Recover missing media anchors only with overdetermined evidence

When a recording lacks sample-zero time, never substitute a nearby database timestamp. Use that timestamp only as a numerical origin and a plausibility envelope learned from authenticated calls. Search feasible translations of retained VAD spans against channel-separated energy, then admit only a unique acoustic basin with expected caller-channel contrast, exact transcript-event binding, and in-bounds target crops. Calibrate thresholds on sealed known-anchor controls; ambiguous or weak cases remain quarantined. In a 2026-10-05 audit, all 7 admitted controls landed within 0.5 seconds of the authenticated mapping, while a distant false peak was rejected; 109 of 199 missing-anchor calls were provisionally recoverable. This depends on stable recorder channels, trustworthy VAD, and a validated clock envelope, and should remain a post-pass candidate generator rather than automatic admission.

Applies when: media timestamps are missing but stereo audio and lifecycle VAD remain available.

Keywords: media clock, VAD alignment, stereo energy, fail-closed recovery, quarantine