Broadcast Wave File (BWF)

A special version of the standard .wav audio file format developed by the EBU in 1996 and commonly used by PC’s. BWF’s are designed to be a subset of standard .wav files. More restrictions exist about what types of audio data can be used (mainly linear PCM and MPEG encoded), plus there is an extra ‘chunk’ of data, known as the broadcast extension chunk (bext) that contains information on the title, origination, date, time, etc. of the audio content. A BWF file containing MPEG audio data also includes a further extra chunk they call ‘mext.’ One of the most important aspects of BWF’s for us in the audio industry is the feature of time stamping. Time stamping allows files to be moved from one recording platform to another and easily aligned to their proper point in time.