The company has its origins in the late Sixties, when two Cambridge students decided to improve their monetary situation by their own ingenuity and enterprise. Ken Sewell, who was reading Economics, spent his spare time as D.J./organiser of the Purple Cucumber Road Show, doing colleges, private parties and other venues around Cambridge's exciting night scene. Ken had an interest in many styles of music and a flair for providing audiences with something different – weird enough, to fascinate, but gutsy enough to entertain.

Interested in ways of linking light to sound for total environment control, Paul Mardon was only fifteen when he developed what may have been the first sound-light unit in the world. Using valve systems initially, he continued to work along these pioneering lines and by the time he was at Cambridge he had reached the stage of designing and building a 'primitive modulator' which won the University's annual prize for engineering. Paul had initially augmented his research funds by hiring out the equipment he produced under the name of 'Chameleon Lighting'.  Soon after he met Ken, however, Chameleon went 'on the road' with Purple Cucumber, and the embryo of today's company was formed. The combined units were a great success and the link became permanent when the entire venture was re-named 'Pulsation', which was later shortened to 'Pulsar'.
When the time came for Ken and Paul to leave the University, their enterprise was doing so well that it seemed to have potential as a full-time business. The road show prospered and a growing number of control units were hired out. A meeting with soul band drummer Arthur D. Saunders put them in touch with the man who was later to become Pulsar's marketing 'manager and who in fact made them their first sale.

In April 1971, however, the first proper premises were acquired - above a printers' shop in Mill Road, Cambridge.  At this time the firm was still a hire company making occasional sales, rather than concentrating on keeping down production costs in order to appeal to a general market. However, when Arthur Saunders joined the partners as sales manager, he found considerable interest in the equipment from prospective buyers. Changeover from hiring to selling came fairly rapidly. In the equipment produced, the emphasis was on sound-light and disco control units, but Pulsar also produced strobes and spots. The next big expansion brought the company to Cherry Hinton Road in September, 1974 and by August, 1977 they had expanded again to still larger premises in Stanley Road. Some exports now began to figure in the sales statistics and the work force rose to half a dozen and continued to rise.

Always on the look-out for new applications for Paul's ideas, the marketing team launched some products on the domestic market, but the Pulsar name remained, first and foremost, the name of what was best in disco lighting control. It was on the basis of success in this. field that the last big move was made  to 15,500 feet of purpose-built factory space at Henley Road. When the 'Disco Fever' explosion brought out a consciousness of what could be done with creative lighting control, it brought out the best in Pulsar. The upsurge of enthusiasm created a challenge for Paul Mardon to create ever more sophisticated and intricate display controllers. From the heart of Cambridge's 'Silicon Valley', Pulsar was soon competing successfully on an international market, and could boast a more comprehensive range than any rival company. Riding the crest of the Disco wave, Pulsar continued expansion, factory space more than doubled to 36,000 square feet, the eighty employees were  increased to 150, and stock control!, distribution and accounts were handled by the company's own computer (see pic below).

Pulsar have continued thier success and boast an impressive collection of lighting control equipment.