Faculty Audio Competition

BEA’s Faculty Audio Competitions of the Festival of Media Arts provide an opportunity for full-time faculty at colleges and universities to showcase their audio production skills. 

Entries will be accepted from November 15 – December 15 and winners will be showcased at an awards ceremony at the BEA Convention in Las Vegas in April.

Faculty Audio Categories:

FA1 – Audio Documentary:​ Submit no more than a ​15‐minute​ scoped audio clip that reflects the program content. Documentaries are traditionally programs that utilize actuality audio, narration, music, and other elements to present actual events, real people or any factual account of a situation.

In your description of entry (see below), please provide details on these specific parameters, angles, and characteristics for judging context.

FA2 – Audio Promo, PSA, or Commercial:​ Submit one spot not to exceed ​60 seconds in length. Promos are traditionally spots produced to promote listening or enhance a station or production’s (e.g. podcast, show or special program) image. PSAs are traditionally spots produced to promote a charitable or nonprofit organization. Commercials are traditionally spots produced to sell goods or services.

In your description of entry (see below), please provide details on these specific parameters, angles, and characteristics for judging context.

FA3 – Short-Form Production:​ Submit no more than a ​five-minute​ production that does not fit in the above categories. ​The content must be unedited and unscoped; e.g. no “best of”-type clips.​ Topics may include:

● Audio commentaries.
● Podcasts.
● Soft news/feature news stories.

FA3 entries will be judged on topic, voice, interviews, narration, and/or technical quality. In your description of entry (see below), please provide details on these specific parameters, angles, and characteristics for judging context.

FA4 – Long-Form Production:​ Submit no more than a ​20‐minute​ scoped audio clip (minimum 5:01) that reflects the program content of a radio or audio program or series that ​originally exceeded five minutes in length​ and does not fit in any of the preceding categories. Topics may include:

  • Long-form podcasts, ​edited and scoped to 5:01-20 minutes.​ The segment must be continuous; e.g. not a “best of” compilation or “snippets.”

  • Audio dramas.

  • Music curation, on-air personality and presentation.

FA4 entries will be judged on topic, voice, interviews, narration, and/or technical quality. In your description of entry (see below), please provide details on these specific parameters, angles, and characteristics for judging context.

FA5 — Sound Engineering and Design: ​Submit a maximum ​15 minutes​ of continuous content. Content cannot be a collection of “best of” moments, but rather should be the best 15 minutes of scoped work. Content for this category includes:

  • Sound for pictures, videos, films, musical songs or albums.

  • Sound installations.

  • Live sound productions.

Submissions may include relevant multimedia elements (e.g. video, film, photos, etc.), but will be judged based primarily on sound/design work. Entries should be submitted as stereo files/links (e.g. YouTube or SoundCloud), or one of the approved file types here.

Submissions that require multichannel or immersive playback can also include such files/links in addition to the stereo files, with specific format information included, however, exact playback replication due to technological limitations cannot be guaranteed. It is the responsibility of the entrant to ensure the files play back properly through the link/file they provide. Entries are based on technical, aesthetic, and creative use of sound and design elements.

Please read the ​Faculty Competition Rules​ to verify that your entry meets all eligibility requirements for submission. Additionally, please provide a ​150-word​ description of your entry. In particular, describe the workload of the entry (the faculty and student/grad student work percentage allocation, if applicable). The workload percentage is how much creative control a faculty member(s) has in shaping and designing the project. Faculty (either one or multiple faculty members) must have at least a ​60 percent contribution for contest eligibility. Entries without 60 percent faculty contribution(s) will be automatically disqualified.

Also, please indicate if the entry is standalone or part of a series, how the work was distributed (aired, online, festival, etc.), and specific characteristics (e.g. technical and audio quality, mixing sound and narration, uniqueness of story/topic, etc.) for judging context.