Guidelines: Embedding Metadata in Broadcast WAVE Files
Audio-Visual Working Group
The Working Group has developed the BWF MetaEdit tool to support users of the specification, as well as providing other functionality for work with WAVE and Broadcast WAVE files. Information about the tool is provided below.
Specification: Proposed and Current Versions
The Working Group has drafted a revision to the guideline for metadata to be embedded in Broadcast WAVE files that reproduce historical and cultural heritage digital sound recordings. The current version (1.0) of the Broadcast WAVE Metadata Embedding Guidelines refers to EBU-TECH 3285: Specification of the Broadcast Wave Format Version 1. It was approved by the working group on September 15, 2009. The proposed version (2.0) of the document refers to Version 2 of EBU-TECH 3285: Specification of the Broadcast Wave Format. Version 2 is a substantial revision of Version 1 which incorporates loudness metadata (in accordance with EBU R 128 [2]) and which takes account of the publication of Supplements 1 – 6 and other relevant documentation. Published May 2011.
The Proposed Version 2.0 document will be posted for public comment until February 21, 2012. Remarks about Version 2.0 of the guidelines and Introductory Discussion are welcome.
- Proposed Broadcast WAVE Metadata Embedding Guidelines, Version 2.0 (PDF, 93 KB)
- Current Broadcast WAVE Metadata Embedding Guidelines, Version 1.0 (PDF, 121 KB)
Specification: Background
The background document below provides an explanatory context for the guideline and describe the constraints imposed by existing WAVE metadata structures. The introductory document features an extended discussion of the history and use of loudness metadata. When the BWF MetaEdit tool was being developed in 2009, the consulting team at Audiovisual Preservation Solutions added a checksum (hash value) function. The Working Group and BWF MetaEdit's developers invented a non-standardized chunk (the "MD5 Chunk") to store the checksum value. The introductory discussion document below has an appendix explaining the use of (and the reasoning behind) this ad hoc chunk.
- Introductory Discussion (PDF, 92 KB) for the proposed audio metadata embedding guideline
- Consultant’s report on embedding options (PDF, 319 KB) in digital audio files
- Identifiers: Types and Characteristics (PDF, 42 KB) Notes on identifiers relevant to digital content entities, including audio files
BWF MetaEdit: About the tool
BWF MetaEdit (at SourceForge) is a free, open source tool that supports embedding, validating, and exporting of metadata in Broadcast WAVE Format (BWF) files, including support for the Federal Agencies guideline presented above. BWF MetaEdit was developed by the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative, supported by AudioVisual Preservation Solutions.
Features include:
- Updates to conform the tool to Version 2 (May, 2011) of EBU-TECH 3285: Specification of the Broadcast Wave Format
- Import, edit, embed, and export specified metadata elements in WAVE audio files
- Export technical metadata from Format Chunks and minimal metadata from bext and INFO chunks as comma-separated values and/or XML, across a set of files or from individual files
- Evaluate, verify and embed MD5 checksums, as applied to the WAVE file's data chunk (audio bitstream only) into a non-standardized, ad hoc "MD5 chunk."
- Enforce the guideline (above) developed by the Federal Agencies Audio-Visual Working Group, as well as specifications from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Microsoft, and IBM
- Reports certain errors in the construction of WAVE files
- Command line and GUI, for Windows/PC, Macintosh OS, Linux; see list of options at SourceForge
BWF MetaEdit: User's Guide and Link to SourceForge
- BWF MetaEdit help resource, which serves as a user's guide.
- BWF MetaEdit application at SourceForge.
Provide Comments on the Specification or Tool
Use the online form to submit your comments.
Last Updated: 12/21/2011