IEC 62942:2019
(Main)File format for professional transfer and exchange of digital audio data
File format for professional transfer and exchange of digital audio data
IEC 62942:2019 specifies a file format for interchanging audio data between compliant equipment. It is primarily intended for audio applications in professional recording, production, post-production, and archiving.
It is derived from the AES31-2 [2] but is also compatible with variant specifications including EBU Tech 3285 [3] to [10], ITU-R BR.1352-3-2007 [11] to [14], and the Japan Post Production Association's BWF-J [15].
This document contains the specification of the broadcast audio extension chunk and its use with PCM-coded audio data. Basic information on the RIFF format and how it can be extended to other types of audio data is given in Annex E. Details of the PCM WAVE format are also given in Annex A.
An optional extended format, BWF-E, supports 64-bit addressing to permit file sizes greater than 4 GB.
Format de fichier pour le transfert et l'échange professionnels de données audionumériques
L'IEC 62942:2019 spécifie un format de fichier qui permet d'échanger des données audio entre des équipements conformes. Il vise principalement les applications audio en ce qui concerne l'enregistrement, la production, la postproduction et l'archivage professionnels.
Il est obtenu à partir de l'AES31-2, mais est également compatible avec des spécifications proches, notamment l'EBU Tech 3285, l'ITU-R BR.1352-3-2007, et le BWF-J de la Japan Post Production Association.
Le présent document contient la spécification du fragment d'extension audio pour diffusion et de son utilisation avec des données audio codées MIC. Des informations de base sur le format RIFF et sur la façon dont il peut être étendu à d'autres types de données audio sont données à l'Annexe E. Des détails sur le format WAVE MIC sont également donnés à l'Annexe A.
Un format étendu facultatif, BWF-E, prend en charge l'adressage 64 bits pour permettre l'utilisation de fichiers dont la taille est supérieure à 4 Go.
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IEC 62942 ®
Edition 1.0 2019-12
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
File format for professional transfer and exchange of digital audio data
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.
IEC Central Office Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.
About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.
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IEC 62942 ®
Edition 1.0 2019-12
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
File format for professional transfer and exchange of digital audio data
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.160.30 ISBN 978-2-8322-7722-5
– 2 – IEC 62942:2019 © IEC 2019
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 5
INTRODUCTION . 7
1 Scope . 8
2 Normative references . 8
3 Terms and definitions . 8
4 BWF file . 10
4.1 Existing chunks defined as part of the RIFF Format . 10
4.2 Additional chunks . 10
4.3 Contents of a BWFF . 10
4.4 Broadcast audio extension chunk . 11
4.5 Filename . 13
4.6 Channel usage . 13
4.7 File size . 13
Annex A (normative) RIFF WAVE file format . 14
A.1 General . 14
A.2 Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) . 14
A.2.1 General . 14
A.2.2 Chunks . 14
A.2.3 RIFF forms . 15
A.3 Waveform audio file format (WAVE) . 15
A.3.1 General . 15
A.3.2 WAVE format chunk . 16
A.3.3 WAVE format categories . 16
A.4 Storage of WAVE data . 19
Annex B (normative) Chunk order . 20
Annex C (normative) Filename conventions . 21
C.1 General . 21
C.2 File-name length . 21
C.3 File-name extension . 21
C.4 File-name character set . 21
Annex D (informative) Multi-channel usage . 23
D.1 General . 23
D.2 Multi-channel audio data packing . 23
D.3 Channel assignments in multi-channel files . 24
D.3.1 General . 24
D.3.2 Distribution and archive . 24
D.3.3 Production recordings . 24
Annex E (informative) Other audio codings . 25
E.1 General . 25
E.2 MPEG files . 25
Annex F (normative) Extended file format (BWF-E) . 26
F.1 General . 26
F.2 Exceeding the 4-GB limit . 26
F.2.1 General . 26
F.2.2 64-bit resource interchange file format (RF64) . 27
F.3 Compatibility between BWF and BWF-E . 28
F.3.1 General . 28
F.3.2 Initialisation as BWF . 28
F.3.3 Transition to BWF-E . 28
F.4 RIFF/WAVE and RF64/WAVE structures . 29
F.4.1 Chunks and structs specific to the RIFF/WAVE format . 29
F.4.2 Chunks and structs specific to the RF64/WAVE (BWF-E) format . 29
Annex G (normative) bext chunk versions . 31
G.1 Version 0 . 31
G.2 Version 1 . 31
G.3 Version 2 . 31
Annex H (normative) Loudness parameters. 32
H.1 Treatment of loudness parameters . 32
H.2 Loudness parameter references . 33
Annex I (informative) Definition of the format for "Unique" Source Identifier (USID) for
use in the field . 34
I.1 USID . 34
I.2 Examples of USIDs . 34
Annex J (informative) Specification of the format for field . 35
J.1 General . 35
J.2 Syntax . 35
J.3 Examples of coding history fields . 35
Annex K (normative) Universal broadcast audio extension chunk . 37
K.1 General . 37
K.2 Contents of a BWFF with 'ubxt' chunk . 37
K.3 Universal broadcast audio extension chunk . 37
Bibliography . 40
Figure D.1 – Data packing for 24-bit mono PCM audio data . 23
Figure D.2 – Data packing for 16-bit stereo (2-channel) PCM audio data . 23
Figure D.3 – Data packing for 24-bit, 4-channel PCM audio data . 23
Figure D.4 – 24-bit sample packing . 24
Figure F.1 – Conventional RIFF/WAVE format . 26
Figure F.2 – Extended RF64/WAVE format . 27
Figure F.3 – Compatible RIFF/WAVE structure . 28
Table 1 – bext field content definitions . 12
Table A.1 – Chunk description . 14
Table A.2 – Format chunk – Common fields . 16
Table A.3 – WAVE format categories . 17
Table A.4 – Data packing for 16-bit mono PCM . 17
Table A.5 – Data packing for 16-bit stereo PCM . 18
Table A.6 – PCM data format . 18
Table A.7 – PCM data format – 16-bit . 18
Table A.8 – PCM WAVE format chunk examples . 18
Table C.1 – Permitted file-name characters . 21
– 4 – IEC 62942:2019 © IEC 2019
Table C.2 – Non-permitted file-name characters . 22
Table C.3 – Non-permitted file-name terminators . 22
Table H.1 – Rounding negative values . 32
Table H.2 – Rounding positive values . 32
Table J.1 – CodingHistory parameters . 35
Table K.1 – ubxt field content definitions .
