About Sabre

Sabre was started in September 1993 by a group of Hull University Electronic Engineering graduates who had spent all their spare time at university (and most of their course time) operating, creating, improving and repairing sound and lighting equipment.

To start with, the company was run single-handedly (mostly) by Chris Ford, based in his house; the main activities of the company were hires to amateur dramatic companies, sales of bits and pieces, and repair work. We also designed small electronic gadgets for a number customers.

In Summer 1995 we came into contact with Abstract, probably the leading manufacturer of club/disco lighting in the UK, who were looking for someone to design the electronics for a new range of lighting products. Tim Mitchell, who had been involved part-time from the start, designed the new system, which is now in use in over 30,000 Abstract products worldwide. Tim joined the company full time in December 1995 as technical director.

By this time Sabre had grown to the point where a new home was needed, and at the end of 1995 we were able to move into a factory unit to call our own, on the Sutton Fields estate to the north-east side of Hull. We formed a separate company, now called Tega, to handle the sales and hire of sound and lighting, while Sabre Technology Ltd remained focused on design of electronics.

The company continued to steadily produce an increasing variety of designs for a range of clients, including one-offs for exhibitions and sculptures as well as designing for high volume manufactured products. In 2005 we decided to separate from Tega in order to provide a better service to Sabre clients, and we moved to the Newlands Science Park within the Hull University campus, which we had left twelve years earlier.

We still enjoy our work, which we feel also benefits our clients in our approach to their projects.