Q5K · 5 channels · T-BAR
Q5K
The DVE that redefined television in the late 70s, recreated for macOS. Five channels with frame stores, perspective flips and the T-bar of the Stick Box, playable live.
The DVE that redefined television in the late 70s, recreated for macOS. Five channels with frame stores, perspective flips and the T-bar of the Stick Box, playable live.
The Quantel DPE 5000 is the first fully digital real-time video effects system. Its frame stores capture and freeze a complete field; several channels are processed then combined by a priority stack, point by point.
It is played at the Stick Box console — T-bars and joysticks — with software packages: DIGIFLIP (flip/tumble/spin), AUTOFLEX and AUTOSEQUENCE. It redefined television graphics.
Q5K composites up to five video channels. Each channel is a quad projected in perspective, resolved pixel by pixel by an inverse homography — flip, tumble, spin, size, position — then masked, bordered and "Quantel tinted".
Memorize two arrangements A and B, work the T-bar: everything interpolates, that is the DVE "move". AUTOSEQUENCE chains arrangements in an S-curve; the export replays them offline, identically.
App interface is in French — feature names kept in French
Each feature corresponds to a concept of the DPE 5000, faithful to point-by-point compositing with key signals.
Y / X / Z rotations in perspective — the three signatures of the DPE — with size (squeeze, expand) and position per channel.
Five channels A–E load a looping video; "Freeze" locks the frame store, the image stays manipulable while frozen — the historic freeze.
Priorities 1 to 5: compositing is done point by point, back to front, the high priority masks the others.
Width and color, synthesized in the stream like image data — faithful to the principle "injected into the data stream".
Two memorized arrangements A and B, interpolated with the T-bar or by a timed transition (S-curve). Move mode, or video dissolve with H/V wipes, blinds, iris.
Rectangle, oval, diamond, band, with mask softness; OOZE flows a shape A into a shape B (morph of signed distances).
Arrangements become "events" with their own duration; "Run" chains them, "Go" jumps to one of them. Sequences saved in JSON.
Keying per channel: chroma (strength, eyedropper color, tolerance) and luma (strength, threshold, inversion), arranged with the control-room proc-amp.
The diagonal light sweep, the cylindrical curve of the right edge, the cyclic wrap, and the reinjected trails of sports/news graphics.
Composited outputs and interface (console, transport, Stick Box). Click to enlarge.
| Platform | macOS 14+ — Apple Silicon & Intel (Metal). |
|---|---|
| Technique | Swift · SwiftUI · Metal. Single-pass fragment compositor; inverse homography per pixel (Heckbert formula). |
| Channels | 5 (A–E), priorities 1–5, frame stores, per-channel freeze. |
| DIGIFLIP | Flip (Y), tumble (X), spin (Z) in perspective; squeeze/expand size; X/Y position. |
| Transitions | Stick Box A/B — Move (interpolation) or video Dissolve (Dissolve / H / V / blinds / iris wipes); timed S-curve transition. |
| Sequences | AUTOSEQUENCE — events & durations, JSON save. |
| Per channel | Crop, opacity, proc-amp, chroma/luma key, mosaic, drop shadow, strobe, trails, video wall, glint, wrap, page turn, OOZE. |
| Real-time output | ● REC 1280×720 .mov (H.264), audio of the ♪ channel recorded and monitored. |
| Offline export | 1280×720 H.264 — Current state (free duration) or full Autosequence. |
| Control | MIDI Learn — T-bar, channel selector, "selected channel" bank; XY joystick; JSON mappings. |
| Console | Full save/load in JSON (channels, look, arrangements, sequence and source paths, reopened on load). |