Time Coding, Clear Marking - Text
The term “time coding” describes an electronic procedure which inscribes a common reference (seconds, minutes, hour, day, month, year) on film stock or magnetic tape in order to synchronize image and sound. There are two different kinds of time coding: the first can be read by a machine, and the second, which is also known as “clear marking,” can also be read by the human eye. The development for cinema of these techniques (of identifying, converting, inscribing and displaying) benefited from research carried out in the fields of electronics and video in the late 1960s, in particular by two international organizations, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), founded in 1916, and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), founded in 1950.