Strong 35mm digital audio with timecode?

[David Ferguson]

I was reading an old publication by the British Kinematograph Sound & Television Society (BKSTS), and came across an interesting quote and image about digital sound systems. I believe this was written pre-DTS, but it is not dated so I am not sure.

Strong of Canada and L.C. Concepts of France are both working on systems using time code on the edge of the film to synchronise a separate digital system but as yet neither has had a major Hollywood release.

I am aware of the L.C. Concepts system, which was bought out by DTS. But this is the first time I have ever heard of Strong attempting to make a digital sound format. There was the following diagram. I am not sure if this was created by the BKSTS, or if Strong sent it in.

Has anyone ever heard of Strong making a 35mm timecode synced audio system, in the early 90s? Does anyone have any more information on this, were there decoders made, films released (even if just test/demo ones)?

[Gordon McLeod]

I saw it at Showwest and it worked the timecode reader mounted under the projector and used a Panasonic laserdisk player

[Ryan Gallagher]

This glimpse into the history of the "timecode wars" is interesting. I had no idea there were other contenders.

[Jim Cassedy]

I was reading an old publication by the British
Kinematograph Sound & Television Society (BKSTS),

. . . for several years, I thought BKSTS was another Korean boy band.

[David Ferguson]

I saw it at Showwest and it worked the timecode reader mounted under the projector and used a Panasonic laserdisk player

Very interesting, thank you! So it sounds like they got quite far with it, if there was enough for a demo at ShoWest. Now, does anyone have photographs, info pamphlets, or anything about this?

It's fascinating learning about all the digital sound systems. Every time I think I have learnt of them all, I find more. And there are some obscure ones, like Kinoton's HDFS which used a timecode but didn't have an optical backup track, or the Karasync which only had an optical analog track and would then (somehow?) sync a digital track to that.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

I saw it at Showwest and it worked the timecode reader mounted under the projector and used a Panasonic laserdisk player

Gord... Sheesh, that was a long time code ago...