Hold Milestones
A Hold milestone makes a timeline wait. Playback stops advancing at the marker until the hold is released — by letting go of the button that started the timeline, by another input trigger, from the Web UI, or by a timeout. While the timeline waits, looping sounds and cues keep playing and the lighting output holds its last frame.
Holds turn a linear timeline into an interactive one: a sequence that pours while a handle is pulled, a show that waits for an operator’s go, a step that only continues once a payment or sensor signal arrives.
Adding a Hold
Drag Hold (wait for release) from the Other Events tab of the Available Events panel onto the timeline. A hold is a point marker — it has a position but no duration, and it renders in the Other Events lane.
A timeline can contain multiple holds; each one waits in turn, and each can name its own release trigger.
What Happens While Holding
- The timeline position freezes at the hold.
- Sound and cue events whose Loop setting is anything but 1 keep playing — an infinite loop keeps looping, a “3 passes” loop finishes its passes.
- Everything else pauses: one-shot sounds pause in place, and the DMX output holds its last frame.
- The editor’s status bar shows a red HOLDING badge with the position frozen at the hold point, and the play button acts as continue.
Loop counts are respected during the hold: a finite loop can run out while the hold keeps waiting — the hold only ends when it is released.
Hold Settings
Select the hold to edit its Event Properties:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Release Trigger | Which input trigger releases this hold. Leave it on Playing trigger / manual for the common case — the button that started the timeline, the Web UI, or the timeout. |
| Timeout (s) | Auto-release after this many seconds of holding. Empty = wait forever. A timeout is good insurance when the release signal could be missed. |
| Release Fade | Fade applied to the looping sounds/cues when the hold releases. 0 = no fade; the current loop pass finishes on its own instead. |
| Finish Loop | When on, the release waits until the looping sound/cue completes its current pass before the timeline continues — the loop always ends on its musical boundary. |
Releasing a Hold
There are four ways past a hold:
- Let go of the button. When the trigger or control surface pad that plays the timeline uses Momentary press mode, pressing it starts the timeline and releasing it continues past the hold. See Momentary press mode.
- A named release trigger. Set the hold’s Release Trigger to any input trigger — an OSC message, an HTTP request, a contact closure, a Control Value change. Each hold can wait for a different signal.
- The Web UI. Pressing play/resume on a holding timeline continues it — the operator always has a manual override.
- The timeout, if one is set.
Early releases are remembered. If the release arrives before the timeline reaches the hold — the handle was let go during the intro, the payment confirmed during the pour — the hold is passed through without waiting, and any looping events still get their configured release treatment. A remembered release never carries across a restart or into the next loop of the timeline.
Re-press also continues. With a Normal-mode trigger, pressing the playing button again while the timeline is holding continues past the hold (instead of restarting). Once the timeline is done, a new press starts it from the top again.
Named holds are selective. A hold with a Release Trigger only reacts to that trigger, the Web UI, or its timeout — letting go of the playing button can’t skip it. That’s what makes a “wait for payment” step safe even when the customer releases the tap handle early.
Momentary Press Mode
Momentary is a press mode for Play Timeline actions, available on input triggers and control surface button assignments:
- Press — plays the timeline.
- Release — continues past the current Hold milestone.
It is the momentary-switch behavior for timelines. Unlike Flash (hold) on presets — where releasing turns the preset off — releasing a Momentary timeline button doesn’t stop anything; it lets the show continue.
In the Surface Operator view, pads send both press and release, so a Momentary pad in the browser behaves exactly like a physical button: hold the pad down and the timeline holds with it.
Looping Sounds & Layers
Two timeline event settings do the heavy lifting around holds:
- Loop — on sound and cue events: 0 = loop forever, 1 = play once, N = that many passes. A looping event placed before a hold is what keeps playing while the timeline waits.
- Layer — timeline sound events have a Layer field, like cue playback layers: when a sound starts, other sounds on the same layer stop with a short fade; different layers (or no layer) play together. The classic pattern: put a looping sound and its follow-up on the same layer — the follow-up cuts the loop at the exact moment it starts, no release fade needed.
Worked Example: Self-Serve Beverage Tap
A tap handle plays a pour sequence: pulling the handle starts it, the pour loops for as long as the handle is held, and letting go finishes with a satisfying “ahh.”
The timeline (duration 9 s):
| Time | Event | Settings |
|---|---|---|
| 0.0 s | Sound — can opening | Loop 1 |
| 1.5 s | Sound — pouring | Loop 0 (forever), Layer 1 |
| 4.5 s | Hold | Release Trigger: Playing trigger / manual |
| 4.7 s | Sound — “ahh” | Loop 1, Layer 1 |
The trigger: an input trigger (or control surface pad) wired to the tap handle, action Play Timeline, press mode Momentary.
What happens: pulling the handle plays the can-open sound and the pour starts looping. At 4.5 s the timeline holds — the pour keeps looping for as long as the handle is held. Letting go releases the hold; the “ahh” starts 0.2 s later and, being on the same layer, cuts the pour instantly. A quick pull-and-release works too: the early release is remembered and the sequence plays straight through.
Add a second hold with a Release Trigger (say, a payment confirmation arriving as an HTTP input trigger) after the “ahh,” and the sequence waits for payment before playing its final step — no matter when the handle was released.