...
IEC 62942 ®
Edition 1.0 2019-12
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
File format for professional transfer and exchange of digital audio data
Format de fichier pour le transfert et l'échange professionnels de données
audionumériques
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.
Droits de reproduction réservés. Sauf indication contraire, aucune partie de cette publication ne peut être reproduite
ni utilisée sous quelque forme que ce soit et par aucun procédé, électronique ou mécanique, y compris la photocopie
et les microfilms, sans l'accord écrit de l'IEC ou du Comité national de l'IEC du pays du demandeur. Si vous avez des
questions sur le copyright de l'IEC ou si vous désirez obtenir des droits supplémentaires sur cette publication, utilisez
les coordonnées ci-après ou contactez le Comité national de l'IEC de votre pays de résidence.
IEC Central Office Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.
About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.
IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional languages.
and withdrawn publications. Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary
(IEV) online.
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
details all new publications released. Available online and 67 000 electrotechnical terminology entries in English and
once a month by email. French extracted from the Terms and Definitions clause of
IEC publications issued since 2002. Some entries have been
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc collected from earlier publications of IEC TC 37, 77, 86 and
If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or CISPR.
need further assistance, please contact the Customer Service
Centre: sales@iec.ch.
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IEC 62942 ®
Edition 1.0 2019-12
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
File format for professional transfer and exchange of digital audio data
Format de fichier pour le transfert et l'échange professionnels de données
audionumériques
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 33.160.30 ISBN 978-2-8322-8696-8
– 2 – IEC 62942:2019 © IEC 2019
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 5
INTRODUCTION . 7
1 Scope . 8
2 Normative references . 8
3 Terms and definitions . 8
4 BWF file . 10
4.1 Existing chunks defined as part of the RIFF Format . 10
4.2 Additional chunks . 10
4.3 Contents of a BWFF . 10
4.4 Broadcast audio extension chunk . 11
4.5 Filename . 13
4.6 Channel usage . 13
4.7 File size . 13
Annex A (normative) RIFF WAVE file format . 14
A.1 General . 14
A.2 Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) . 14
A.2.1 General . 14
A.2.2 Chunks . 14
A.2.3 RIFF forms . 15
A.3 Waveform audio file format (WAVE) . 15
A.3.1 General . 15
A.3.2 WAVE format chunk . 16
A.3.3 WAVE format categories . 16
A.4 Storage of WAVE data . 19
Annex B (normative) Chunk order . 20
Annex C (normative) Filename conventions . 21
C.1 General . 21
C.2 File-name length . 21
C.3 File-name extension . 21
C.4 File-name character set . 21
Annex D (informative) Multi-channel usage . 23
D.1 General . 23
D.2 Multi-channel audio data packing . 23
D.3 Channel assignments in multi-channel files . 24
D.3.1 General . 24
D.3.2 Distribution and archive . 24
D.3.3 Production recordings . 24
Annex E (informative) Other audio codings . 25
E.1 General . 25
E.2 MPEG files . 25
Annex F (normative) Extended file format (BWF-E) . 26
F.1 General . 26
F.2 Exceeding the 4-GB limit . 26
F.2.1 General . 26
F.2.2 64-bit resource interchange file format (RF64) . 27
F.3 Compatibility between BWF and BWF-E . 28
F.3.1 General . 28
F.3.2 Initialisation as BWF . 28
F.3.3 Transition to BWF-E . 28
F.4 RIFF/WAVE and RF64/WAVE structures . 29
F.4.1 Chunks and structs specific to the RIFF/WAVE format . 29
F.4.2 Chunks and structs specific to the RF64/WAVE (BWF-E) format . 29
Annex G (normative) bext chunk versions . 31
G.1 Version 0 . 31
G.2 Version 1 . 31
G.3 Version 2 . 31
Annex H (normative) Loudness parameters. 32
H.1 Treatment of loudness parameters . 32
H.2 Loudness parameter references . 33
Annex I (informative) Definition of the format for "Unique" Source Identifier (USID) for
use in the field . 34
I.1 USID . 34
I.2 Examples of USIDs . 34
Annex J (informative) Specification of the format for field . 35
J.1 General . 35
J.2 Syntax . 35
J.3 Examples of coding history fields . 35
Annex K (normative) Universal broadcast audio extension chunk . 37
K.1 General . 37
K.2 Contents of a BWFF with 'ubxt' chunk . 37
K.3 Universal broadcast audio extension chunk . 37
Bibliography . 40
Figure D.1 – Data packing for 24-bit mono PCM audio data .
...
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