-wav |
| Developed by | European Broadcast Union (EBU) |
| Initial release | 1997 |
| Latest release | Version 2 May 2011 |
| Type of format | audio file format, container format |
| Extended from | WAV |
| Extended to | RF64 |
| Standard | |
| Website | Broadcast Wave Format (BWF) user guide |
The purpose of this file format is the addition of metadata to facilitate the seamless exchange of sound data between different computer platforms and applications. It specifies the format of metadata, allowing audio processing elements to identify themselves, document their activities, and supports timecode to enable synchronization with other recordings. This metadata is stored as extension chunks in a standard digital audio WAV file.
BWF is the recommended format for digitizing sound files by the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives.
Files conforming to the Broadcast Wave specification have names ending with the filename extension .WAV.