This page covers the hold: a line that puts up your hold image and waits. It is the trade’s word for a pause built into the running order — the show reaches this point and stops there until somebody presses GO.
Adding one
Hold in the toolbar. It needs no settings; it is a waiting point.
What it shows
Whatever you set as the hold image under Settings → Cue list → Hold image:
| Choice | What appears |
|---|---|
| (Black — no image) | Black |
| A source you pick | That picture — a logo card, a “we will start shortly” slide |
| (same as the cue list) | The playout falls back to the list’s own setting |
Setting a hold image once is worth doing. A hold on black looks like a fault to anyone watching; a hold on a card looks like the programme.
What it is for
| Situation | Why a hold fits |
|---|---|
| Between two blocks, waiting for the room | The list cannot run past it by accident |
| At the very top of a list, before you start | The first GO then starts the show, not the second |
| After an automatic block, to hand control back | The chain of auto-follows ends on something visible |
A hold is not the only way to make the list wait — a cue with follow action pause holds its last frame too. The difference is what the audience sees: a paused clip shows a frozen frame of that clip, a hold shows your hold image.
What it is not
It is not a stop. The playout stays live; only the running order waits. Audio from a music bed keeps running, an overlay stays where it is, and the output never drops.
It is not black by definition. If everyone in the building says “put it on black”, set the hold image to black once and let the word mean what they think it means.