Looking at some vintage Quantel Paintbox systems

I thought this may be of some interest to forumers in the industry or just those who are interested in how things used to be done.



Retro Man Cave takes a look at someone's collection of vintage Quantel systems

"The first use of Paintbox at the BBC was in the weather department"

I'm not sure that's true? Unless he means the Breakfast Time weather map?

Tom Scott's video on Green Screen suggests the BBC were using the Paintbox for Dr Who as early as 1980:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msPCQgRPPjI (see about 2 minutes in)

I subscribed to DextersLab2013 previously, I found his videos a good watch.

I presume this video has been posted before on here, a training video for users:

That's referring the first story of that season, The Leisure Hive . It used a Quantel DPE 5000 (it says here...) to do a slight zoom out on a shot of the TARDIS materialising. It doesn't sound like much, and it doesn't look particularly great it has to be said, but it was probably pretty groundbreaking at the time.

Later in the video Tom alludes to systems would could sync two cameras together for live, moving chromakey - that was called Scene Sync, and there's a great documentary about it on the Meglos DVD (the one Doctor Who story it was used for). It looked fantastic, but it wasn't particularly reliable so it never saw widespread usage.

Well, in Morning Glory, Ron Neil talks about how they were able to use Paintbox on Breakfast Time, which was the first use of graphics at the Beeb "that wasn't a pencil and a bit of paper".

Breakfast Time made extensive use of early computer graphics to the extent that they applied for and received a goverment grant for encouraging computer use in the workplace.

The legendary Stewart Morris ("run the roller!") used it to CSO a background from one camera behind musical acts. Much to the delight of the camera operators, trying to do the near impossible to Stewart's satisfaction.

Breakfast Time used Paintbox, but I don't think their weather graphics used them. (Breakfast Time didn't use the same weather presenters or graphics as the rest of the BBC, but launched with electronic weather graphics and satellite maps when the main BBC weather dept were still using physical maps with stick on magnetic symbols)

The BBC weather relaunch in 1985 used 'Soft Paintbox' which was a neat way of computer controlling Paintbox from a separate computer. ISTR that the first system used Apple Mac XLs (very similar to the pre-Mac Apple Lisa) to allow forecasters to design maps, that were then rendered using Soft Paintboxes controlled by a Vax minicomputer (I may be misremembering the Vax element)

When the 'Soft Paintbox system was replaced by a system that used a graphics card in an Apple Mac, the quality of rendered graphics took a bit of a nose-dive. The Quantel Paintbox had some very nice anti-twitter filtering that avoided interline flicker caused by interlace. The fully Mac-based replacement didn't - and flickered far more...

BBC News also used Soft Paintboxes to automatically create football results tables etc. prior to using Silicon Graphics workstations ISTR.

Paintboxes were in use at the BBC before the 1985 graphics launch. (A large number of VFX shots in 'The Tripods' used Paintbox, alongside some very early computer rendered models)

Paintbox didn't exist in 1980. I think Tom is talking about a Quantel DVE (i.e. a picture re-sizing device)

(Some people think Quantel = Paintbox. It doesn't)

This 1983 Kenny Everett-fronted edition of QED does its best to make the newfangled DVE jiggery-pokery accessible to the viewer:

https://archive.org/details/QED_-_The_Magic_Picture_Show

Even begins with a quirky VT clock. Essentially an extended advert for The Moving Picture Company, but essential viewing.

Shame it's not on YouTube

Thanks so much for posting that! I was absolutely obsessed with that programme as a child and used to watch it repeatedly on VHS. This must be the first time I've seen it in over 30 years.

It's probably partly responsible for my interest in TV graphics, along with my love of Kenny Everett.

I went on work experience to a production house in 1991 and spent my lunchtimes playing with a Quantel Harriet. It was interesting to play with, but I quickly realised you did need some artistic skills, which I didn't have. A couple of years earlier I had taught my art teacher how to paint on an Acorn Archimedes and she could create amazing things even though she had zero technical knowledege.