[QuadList] Quantel Mirage and More

[Dennis Degan]

		On Jun 21, 2016, at 8:27 PM, Scott Thomas wrote:

> I don't remember if it was here or another group where there was discussion of the Quantel Mirage, so I'll post here first.
> I recorded a PBS show back in 1985 called Innovation. I have most of the episode on YouTube now. The first part is called "Video Magic" and talks about the Quantel Mirage and later about Charlex and their use of Paintbox and Ampex ADO. (Pre Abekas A62) There's also a few other things in there you might enjoy. https://youtu.be/QO1_Vwb-TbI

		I offer:

	Nice show, Scott.  I worked at Reeves/Teletape in that era.  We were one of two facilities that owned a Mirage in New York at the time. Not being a programmer, I had a lot of trouble making shapes with it, but I did use Mirage on a few jobs utilizing the template shapes already included.  It could be both quite challenging and restrictive to operate Mirage.  And often the results, though amazing for the time, were quite limited and somewhat crude.
	With the availability of Grass Valley’s Kaleidoscope and even later Sony’s System G, the possibilities were opened up through improvements in picture quality and the fluid image motion that we would expect.  Much of this capability (and more) is now available to anyone with a computer.
	I did notice that the program implies the Charlex work was pre-A62, citing that tape layering generations were an issue.  Some of it was before the use of A62; the prime example of pre-A62 work was the Cars video “You Might Think”.  But the Saturday Night Live opening WAS done with A62, as I recall.  I read at the time that there are parts of that show opening that are as many as 100 layers deep; which would have been impossible to do with analog tape generations.

			Dennis Degan, Video Editor-Consultant-Knowledge Bank
					    NBC Today Show, New York


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