Q-File (1966 - ?)
Thorn Lighting

Thorn Q-File (1969)

Lots of additional information and resources coming in the next few weeks.
Sold in the USA by Kleigl from 1970.
System designed by Mr. A. Isaacs

The Q-File was first installed in BBC TV Centre in TC8, believed to be in 1967.

The wonderful TV Studio History website has this information:

"TC8 was also the first studio with thyristor dimmers controlled by a computer memory console – the Thorn Q-File. This console was subsequently installed in TV Theatre and all the other studios at TVC except TC6 and Lime Grove D and E. These three studios were equipped with the Strand MMS – ‘Modular Memory System.’ This was a console with fader wheels rather than the motorised faders of the Q-File. It had a slightly different operating philosophy from the Thorn desk which some liked, others not. It was in fact the predecessor to the Galaxy – without question the best lighting console ever developed for TV studios. For many years, almost every studio in the UK was equipped with one – they were available to purchase, in improving versions, from the early ’80s to the mid ’90s.

Their manufacturer, Strand Lighting, offered no similar replacement when they stopped manufacturing them. Unfortunately, they and all the other console manufacturers subsequently sold consoles that were aimed at the theatre and moving light market. Very few operators or LDs believed these were as suitable for television as the old Galaxy. Thus, these old lighting desks soldiered on until the last one at Pinewood in 2015. Spare parts were acquired from old consoles being replaced in theatres or studios all over the world. The BBC even bought an old second hand Galaxy from Russia.

TC7 and TC8 were later equipped with a radical re-development of the Q-File called the ‘Thornlight.’ It had obviously been designed by a committee and was in some ways rather clumsy to operate. However, once you got the hang of it it was extremely flexible and I personally really got to like it. These were later replaced by Galaxys, as eventually was TC6’s MMS, until by the late 1980s the only studios still with a Q-File were TC1 and Television Theatre."

From 1979 Thorn catalogue
This is intended for large installations employing up to 400 independent lighting circuits. lt offers a choice of 100 or 200 ferrite core memories and features decimal coded channel selection wilh a single servo-controlled fader lever which moves automatìcally to the exìsting level of any newly selecled channel.
Memory playback may be instantaneous or via a quadruple automalic fade process wilh independent speed controI for two fade-up and two fade-down actions.

From 1978 Thorn catalogue:

Q-File
Up to 390 dimmer channels with choice of 100 or 200 all-channel electronic memories
Principal Features

Channel level adjustment by single fader lever with push-button channel address selection. When not hand controlled, lever moves automatically to show existing level of selected channel.
Complete lighting state instantly recorded in any selected memory.
Memories may be played back singly or by addition or subtraction.
Playback wlth lnstant effect or by automatic fade actions.
Four automatic fades can take place simultaneously with independent timing.
Mimic panel shows status of channels in use or in preview.
Blind record facility allows memories to be prepared, reviewed or modified, without effecting lighting in use.
lnstant manual override of any channel at any time.
Independent standby system in which the plug matrix allows channel groups to be assigned to auxiliary faders.

Q-File 1000

Standardised version for up to 198 channels. Metal desk with two blank panels to accommodate supplementary user controls or indicators.
Options

100 or 200 memories.
Portable remote control unit.
Tape programming unit for libarary storage.

Q-File 2000

Channel capacity to user requirements. Desk may be custom built or panels supplied for fitting to customers own console.
Options include:

100 or 200 memories.
Various types of mimic display and auxiIiary control systems.
Portable remote control unit.
Tape programming unitfor library storage.
Visual display unit (VDU).
Print-out facility.
Group master controls.
Choice of flasher units.

Q-File syslems comprise a desk with separate one or two bay control equipment rack. They are normally used with Thorn type LAO or D dlmmers.

Classic Gear Live text by Rob Halliday:
Q-File was by general consent the first successful memory lighting system. Not a ‘computer’ as such – it was a hard-wired machine with just one purpose, storing and re-playing lighting states at the touch of a button.

It also re-defined the interface for lighting controls, replacing the traditional fader-per-channel with a selection keyboard (arranged in columns, like an adding machine) and a motorized fader that would jump to the correct level.

Thorn were a manufacturer of lights who were encouraged into control by the BBC as Strand struggled with memory. Engineer Tony Isaacs designed the system which, while intended for television – the first system installed in TC8 at Television Centre - quickly also found favour in theatre, with its ability to control up to 390 channels across 200 memories, data stored in ferrite cores.

It also went overseas: a Q-File was supplied by Kliegl to the University of Madison-Wisconsin where two brothers, Fred and Bill Foster, shocked by the $150,000 (in 1975) price, set out to build a lower-cost version using the then-new Intel microprocessors. They succeeded – and so ETC was born.