Golden Cart Awards — Production Run of Show

How to read a cue ID

VOG-A7 — recorded voice, award 7

There are no music cue IDs for walk-ups or bridges. Award music comes off the walk-up playlist. The A2 fades a track in for the walk-up and out under the first line. Which track does not matter.

M-BED1 · M-WALKUP · M-BED2 — the three Spotify playlists

THERE ARE NO CUSTOM TRACKS AT ALL. No stings, no tension beds, no reveal hits, no finale build. Every music moment is a fade in and a fade out from a Spotify playlist.

The bridge, and why music never stops

Each winner's walk-off is the next presenter's walk-up. One continuous cue, 60 seconds maximum.

THE VOG IS A VISUAL CUE, NOT A TIMECODE. Fire it the moment the winner starts down the steps. Not on a clock, and do not wait for the photo.

The photo happens off stage, at the step and repeat in its second position. The show does not pause for it. The next award is already running while they are being photographed.

The VOG then rides over the bridge. PRESENTERS HOLD until the VOG has read the third nominee, then walk. Music ducks on their first line.

Award anatomy

0:30 VOG runs FULL, presenter walks only after the last nominee is read
0:30 presenting
0:30 winner walk-up
0:45 acceptance
0:60 walk-off and bridge (photo happens off stage, in parallel)

That is 3:15 of content. Awards are scheduled 4:00 apart, so you bank roughly 45 seconds each — about 11 minutes across the night.

Presenter holding position

Individual call times, 15 minutes before each award. Printed against every award block below and on the guest page.

They hold stage left, behind the walls, on the cocktail-bar side. Chairs there per Evan. One or two people waiting at a time, not a queue.

Holding position and photo exit are marked on the presenter run of show. Original note: diagram to be added once Randy sends the marked-up floor plan.

A runner meets them with the trophy and their card. Nobody walks up empty-handed.

Microphones

Everything happens at the lectern. Lucite lectern with gooseneck mics, centre stage. Presenters and winners both speak from it.

TWO HANDHELDS LIVE AND READY WHENEVER TWO PEOPLE ARE ON STAGE. The gooseneck is one position, so a pair cannot share it. Both handhelds are tested at the 4:00 rehearsal and stood by stage left, and A2 opens both channels before the walk-up, not after it.

Two moments need them: 7:15 Debbie Pearce and Jamie Domenici, 9:25 Colleen and Debbie to close.

Single presenters and winners stay on the lectern gooseneck as normal.

Nothing else is on the stage. No fireside setup, no extra furniture. No draw vessel — the Golden Envelope is cut.

Three playlists, that is all the music

M-BED1 Red carpet, VIP, cocktail and dinner. Starts 5:55 at the cocktail level. Down at 7:15 to the dinner level, out under the 7:15 welcome, back up 7:25, out under the 8:15 host walk-on.

M-WALKUP Awards walk-up music. Every presenter walk-up, every winner walk-up and every bridge, awards 1 to 14. Fade in, fade out under the first line. Any track, any order, it does not matter which one lands where. The play-off comes off this playlist too.

M-BED2 End of show. Fires on the word "goodnight" and runs until the room closes.

All three stream from Spotify in MIX MODE, shuffle off. Nothing else is loaded, and nothing ever hard stops.

Music level — set it at soundcheck

This is a conversation room, not a club. People are here to talk to each other. The music is there so the room is not silent, nothing more.

Cocktail hour, 6:00 to 7:15: lively, but two people standing together must be able to talk without raising their voices.

Dinner, 7:15 to 8:15: noticeably quieter. It has to sit under table conversation across a ten-top, not compete with it.

Set and agree both levels at the 4:00 soundcheck, and mark them on the desk so they can be returned to. Note that an empty ballroom reads much brighter than a full one — 400 people in black tie absorb a lot, so expect to come up slightly once the room fills, and check it again early in the cocktail hour.

Play-off

PLAY-OFF is armed at 0:45 of any acceptance. Mic cut at 1:00.

Caller triggers it. A2 never fires it unprompted. Bring up any track from the awards playlist and push it — same playlist as the walk-ups, no separate file.

Who actually runs the music

NOTHING EVER HARD STOPS. Every music cue fades in and fades out. No song is ever cut off mid-bar, at any point in the night.

Star Group gives us two audio engineers. The lead mixes what the room hears. The second one, listed on their quote as the A2, sits at the playback computer and presses go on every music and voice cue, listening to the show caller on a headset.

The playback software is called QLab. It is a $275 line in the production quote. Anywhere this page says "QLab / A2" it means: the A2 presses go when the caller says go.

AWARD MUSIC IS A PLAYLIST, NOT A CUE STACK. One Spotify awards playlist. The A2 pulls any track from it at any walk-up or bridge and fades it in and out. No per-award files, nothing to cut to length, and it does not matter which track lands where. The only rule is the one above: nothing ever hard stops.

The VOG files still load at the 4:00 rehearsal. Those are real recordings and a VOG not delivered by then does not exist on the night. The music does not have that problem any more.

Signal warning

All three playlists stream live from Spotify and all play in MIX MODE. Shuffle off. Basement ballroom, connectivity unconfirmed.

Test at 2:00, not 6:00. If the connection drops mid-cocktail-hour the room goes silent for two hours.

NV Events can activate ballroom internet remotely with a card on file. Downloading all three playlists for offline is free insurance if you want it.