Company History
Initially a group of lighting designers and long time lighting product developers got together to develop a new console that would overcome the limits of traditional consoles.
ChamSys was formed in April 2003 by bringing together a team of lighting designers, software engineers and hardware developers. ChamSys' mission is to utilise the latest technology to bring developments to the lighting console market with the ultimate aim of high performance at low cost with high reliability.
The name ChamSys is short for Chameleon Systems and is pronounced "cam" "sis".
We are Lighting Designers
ChamSys is in the unique position of utilising software developers that are themselves lighting designers. This ingrained knowledge has enabled us to develop a console to meet the needs of the end users rather than the software programmers.
Our board of directors has over twenty years of combined experience in the lighting industry, with varying backgrounds from part owners of lighting hire companies to design consultants on well known products and lighting designers.
Our software engineers have worked on many different systems, including lighting products, telecommunications products, and computer systems. We have a high level of experience in developing real time systems where reliability and performance are key requirements.
ChamSys staff have played a major role in the development of many successful lighting products including world leading lighting consoles, unique laser controllers, and varied DMX gadgets.
From the formation of ChamSys, development has been rapid with the first MagicQ console being tested in live environments in September 2003. Subsequently pre-production consoles were used on a number of major live events at the end of the year, including a massive New Years Eve party in London's Brixton Academy.
During 2004, ChamSys worked with Lighting Designers to further fine tune the user interface and facilities. Unlike many companies we decided not to announce the product until we had finished development and had an extensive set of field usage to locate and fix software bugs. The MagicQ range was launched at PLASA 2004 and in the last ten years has been sold all around the world.
ChamSys has a commitment to meeting the needs of lighting professionals using innovative designs and latest technology.
ChamSys has continued to develop new leading edge software and hardware - 2006 saw the introduction of an entire range of PC Wings and the Macintosh and Linux versions of MagicQ PC. 2007 saw the launch of the Pro Series of consoles, and 2008 saw the launch of the Execute Wing and Media Timeline Features.
In 2012 ChamSys announced a complete range of compact consoles including the MQ40, MQ60, MQ70, Extra Wing Compact and PC Wing Compact together with the new inbuilt visualiser MagicVis. ChamSys also announced a range of networking products under the SnakSys brand.
In 2013 ChamSys introduced the Pro 2014 consoles
In 2014 ChamSys announced the development of a new range of top end MagicQ Stadium control consoles.
In 2015 ChamSys brought in the updated Compact range introducing the MQ40N and MQ80 consoles.
In 2016 ChamSys launched the MQ500 Stadium console
In 2017 ChamSys joined the Chauvet family.
All ChamSys products are designed and manufactured in the UK - this means they are fully assembled, tested and inspected under our control. We do not manufacture any products in the far east or China. We use high quality components including Alps faders, HPRG encoders and Neutrik connectors
ChamSys free MagicVis visualiser enables Lighting Designers to design and visualise their shows on up to 64 universes. No purchase is required to use MagicQ to control real lighting rigs or to visualise. See the
Office Hours 9.30 to 5.30 UK. Outside of these hours, emergency support for ChamSys customers only
ChamSys is always on the look out for skilled and motivated individuals to join our growing team. Please see
