The person who books the holiday party is not usually judged on the music. They are judged on the four minutes when the CEO is holding a microphone in front of the whole company. If the microphone pops, feeds back or dies, that is the story of the party, and the person standing closest to it is the one who booked the entertainment. This post is about how that moment gets prepared: how many microphones, what feedback actually is and where it comes from, what the music does under a speech, and how a cue sheet keeps a twelve-award program from turning into a forty-minute one.
How many microphones a holiday party needs
Two wireless handhelds is the working minimum for any program, even if only one person is speaking. One is in the speaker's hand. The other is switched on, tested and within arm's reach of the DJ, because a handheld that worked all through sound check can still be dropped, switched off by a thumb, or handed to the wrong person. The spare is not an upgrade. It is the backup plan for the most visible minute of the night.
Beyond two, the count follows the program. A toast, a few remarks and a run of awards presented by one or two people can be done on two handhelds passed between them. A program where a presenter reads citations while winners speak, or where a panel of three takes questions, needs a microphone per person speaking at the same time, plus the spare. Additional microphones beyond what the package covers are an add-on, priced on the quote, and it is far better to settle the count on the planning call than to discover on the night that three people are speaking together and there are two mics.
For a long speech, a microphone on a stand is kinder to the speaker than a handheld. People who are not used to a microphone drift it towards their waist as they talk, and the room loses them by the third sentence. A stand set at chin height fixes that without anyone having to think about it.
What feedback is and where it comes from
Feedback is the microphone hearing the speaker cabinet and the speaker cabinet playing back what the microphone hears, in a loop that gets louder until it howls. It happens for physical reasons, not mysterious ones, and the most common one is a person walking in front of the speakers while holding a live microphone.
The prevention is placement and preparation. The speakers are positioned so that the natural place to talk from, a podium, the head of the room, the spot in front of the leadership table, is behind or beside them, not in front. The microphone's level is set during sound check with the room empty and then rechecked before the program with the room full, because a hundred and fifty bodies absorb sound and the setting that was right at five o'clock is quiet at eight. We tell the speaker where to stand. If they are the kind of speaker who walks, we tell them where not to.
The other cause is the microphone being held wrong. Cupping the head of a handheld, which people do when they are nervous, changes how it picks up sound and invites feedback. A ten-second word before they go up, hold it here, speak across it rather than into it, prevents most of it. That is not a hosting task. It is part of the DJ's job.
What the music does under a speech
For remarks and a toast, the music is off. Not down, off. A bed under a speaker who is not used to talking over one makes them speed up and lose the room. The music goes out as the speaker reaches the microphone and comes back in under the applause when they finish, so there is never a silence with nothing happening in it.
Awards are different. A walk-up, fifteen to twenty seconds of a song while the winner comes forward, keeps a long program moving and gives each winner a moment that is theirs. It should be out before they reach the presenter, not faded while they are trying to speak. The songs can be chosen by the winners in advance, by the organizer, or by us from a default that is safe for anyone; the post on choosing walk-up music goes through the options and the ones that land wrong. Between categories, a low bed under the presenter reading the next citation is optional and depends on the presenter. Some are steadier with it. Most are not.
The cue sheet
A cue sheet is a list of what happens, in order, with who is on the microphone and what the music is doing. It does not need to be a production document. For a holiday party it is usually half a page:
| Segment | On mic | Music | Cue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dinner call | DJ | Down, then dinner level | Organizer gives the nod |
| Welcome and toast | CEO, handheld | Off, back in under applause | DJ introduces by name |
| Awards, twelve categories | Two presenters, two handhelds | Walk-up per winner, 15 to 20 seconds | Presenter reads the name; DJ fires the walk-up |
| Closing remarks | Head of department, stand mic | Off | Presenter hands over |
| Floor opens | DJ, one line | First three songs pre-set | Applause ends |
Three things make a cue sheet work. Names are written with pronunciations, and we ask when we are not sure, because a name said wrong in front of the company is worse than a pause. There is one person who tells the DJ to start the program, and it is not the speaker. And the timing is honest: twelve awards at ninety seconds each is eighteen minutes, and if the sheet says ten minutes for awards it is wrong before the night starts. The post on a run of show that does not drag covers how the program fits into the rest of the evening.
What light mic work covers, and when to hire an MC
What we do on the microphone is called light mic work: welcoming the room, calling dinner, introducing the first speaker by name and title, reading a winner's name if the presenter prefers, announcing last call and the last song. Cues, delivered cleanly, in a voice that does not draw attention to itself. The full explanation of where that line sits is its own post.
What we do not do is host. If the program needs someone to run the room between segments, tell jokes, run a game, keep energy up through a long awards list or manage a live auction, that is an MC, and it is a different skill and a different person. We work alongside MCs regularly. The division is simple: they hold the room, we hold the sound. If your program is a toast and a handful of awards, you do not need one. If it is forty awards with banter, you probably do, and we will say so on the planning call.
To prepare the program, send the date, the venue, the headcount, and a rough list of who is speaking and how many awards there are. Use the contact page or call (201) 705-3139. We reply within 24 hours.