As Roussel placed the second eighth-inch panel into the steel frame inside the window after one panel did not sufficiently deaden the noise, the composer asked Roussel why he didn’t use a larger piece of acrylic. Roussel initially dismissed the idea, but after mulling it over, he realized it made sense. By doubling the acrylic piece and making a minor design tweak with the acrylic piece’s housing, SoundTITE was born.
On Tuesday, Roussel and his product will be featured on the Travel Channel’s Hotel Impossible for the second time. The show focuses on the renovation of a small hotel on a tight budget over just one week.
“The word is out for people that have noise, particularly in hotels, that this is an affordable solution for their noise,” Roussel says.
SoundTITE works by first inserting a steel frame inside the window frame, then placing a quarter-inch acrylic panel inside the frame. The two pieces are held together with magnets and the inches of dead air between the panel and window creates a barrier that stops sound waves coming from outside. Magnetite is virtually the same with the exception of using an eighth-inch piece of acrylic.
Roussel’s product was featured on a Hotel Impossible episode in season 5, in which he installed about eight panels in the bar at the Woodstock Lodge in Woodstock, New York.
Roussel says he cannot say much about the episode airing Tuesday or the problems facing a historic Maine hotel that’s featured in it. Roussel can only say he used about 20 panels in eight rooms in the hotel’s rooms that face a courtyard, and that his product will be featured in a segment with the hotel owners and the show’s host, Anthony Melchiorri.
Melchiorri, a hospitality expert with more than 20 years’ experience in managing and marketing New York hotels, likes SoundTITE so much that he recorded a promo endorsing the product that Roussel will use in advertising.
“This dude really, really likes this product,” Roussel says.
Roussel is the sole owner of the Magnetite and SoundTITE brands, having bought out his business partner in 2013. The latter is used mostly in hotels and commercial businesses, while the primary market for the former is residential housing. SoundTITE sales make up about 70% of Roussel’s business.
He began installing the windows in 1981 for Magnetite, and later opened a business in 1998 as a Magnetite dealer in New Orleans and Houston. Roussel now travels all over the country installing SoundTITE windows in hotels in Houston, Denver, Chicago and New York.
He touts the products as a cheaper alternative to combating noise than replacing the window. He hopes the exposure from the show can open some doors for him.
“What I don’t expect is the day after the episode my phone will blow up and I will have a million calls from all over the country,” Roussel says. “I guess I’d like some more brand awareness, I’d like for folks to know that I exist, that this product is out there.”
The episode airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on the Travel Channel.
