1. Under circumstances prescribed in this article, testimony material to a trial or pending trial of an accusatory instrument which charges a crime, may be taken by "examination on a commission" outside the state and received in evidence at such trial.

2. A "commission" is a process issued by a superior court designating one or more persons as commissioners and authorizing them to conduct a recorded examination of a witness or witnesses under oath, primarily on the basis of interrogatories annexed to the commission, and to remit to the issuing court the transcript of such examination.