What is a DOORS OPEN row?
A DOORS OPEN row marks the moment your audience is allowed into the room — the handoff from rehearsal to live show. Overture renders it with distinct styling so nobody on crew misses the milestone.
A DOORS OPEN row marks the exact moment your audience is allowed into the room. It's not just decoration — Overture treats it as a special row type that anchors your run of show and signals to crew and stage managers when pre-show is over and live operations begin.
Why DOORS OPEN matters
Every conference, summit, or broadcast has a critical handoff: the room transitions from a private rehearsal/sound-check space to a public, audience-facing show. Before DOORS OPEN, the crew can talk freely, fix issues out loud, and adjust placement. After DOORS OPEN, the audience can see and hear everything — and the show is in motion.
The DOORS OPEN row tells everyone on your team — including any new crew or stage leader pulled in last-minute — exactly when that handoff happens.
What the row looks like
A DOORS OPEN row appears in your run of show with a distinct visual treatment: different color, bold typography, and the label "DOORS OPEN" front and center. You can't miss it. It has a TIME ON like any other row, but the body is anchored to the fact that this is an audience-facing milestone, not a content beat.
How DOORS OPEN behaves in production tools
- Showtime view — the live show controller — highlights DOORS OPEN rows so the producer can see the milestone approaching from across the room.
- Printed packets show DOORS OPEN with a clear visual break so crew reading off-paper know exactly when to stop talking through headsets.
- Mark complete still works the same way on a DOORS OPEN row — once the doors are physically open, mark it complete so the team knows we're live.
How to add one
When you create a new row, choose the row type DOORS OPEN from the type picker. The row will adopt the special styling automatically. You can edit the time, leader, and any pre-show notes attached, but the row itself stays anchored as the audience-entry milestone.
Common patterns
- Conference keynote: DOORS OPEN at 8:00 AM, keynote rehearsal ends at 7:55, doors physically unlocked at 8:00, keynote starts at 8:30.
- Multi-day summit: Each day's first session usually has a DOORS OPEN row at its top. Subsequent sessions on the same day don't need another — the audience is already in.
- Broadcast / streamed event: DOORS OPEN can mark "stream live" — the moment you switch from internal-only rehearsal feed to the public broadcast.
If your session doesn't have one
Not every session needs a DOORS OPEN row — only the ones that mark the start of audience access. Sessions in the middle of a day (lunch sessions, breakouts that happen after the audience is already in) generally don't need one.
If you create a new event and Overture has prefilled a DOORS OPEN row at the top of Day 1, leave it. It's there because most productions want it, and removing it makes your run of show ambiguous to anyone reading it.