[4] Under the leadership of Richard Taylor OBE, chairman from 1975 and Paul Kellar MBE, Quantel made several pioneering firsts in video: This period until 1998 marked the high point of the company's profitability, size and market position, placing it in the top handful of broadcast vendors.

The company had a global presence with major offices, staff, and facilities on the east and west coast of the US; in Paris, Tokyo, London, Seoul, Hong Kong and Sydney; plus other overseas resources.

This relationship ended in 2000 when Quantel management bought the company back for $76.6m funded by Lloyds Banking Group venture capital arm LDC.

From 2000 to 2005, Quantel then specialised in: December 2005 saw the forced departure from the board of long-standing chairman and chief executive Richard Taylor OBE by owners LDC in conjunction with Ray Cross, who had worked as an external consultant with Taylor and LDC to create the business plan to present to Lloyds for the 2000 management buyout from Carlton.

Thorsteinson has previously been involved in downsizing and restructuring other broadcast companies, such as Grass Valley and Harris, in order to prepare them for sale, which was the role LDC had originally brought Cross in to Quantel to achieve.

The 126,000 sq ft (11,700 m2) building was built on the 6.7-acre (27,000 m2) site in 1940 for Vickers Armstrong and manufactured Spitfire fighter aircraft during World War II.

It is now very rare that companies manufacture their own products due to the complex nature of multiple layer circuit boards containing high density surface mounted components.

As part of restructuring during the 1990s, Quantel decided to outsource support of legacy products to a separate company Effect Systems.

Due to the high profile of the cases against Spaceward for their Matisse, which was marketed as a cheaper version of Paintbox and Adobe Systems for Patented elements within its Photoshop software, Quantel were unfairly accused of trying to suppress and control competitors.

Adobe's lawyers, who were provided and funded by Apple, found a prior use of the airbrush by academics at NYIT which predated Quantel's Patent, therefore invalidating it and greatly influencing the judge's decision to dismiss the case.

As well as news, sports and weather graphics, Quantel video technology was used extensively in production of a wide spectrum of TV shows, from Top of the Pops in the UK, to the American television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Users of sQ server based systems include ESPN in the US, Rogers Media in Canada, and BBC, BSkyB and QVC in the United Kingdom.