This page covers the Follow column: what happens the moment a cue reaches its end. It is the setting that decides how much you have to do during the show, so it is worth setting deliberately rather than leaving on the default.
The four choices
| Choice | What happens when the cue ends |
|---|---|
| Pause | The last frame stays on screen and the playout waits for you. |
| Next | The following cue starts by itself. |
| Loop | The cue starts again from its in point, indefinitely. |
| Stop (black) | The playout stops and goes to the hold picture. |
Set one line at a time by clicking the cell, or a whole selection at once with right-click → Follow action.
What it means for the operator
Follow actions divide the list into blocks that run by themselves, separated by the points where a person decides. Those points are your GOs.
- A run of clips that must play back to back: Next on all but the last.
- The last clip of a block: Pause, so the picture holds while the room does whatever comes next.
- Background loop for the half hour before the start: Loop.
- The end of the broadcast: Stop.
You can see the result in the list before it happens: the cue that will start by itself is marked amber with an AUTO badge while the one before it is on air.
When a follow action does nothing
A follow action needs an end to fire on. A cue that never reaches an end never triggers one:
- A still without a duration stays until you press GO, whatever its follow action says.
- A hold waits by definition.
- A web page without an end time keeps showing.
This is not a limitation to work around; it is what those cue types are for. If you want a still to move on by itself, give it a duration — then Next does what you expect.
The default for new cues
Under Settings → Cue list you set which follow action a newly added cue gets. Set it to whatever your shows use most: a house that plays long automatic blocks wants Next, a house that runs live and steps through by hand wants Pause.
Changing the default does not touch cues that already exist.