3418-Quantel-Canal Case S

Canal+ goes HD… with Quantel
Etienne Robial has been the Artistic Director of Canal+ since its
beginnings 22 years ago. He is heading up the project to design
the new station branding for one of Europe’s leading pay-TV
broadcasters. Robial’s team is working with the latest Quantel gQ
graphic workstations, continuing a tradition that began in 1984
when Canal+ revolutionised television graphics using the very first
Quantel Paintboxes. Etienne Robial is the inventor of habillage;
literally the ‘dressing up’ of television channels. In this article we
look at how High Definition has become Haute Couture in Paris.
On 4 th November 1984, a revolution occurred in the
French media, with the birth of the country’s first
pay-TV channel. Viewers were greeted with a black
screen (reminiscent of a cinema just before the
feature film is projected), gradually lighting up with a
white diagonal line preparing the way for a rainbowcoloured
ellipse and the letters of CANAL+. The eerie
electro-acoustic music for these opening fireworks,
in sharp contrast to the cutesy jingles and pastel
graphics of the period, set the tone for what was to
become – and remains – arguably the most
sophisticated and provocative channel in Continental
Europe (British viewers got a taste of the Canal+
style when one of their star presenters, Antoine de
Caunes, crossed the channel with Eurotrash).
Etienne Robial, designer of the station branding sting
and its avatars, explains his approach: “The Canal+
design was intended from the start to give the
channel a unique look and feel. We christened this
signage system habillage.”
To produce this original system, Robial discovered a
machine which he felt could get the job done: the
Quantel Paintbox. At the time, there was only one of
these new systems in France, far from Paris in
Angoulême, and the machine was pretty well booked
solid. Robial decided to head for London, the city of
one of his mentors, Martin Lambie-Nairn, founder of
one of the UK’s most prestigious design studios and
famous for his work on the BBC and Channel 4 logos.
For six weeks, he settled in at pioneering facility The
Moving Picture Company (MPC), working day and
night (and mainly at night to obtain lower rates) to
create his logo and hundreds of spin-offs for the
start-up channel.
From the start, Canal+ aired about 250 graphic
sequences every day, constantly designing and
adapting its branding and titling to attract viewers.
Paris post facility UMT had just bought a Paintbox as
Canal+ was reaching cruising speed. UMT would
shortly thereafter buy France’s first Quantel HAL and
Right: Etienne Robial, Artistic
Director, Canal+.
Far right: The first Canal+ logo,
created on Paintbox.