TOMBOLO, ITALY— As OneRepublic continues its nonstop run of international touring, Monitor Engineer Chris Marinaccio faces the familiar challenge of delivering consistent, high-fidelity audio in drastically different RF environments. After wrapping the initial European leg (dubbed “Escape to Europe”) of its global tour, the band made a quick stop in California before heading to Australia and Asia. With forthcoming appearances also planned again for Europe, Marinaccio needs monitoring equipment that he can rely on in any venue around the world.
For wireless transmissions, Marinaccio counts on Wisycom’s wireless in-ear monitoring system built around the brand’s MTK952 dual transmitters, MPR50 IEM receivers and ADB3 omnidirectional antennas. “Our production manager, Dave McMullen, decided to switch to Wisycom before I joined the team, and I was extremely impressed when I came on board,” Marinaccio says. “It’s the cleanest and clearest monitoring I’ve ever had in over 13 years of being a monitor engineer.”
Despite the scale, Marinaccio says Wisycom handles the load with ease. “I’m using one antenna for the band on both the main and B stages, and I still have plenty of power to reach the B stage 45 meters out, even with the antenna aimed at the main stage,” he adds. He also speaks to the system’s frequency stability, even in dense RF cities like London or Las Vegas. “I have no dropouts or issues. When you use Wisycom, it’s clean and you can stack additional wireless gear so close together.”
Touring with OneRepublic means covering multiple continents with little downtime, and the band often has back-to-back shows in vastly different RF environments. With Wisycom’s ultra-wideband technology, Marinaccio no longer needs to maintain region-specific systems.
“The ability to put frequencies anywhere lets me work around RF chaos, especially in the U.S., where the RF range is very congested,” he says. “Being able to choose whatever part of the spectrum available at a given venue, instead of being trapped in frequency blocks, is awesome. This is less critical in Europe, where the spectrum is more open, but in the U.S., it’s often the difference between a smooth show and consistent RF headaches.”
The team frequently uses gaps in the U.S. spectrum to deploy crew communication systems and intercom packs, and Marinaccio says Wisycom streamlines that coordination. “We can just park the wireless there, knowing it’s going to be mostly a clean area for RF,” he explains. “We don’t have to worry about all 18 channels, we can focus only on 10 or 12, which makes coordination more simplistic.”
For Marinaccio, who spent years in recording studios before moving to live touring, fidelity is also critical. Wisycom’s transparency lets him mix the way he prefers, without compensating for noise, compression or coloration introduced by wireless hardware. “With Wisycom, you’re not dealing with noise,” he says. “You turn it on, and you don’t know it’s on. That clarity is essential for the band, especially for those members who rely on bone conduction due to ear drum damage. It’s great that the noise floor is basically non-existent, otherwise it would be way tougher to hear everything.”
Marinaccio also notes that other brands often “flatten” mixes as soon as compression is applied, a byproduct of aggressive companding that forces engineers to work around the gear. “With Wisycom, I can compress a lot because it’s so transparent,” he continues. “I can mix how I want to mix, without having to rethink gain structure, which is really nice. The result is an in-ear mix that responds more like a wired studio headphone, which provides natural EQ and dynamics without the sound collapsing in on itself.”
Between sprinting vocalists, massive arenas and complicated RF conditions, reliability is non-negotiable. “The reliability of the Wisycom gear is incredible,” says Marinaccio. “I’m a worrier, so taking away anxiety makes me very happy. RF is like the wild west. Having something as robust as this, I just don’t have to worry as much.”
Additionally, McMullen, who mixed monitors for the band for years, says the switch has been one of the best decisions they’ve made. “Much less compression, much more open, much more musical, and having the headroom in the amplifier—we really needed that,” he adds.