CLEVELAND— Marlowe Taylor is an accomplished production sound mixer with over three decades of professional experience spanning music, film and television. A Cleveland native, he launched his career as a DJ and recording engineer, founding Studio76 and earning multiple awards for his work with many legendary artists. In an effort to expand his expertise into film and television, Taylor earned a Bachelor’s in Audio Production and a Master’s and Terminal Doctoral Degree in Sound for Film. His transition to production sound led to an extensive portfolio of projects with studios such as Disney, Universal, Lionsgate, Paramount, AMC and more.
As a proud Cinema Audio Society (CAS) and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) member, Taylor continually strives to influence peers towards embracing cutting-edge RF solutions, which is something he has found in Wisycom. “The brand’s fiber system is a game-changer,” he says. “It provides me with zero signal loss, incredible clarity and unmatched flexibility — even in the toughest environments.”
Taylor also credits the system for fundamentally changing the way he works on set, including most recently for AMC’s “Fear the Walking Dead.” Faced with increasingly distant cart placement due to wider camera shots and limited space on set, Taylor needed a reliable way to maintain RF coverage. His solution was Wisycom’s BFLT2 and BFLR2 RF-over-fiber modules, paired with dual-diversity antennas and Camplex tactical fiber cables. “With other systems, the more coax you run, the more signal you lose,” he explains. “When I use Wisycom fiber, I get clean audio, even with a thousand-foot run. It’s plug-and-play, brand agnostic, and it just works.”
The Wisycom fiber system delivered exceptional results for Taylor, even in demanding environments. On “Fear the Walking Dead,” he deployed antennas from a hilltop down into a remote valley. “Despite the distance and environmental noise, the system maintained flawless RF integrity,” he says. The system demonstrated the same reliability, even when the sound cart was placed around a building and out of line-of-sight.
“There’s a 10dB noise floor improvement with the new Wisycom boxes, which provide reliable audio capture even in high-interference zones,” says Taylor. “For that valley scene in ‘Fear the Walking Dead,’ I normally would’ve had to run the antenna down the hill. With the improvement of the Wisycom fiber system and what it provides me in my noise floor, I only had to run the antenna out less than 150 feet, even though it was on a spool of 300 plus.”
Marlowe says there are other stand out features that further improve his workflow. “The remote Bluetooth® and Ethernet control give me full visibility from the cart. I’m able to adjust gain, name channels and manage frequencies, directly from the software,” he adds. “On top of that, Wisycom integrates with any system, which is a huge plus. It’s completely plug-and-play.”
Taylor says that he has been sharing his results with fellow Academy mixers and other sound professionals at events like NAB, prompting growing interest in Wisycom’s fiber solution. “I feel the Wisycom fiber setup is truly groundbreaking,” Marlowe declares. “It’s affordable, has tremendous system compatibility and eliminates the RF headaches we all face. I’ve had mixers stop me just to ask how I’m doing it — the answer is Wisycom. Anyone who knows me knows I use the word ‘digital’ to mean awesome/amazing, and I think Wisycom is definitely digital.”