Sufficient information for future automated reading and processing of program files, including important owner information about the program.

1. A description document file should describe all drive/DVD contents and program specifications
   1. must include plain text version of the document file
   2. may include XML version of the document file
      
      
2. Show name, version, producer, copyright statement, and other intellectual property data
3. Total number of Dome Master frames, including number of files and/or length of encoded video file
4. Resolution of Dome Master frames (diameter in pixels)
5. Dome Master file format — e.g., “TGA” or “JPEG”
6. First frame designation — e.g., “00001” or “0001”
7. Number of audio tracks —e.g., “2” or “6”
8. Audio file format — e.g., “WAV” or “AC3”
9. Audio file format parameters including sample rate and bit depth — e.g., “48Khz 16bit”
10. Audio track parameters including track designation — e.g., 5.1 or stereo, or virtual tracks
11. Time code start and end value — e.g., “00:00:00 - 23:50:00”
12. Frame rate — e.g., “30 fps”, “29.97 fps”
13. Media structure — location of files, number and names of folders, etc.
14. Other program data needed for identification or proper playback

The “Dome Master” refers to the individual images projected by the fulldome system. For purposes of this working specification, only circular dome masters (i.e., a square source frame) are considered.

1. Geometry – equidistant azimuthal “fisheye” render representing up to full sphere with bottom of the frame representing the front bottom of the dome screen, and the right and left hand sides of the dome master corresponding with the respective right and left sides of the dome to a viewer sitting at dome center within the theater. Top and sides of polar image are tangent to edges of image frame.
2. Recommended file formats: sequentially numbered lossless files — e.g., PNG, TIFF or TARGA with RLE compression
   1. other sequentially numbered files — e.g., JPEG at highest-quality setting
3. Recommended file name format — e.g., “Name_00001.jpg”, “Name_000001.jpg”
4. Recommended folder name format “filename_000001_010,000”
5. Color Bit Depth — e.g., 8, 10, or 12 bits/color
6. Frame Size, frame must be square, with standard diameter resolutions of 720x720, 1024x1024, 1536x1536, 2048x2048, 3200x3200, 3600x3600, 4096x4096, 8192x8192
7. Recommended frame rates — 30 fps or 60 fps,
   1. other frame rates — 24 fps, 25 fps, 29.97 fps, 30 fps, 48 fps, 59.94 fps, 60 fps
8. Alignment Frames — set of standard frames included in dome master that establish synch and test proper geometric alignment, gamma, color balance, etc.
9. Other design recommendations:
   1. Unidirectional “Safe Action” area approx. ±50° longitude (measured from dome front/center), and ranging from 10–60° latitude (altitude)
   2. Nominal camera tilt of 15° great circle (cf. reference frame)

10. Exterior to active pixel area:

1. region colored black (except for time and frame data)
2. user-defined show name, timecode, and frame number text
3. recommended arrangement: timecode (top line), frame number (second line), and frame rate (third line) in upper left-hand corner, with show name in upper right-hand corner.

Audio Format. To accommodate for variations in sound systems in different venues, the original digital “stem” tracks can be available for re-mixing or encoding for individual venues. A “generic” 5.1 mix is derived from these files as well as a number of odd formats such as 16.1. It is preferable to re-mix the sound in each venue when possible utilizing a portable editing system.

1. Surround Format – e.g., stereo, 5.1, 7.1, stem tracks, or other
2. File Format – e.g., WAV, AIFF, other
3. Leader with test tones at -18dBV
4. Handles and pips for sync at installation
   1. recommend ten seconds on front, 5 seconds after end of picture[RJW1] 
5. Sampling Frequency and bit depth — e.g., 48-kHz 16-bit
6. Frame rate for video sync — e.g., 25, 29.97 or 30 fps
7. Start frame of either “01:00:00:00” or “00:00:00:01”
8. Basic audio file naming convention for discrete channels[RJW2] :

9. Front Left: filename_L.wav
   1. Front Right: filename_R.wav
   2. Rear Left Surround: filename_Ls.wav
   3. Rear Right Surround: filename_Rs.wav
   4. Center Front: filename_C.wav
   5. Center High (Top): filename_T.wav
   6. Low-frequency channel (Sub-bass): filename_LFE.wav
   7. Other: filename_XXX.wav

Common test program including:

• Test patterns
• Audio files
• Media synchronization file
• Color balance
• Black-and-five
• Pink noise
• Annunciated channel check

1. Content should be delivered on either DVDs or hard drives:
   1. Media < 4GB delivered on DVDs
   2. Media > 4GB delivered on PC-formatted (NTFS file system) 6-pin, Firewire + USB 2.0 drives
2. When multiple drives are used, the same metadata should appear on each drive
3. Video should be organized into folders according to frame numbers, typically with a maximum of 10,000 frames per folder
4. Audio should be organized into folders according to frame rate (e.g., 25fps, 29.97fps, and 30fps folders), with sub-folders for stereo and x.x surround mixes
5. Top level directories: “Frames”, “Audio”, “Extra”, etc.