NILES, Ill., May 6, 2014—Shure Incorporated announced today that the student team from Middle Tennessee State University is the Tenth annual Fantastic Scholastic Recording Competition grand prize winner. Under the guidance of Assistant Professor Dr. Doug Bielmeier, the four-student winning team consisted of Frank Gerdts, Charlie Garcia, Jimmy Mansfield, and Sam Hillman. The team’s winning original composition titled “In My Head” was co-written by Angel Snow and Darrell Scott.
“Over the last nine years our FSRC competition has pushed students to create exceptional music,” said Stephen Kohler, Senior Director of Marketing, Shure Americas. “This year was no different. The teams showed great diversity and proved to be a promising group of the audio industry’s future. A big shout out and sincere thank you from all of us at Shure to the students, faculty, and judges who helped make the tenth year of this competition one of the best yet.”
The final compositions were evaluated based on overall fidelity, clarity, sonic balance, and creativity in selection and placement of microphones. Expert judges on this year’s panel included Mike Clink, Johnny K., Jack Douglas, Stephen Hart, and David Cole.
"The Shure contest allowed some of our best students to put together all the skills they learned here at MTSU and apply them to a real world project with strict guidelines and hard deadlines,” said Dr. Bielmeier. “Just participating has made them better engineers, not to mention will help them with their current and future clients. Oh, and we had a lot of fun using the locker full of Shure's fantastic microphones."
During the competition, which began in November 2013, ten student teams from the U.S. and Canada each produced and recorded an original composition using only the contents of a microphone locker provided by Shure. After working through the tracking and mixing phases of the project, each team submitted unmastered mixes of their track to the panel of industry experts for review.
“It was an honor to participate again as one of the judges in this annual recording contest,” said legendary record producer Jack Douglas. “I was very impressed by the hard work of these talented students and the overall excellence of their recordings. Based on what I heard, I would say that the future of recording is in very good hands! The SM57 is an industry standard, and to have access to the entire Shure recording product line is a complete luxury. The recordings these students produced reflected this.”
The nine other schools that participated in this year’s competition were Berklee College of Music, Daytona State College, Ithaca College, Lamont School of Music at University of Denver, MacEwan University (Canada), The Hartt School at University of Hartford, University of Central Missouri, University of Colorado Denver, and University of Lethbridge (Canada).
The student team from the University of Lethbridge, under the direction of Assistant Professor Thilo Schaller, was named runner-up, while an honorable mention was awarded to the student team from the University of Central Missouri, under the direction of Professor Eric Honour.
As the grand prize winner, the Middle Tennessee State University team will take home a prize pack of Shure KSM, SM, and Beta microphones and SRH headphones valued collectively at more than $11,000. An assortment of Shure microphones and headphones, valued at $5,395 and $1,872, respectively, will be given to the runner-up and honorable mention schools. Additionally, individual members from the top three teams will be offered a range of prizes, including a KSM42 and SM27-C microphone and SRH840 headphones, ranging in value from $250 to $999.
For more information about the winners, and to listen to the winning song, please visit http://www.shure.com/americas/news-events/contests/fantastic-scholastic-10-recording-competition.
A graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology, Doug has been in the Technology industry since 1976 and actively oversees Fearing’s daily operations. Along with his wife, Lois, and three others, Doug started Fearing’s in a 600 square-foot facility in Portage, Wisconsin. In the 25 years since, the company has grown to over 30 employees with offices in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Doug likes to say he’s a “TV Technician with a dream� going back to his history with the family’s original business-Fearing’s TV and Appliance.
Doug values time with family, watersports, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing. In addition to being a devoted member of his church, Doug serves as Board President for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County, Board member of Schools for Haiti and Scripture Chair of the Gideons-Portage camp.
A graduate of MATC, Lois oversees Fearing’s daily book keeping along with various HR responsibilities.
Along with Doug, Lois is deeply connected to community outreach, serving as a Board member and Fundraising Committee Chairperson for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County. She also serves on the Schools for Haiti Fundraising committee. In addition, Lois’ ongoing passion and commitment to provide care for the elderly comes from her 10-year history of working in a Reedsburg, Wisconsin Nursing home.
Lois enjoys singing, hiking, sunny days on the pontoon, and spending time with her 4 grandchildren.
Ehren drives Fearing’s technology by continually seeking out trends to enhance capabilities while supporting Sales, Engineering and Installation teams. Throughout his years with Fearing’s, Ehren’s talent and vision have joined forces to create a wide variety of projects and strategic solutions that exceed expectation.
Ehren loves music, family time, movies, nature, sustainability efforts and electric vehicles.
With 10 years with Fearing’s and over twice that long in the industry, Ben continues to lead, coordinate, and develop the Commercial AV team.
By consistently delivering an outstanding experience and outcome, Ben contributes to the Fearing’s legacy of long-lasting partnerships that truly make a difference. Whatever the Commercial AV need may be, Ben and team deliver at the highest level.
Ben is an avid fisherman and photographer. He enjoys coaching his sons and other youth.
Chris has been with Fearing’s for 20 years and in the industry for over 2 decades. As a Certified leader in Sales Acceleration and trained in EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating Systems), Chris successfully utilizes his skills to lead the Fearing’s Salesforce. Chris and team are motivated and driven to develop new client partnerships while continuing to reinforce loyal long-term relationships with ongoing Service excellence.
Married for 19 years with 3 children, Chris enjoys skiing, hiking, fishing, boating, hunting, camping and golf. He’s also been actively involved as a Youth Football and Softball coach for his family and others.
