Advanced Recording Format

Advanced Recording Format (ARF) is a proprietary video container format used to store recordings created by Webex, a video conferencing program used mainly in business environments. It seems to have been intended to succeed Webex Recording Format (WRF), but they have coexisted; ARF is (as of 2019) only produced by recording software run directly by the company, while anyone that wants to produce their own recordings (eschewing the "cloud") must use software only capable of producing WRF^[2]. The process of producing recordings on the company's servers is called "Network-Based Recording" in documentation^[2], and the format occasionally^[3] seems to be called NBR2. It appears to have a different internal structure from WRF and its predecessor WOT. It is presumably a container format, like WRF (and possibly WOT). In addition to video and audio, it captures text chat and other peripheral types of data.^[4]

Software

• WebEx Player for ARF files
  • webexnbrplayer_intel.dmg: OS X version

Sample Files

• The Internet Archive's "Archive Academy"
  • e.g. John L on Crawling at the Internet Archive.arf

Links

• Feature Fact Sheet: Network-Based Recording (NBR)
• WebEx Network Recording Player User Guide for Advanced Recording Format (.arf) files
• Install the Cisco Webex Network Recording Player for Advanced Recording Format Files
• Archive - Webex Recording and Playback Instructions

References

1. ↑ http://www.wbximg.com/includes/documents/data-sheets/NBR_datasheet.pdf
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/collaboration/support_center/wbs30/WebEx_BK_SD927CB3_00_support-center-frequently-asked-questions/WebEx_BK_SD927CB3_00_support-center-frequently-asked-questions_chapter_01000.html → What tools does WebEx provide for recording, editing, and playing recordings?
3. ↑ E.g. https://welcome.webex.com/client/T33L/nbr2player.msi, the ARF player linked from https://www.webex.com/video-recording.html
4. ↑ https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/collaboration/support_center/wbs30/WebEx_BK_SD927CB3_00_support-center-frequently-asked-questions/WebEx_BK_SD927CB3_00_support-center-frequently-asked-questions_chapter_01000.html → Does network-based recording capture all the content of the meeting?