All About Imaging
A Unique System Design for Calgary’s First Assembly Church
V
MUSIC MINISTRY AT CALGARY’S FIRST ASSEMBLY CHURCH
By Andrew King
isit the homepage of First Assembly Church
and you’ll be greeted with the message “You
Are Welcome Here” superimposed over various
snippets of video that, for the most part, look
more like they were shot at a summer music
festival than a traditional worship service.
Over the years, the Calgary-based institution has earned a reputa-
tion for its dynamic, energetic, and engaging services, and subsequent-
ly watched its congregation consistently grow in numbers. Wanting
to deliver the fullest possible experience to those congregants and
continue the trend of steadily welcoming new worshippers, church
administrators started exploring options for a more extensive and so-
phisticated audio system for their main auditorium in early 2018.
Subsequently, they tapped their frequent collaborators at
Sapphire Sound, an acclaimed audio, video, and multimedia design,
sales, integration, and rentals firm based in Abbotsford, BC, with
satellite locations in Vancouver and Calgary. Working in tandem,
they devised a solution incorporating cutting-edge technology
that offered advanced functionality and optimal sonic performance
while keeping total costs in check.
38 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
First Assembly Church
6031 Elbow Dr. SW
Calgary, AB T2V 1J4
403-253-7136
www.fa.church
First Assembly’s main campus is located in the Bel-Aire neigh-
bourhood of southwest Calgary. To accommodate its sizeable
worship community, the auditorium boasts a unique 240-degree
fan-shaped design that offers good sightlines but had presented
challenges in terms of consistent and complete audio coverage.
“Music is a huge part of what we do, and within our church,
we have highly-skilled musicians. For the people who come for
that, it has the potential to be inspiring,” begins Justin Wells, First
Assembly’s technical director. “For our sanctuary, what we sought
was an audio system that could place everyone in the sweet spot
of the sound image – something that could reach those that sat
at the periphery of our [wide auditorium] and give them that in-
clusive experience.”