01.03.2008 — All learnin’ ain’t done with books, but understanding the laws of physics isn’t likely to hurt a guy either.

Dennis Erskine is one who, whether by design or by chance, knows that fact intimately.

Armed with a strong educational background that has earned him membership in the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Erskine, it’s safe to say, takes sound seriously.

His acquired knowledge of the subject hasn’t hurt him, or his company, Atlanta-based Design Cinema Privee (DCP), in the least.

The Educational Edge

Harnessing life’s little ironies, Erskine struck an unlikely balance in the early days, venturing out into the world as a musician with a physics degree from the University of Utah.

“My interest was in the physics of acoustics and sound isolation,” he explains.

Merging his love of music with his mastery of science, Erskine designed recording venues and practice rooms for other musicians. It made a lot of sense, but not a lot of dollars.

He ended up ditching that career for one in corporate IT, but continued doing room design for recording studios as a hobby. He eventually ditched IT, too.

Musing over those early days, Erskine says, only half-jokingly, “I was an angry young man. I got fed up with the massive, multi-national corporate environment and started my business designing cinema 15 years ago.”

The educational edge Erskine brings to his business has brought clients in return. Although the company originated doing the architectural and acoustic design for rooms, it’s become very focused on home theater over time.

The demand was definitely there.

“People come to us not necessarily because they want a home theater. They want one that sounds right. When you separate the wheat from the chaff, at the end of the day, the most important part is the room itself. It will determine if you have a pleasant environment or an unpleasant one.

“It was the most ignored part of the chain (in the industry) for many years. There’s no way an $80,000 speaker can overcome the laws of physics. If you put it in a bad room, you’re going to have bad sound.”

The Divine Design

Although DCP has evolved to offer full design services, installation services, trim and finishes, acoustic treatments and fabric installation, components, project management and automation, acoustic analysis remains the most important ventricle at the heart of the company.

Whether customers opt for DCP’s “Custom” design plan, “Select” design plan or the Dennis Erskine “Signature” plan, which is the most in-demand, Erskine performs acoustic analysis for assessment of reverberation times and room modes for all of them.