Timecode for Live Events

Posted to LinkedIn on September 28th, 2023

If you’re an animator, editor, or work in post production in any capacity you’re probably familiar with the timecode notation.

It’s built into your interface and it’s how you navigate your project.

Now, you’re asked to include timecode in your delivery file, what do you do? Quicktime will hold some aspects of timecode in a .mov file as meta-data. And with certain options, you can include what it calls a “timecode track.” I think this track is read by other non-linear editing software.

But, if you’re outputting files for a live event media server, that is almost certainly not what’s being asked for. It can be a source of confusion if you don’t know what you need to include here.

If it’s being used in live events, or really any scenario where one machine is controlling the timed action of another machine, it is likely using SMPTE or LTC (Linear Timecode).

This is data encoded as an audio signal and can be used to keep all kinds of machines working in correct sync (video playback, lighting, lasers, pyro, robotic automation).

The original concept for this was built by Disney Imagineers to sync audio and robotic movements of birds in the famous Tiki Bar.

If you’re working with music, it’s usually given as a “striped” audio format, which means either the left or right channel is dedicated to this data audio signal, and the other channel has a mono audio track of the song being used.

This will probably be supplied to the content creator from the show programmer, lighting director, or someone from that department since some of the encoding details of the data are tied into how they’ll be setting up the show.

The timecode track is not human-understandable. If you’re not expecting it, it can be deafening in one ear of your headphones. You’ll want to mute the timecode channel while you’re working. And chances are you’ll unmute to include that timecode track as an audio channel in your output. Many media servers can detect the timecode data in the track and the show programmer can use it to quickly place your rendered file in their timeline.

If you’re interested in a simple After Effects preset to mute one audio channel, I have a free file available on my site. Leave the effect on while working or for rendering previews. And turn the effect off if rendering for a media server.