Stephen’s Demo Room
About Westside Music & Cinema
Westside was started in 2004 as a “side gig” by two Calgary professionals (a management consultant and a surgeon) who shared a passion for high-end audio. They both owned some exotic gear, (Avantgarde & Piega) and were asked by the manufacturers if they could act as a local demonstrators as there were no dealers anywhere near.
Agreeing to this arrangement, they decided to join forces and from Westside Music & Cinema as an appointment only dealer. Soon other lines were added to Avantgarde & Piega (e.g. EMM Labs, Triangle, Aurender, Tom Evans, Audiopax, Bauer, etc.) and business took off nicely.
Before long, demand arose for custom installation services and Westside decided to enter this part of the business. With a booming economy and the right connections Westside’s custom install business grew very rapidly. Many projects exceeded $100K and Westside soon became a dealer for many well-known custom installation brands including Crestron, Lutron, Control4, RTI, Speakercraft, Nuvo, Sonos, etc. and had several employees. The high-end side of the business also continued to grow..
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Business continued strongly until 2015 when the sudden crash in the price of oil slowed the economy in Alberta considerably. Early in 2017, with a bleak economic forecast, we decided to exit the business, selling the custom installation portion to another local firm that planned to stick it out.
Fast forward to 2022, and the economic picture in Alberta has stabilized considerably. Oil prices are strong, and the energy sector has come to grips with long term economic realities. Thus, we have decided to relaunch Westside focused on the audio/video side of the business.
Gary’s Demo System