Quantel Paintbox – the device that changed the world of television broadcasting

When did you ever watch the next news release on TV at least out of the corner of your eye? The ticker, captions, channel logo in the corner and other useful little things help the viewer to get more information. But what if we told you that the advent of such television “special effects” was made possible in large part by Quantel Paintbox, an invention of a company that no longer exists?

Paintbox was developed by the English company Quantel, and one of the primary tasks that were set for the system was the creation of graphics (titles, transitions, etc.) for live news releases.

Prior to the advent of such devices, methods were used to display graphics on the screen that required a high level of attention to detail, careful adherence to the conditions for creating graphics, and a whole team of skilled professionals to process visual elements. Yes, at first everything was drawn by hand directly on the film, then the Masseeley manual printing press technology (thermal press device) replaced it, which was replaced by the Letraset development. This work was difficult and time consuming. Although already in the mid-60s, character generators appeared, which greatly simplified the situation. Character generators – devices that generate fonts and characters on the screen – became widely used in 1968-1969.

Convenient retouching and work with graphics

And in 1981, Quantel Paintbox appeared – a specialized workstation for creating from computer graphics. The computers were selling for $250,000 (equivalent to $652,000 in 2021), so only major television networks such as NBC could afford them. In addition to the monitor, mouse and keyboard, the kit included a tablet and a stylus. In a later version, the tablet began to respond to pressing force.

The creators of Quantel Paintbox believed that TV programs needed digital graphics. Therefore, the workstation was actively advertised among large television companies. The campaign was not unsuccessful. Quantel Paintbox made its debut in the industry with a BBC weather broadcast. Quantel Paintbox allowed not only to cut and paste images, change their color and texture, but also draw, imitating various tools: airbrush, crayons, charcoal, etc.

History of creation

Quantel was founded in 1973 by former Micro Consultants Group employee Peter Michael. Drawing on experience and work in the field of digital video technology, the company was ready to change everything the world knew about television graphics. And she was able to achieve success by creating the first commercial frame buffer for full color broadcasting: the Digital framestore synchroniser, known as the DFS-3000. In 1976, during the broadcast of the opening of the Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, using the DFS-3000, the “picture in picture” teleeffect was demonstrated for the first time – an athlete carrying the Olympic torch against the backdrop of the stadium.

In 1976, the company continued to experiment with ideas that eventually led to the creation of Paintbox. The workstation was based on the Motorola 68000 processor. The first model, the DP-7001, was greatly improved, ushering in the era of graphic design workstations.

Paintbox was an incredibly cool graphics system. It was capable of doing almost everything modern TV software can do. Moreover, the device boasted its own library and disk storage, due to which it was several years ahead of other machines. With a stylus, users could draw directly on the tablet. And everything drawn was then transferred to the computer screen. For that time it was a breakthrough. Technology has completely changed the way TV producers and editors think about the possibilities of artistic design for TV shows.

In 1990, Quantel released the Paintbox V-Series, which was smaller and more powerful—about the size of a modern desktop computer. The V-series included “a built-in hard drive that can hold 185 full-frame images”, and like the previous version, it came with a notepad-sized screen and a stylus to allow artists to “paint with light”.

Operational difficulties

Although Paintbox made the task of graphic designing TV shows easier, there were few people who could work on such a machine. And all the producers wanted to “play with fonts”, because it attracted the audience. Therefore, TV channels got out as best they could, hiring any more or less intelligent IT specialist to work with Paintbox. It is important to emphasize here that the unions of American television companies tried to keep people who were not members of the union from the cars. Only full-time engineers were allowed to use them, which further narrowed the ability to diversify television graphics.

According to Beau Tardywho worked for Nickelodeon and MTV at the time, “all early television [цифровая] the graphics look the same because they were made by engineers, not artists.” But that doesn’t mean that Paintbox hasn’t given the public a ton of new features. For example, the cover art for The Miracle, the studio album by the rock band Queen, was created by Richard Gray on Quantel Paintbox in 1989. The graphics for Disney Sing-Along Songs were also created on Paintbox.

Over time, almost all television companies, including small regional channels, switched to completely “computer” editing. In addition, it is believed that it was in Paintbox that the so-called pop-up menus first appeared.

Coloring book for weather forecast and sports

The American The Weather Channel made broadcasting history by purchasing the first Quantel Paintbox with serial number “1”. In turn, the BBC also used Quantel Paintbox on Apple Lisa computers for their weather broadcasts. Presenters stood in front of a blue screen and clicked on slides that were made in Paintbox and saved to an Apple computer.

Since then, Paintbox has continued to gain popularity and be widely used in many countries. For example, during the 1984 Olympic Games, TV channels organized broadcasts and special reports using new graphic tools. Previously, entire departments worked 2-3 weeks to draw and translate graphics for a particular broadcast. And that year, ABC’s graphic design department created graphics on the same day as a sports event.

In this video you can see examples of graphics created with Paintbox. These elements dominate the scoreboards, titles, and (of course) sponsor acknowledgments.

Pretty soon, graphics began to be perceived not as a way to “beautify the TV picture”, but as a means of conveying information. By 1986, some directors were filming music videos with this machine, including the song Dire Straits “Money for Nothing”. But it was the BBC that showed the true scope of Quantel Paintbox.

Season 18 of Doctor Who played a major role in the development of video art with Quantel Paintbox. The technology was first used in the episode “Hive of Leisure”, and some subsequent episodes were created using Paintbox.

Actively used “special effects” by British television people who produced other shows. For example, the graphics created by Paintbox can be seen in “Monty Python” and lesser-known comedy series.

Stagnation and courts

In 1996, the company was sued by Adobe over potential patent infringement regarding the stylus and other British-designed paraphernalia. Quantel lost the case.

Over time, graphic design and technology has evolved. And Quantel Paintbox began to lose popularity due to the emergence of more modern methods. This equipment was discontinued in 1993, but was replaced by Quantel Henry (multi-layer compositing system). In 2002, the GenerationQ product series introduced the latest standalone Paintbox and QPaintbox PC software. Over time, Paintbox has become part of Quantel’s other, more powerful editing, media management and post-production products. And the development company continued to innovate in the field of television graphics before integrating into Snell Ltd. in 2015.

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