Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Teleprompter
A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script.
Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually below, the lens of a professional video camera, and the words on the screen are reflected to the eyes of the presenter using a sheet of clear glass or other beam splitter, so that they are read by looking directly at the lens position, but are not imaged by the lens. Light from the performer passes through the front side of the glass into the lens, while a shroud surrounding the lens and the back side of the glass prevents unwanted light from entering the lens. Optically this works in a very similar way to the Pepper's ghost illusion from classic theatre: an image viewable from one angle but not another.
Because the speaker can look straight at the lens while reading the script, the teleprompter creates the illusion that the speaker has memorized the speech or is speaking spontaneously, looking directly into the camera lens. Notes or cue cards, on the other hand, require the presenter to look at them instead of at the lens, which can cause the speaker to appear distracted, depending on the degree of deflection from the natural line of sight to the camera lens, and how long the speaker needs to glance away to glean the next speaking point; speakers who can internalize a full sentence or paragraph in a single short glance timed to natural breaks in the spoken cadence will create only a small or negligible impression of distraction.
The technology has continued to develop, including the following iterations:
TelePrompTer in the US and Autocue in Commonwealth and some European countries were originally trade names but have become genericized trademarks used for any such display device.
The TelePrompTer Corporation was founded in the 1950s by Fred Barton Jr., Hubert Schlafly and Irving Berlin Kahn. Barton was an actor who suggested the concept of the teleprompter as a means of assisting television performers who had to memorize large amounts of material in a short time. Schlafly built the first teleprompter in 1950. It was simply a mechanical device, operated by a hidden technician, located near the camera. The script, in inch-high letters, was printed by a special electric typewriter on a paper scroll, which was advanced as the performer read, and the machines rented for the then-considerable sum of $30 per hour.
The teleprompter was used for the first time on December 4, 1950, in filming the CBS soap The First Hundred Years. It was used by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1953 to read commercials on-camera. Jess Oppenheimer, who created I Love Lucy and served for its first five years as its producer and head writer, developed the first "in-the-lens" prompter and was awarded U.S. patents for its creation. His system uses a mirror to reflect a script onto a piece of glass placed in front of the camera lens, thus allowing the reader to look directly into the camera.
The producers of Dragnet estimated the use of teleprompters cut the show's production time by as much as 50% Arthur Godfrey, Raymond Massey, Cedric Hardwicke, and Helen Hayes were early users of the technology.
Hub AI
Teleprompter AI simulator
(@Teleprompter_simulator)
Teleprompter
A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script.
Using a teleprompter is similar to using cue cards. The screen is in front of, and usually below, the lens of a professional video camera, and the words on the screen are reflected to the eyes of the presenter using a sheet of clear glass or other beam splitter, so that they are read by looking directly at the lens position, but are not imaged by the lens. Light from the performer passes through the front side of the glass into the lens, while a shroud surrounding the lens and the back side of the glass prevents unwanted light from entering the lens. Optically this works in a very similar way to the Pepper's ghost illusion from classic theatre: an image viewable from one angle but not another.
Because the speaker can look straight at the lens while reading the script, the teleprompter creates the illusion that the speaker has memorized the speech or is speaking spontaneously, looking directly into the camera lens. Notes or cue cards, on the other hand, require the presenter to look at them instead of at the lens, which can cause the speaker to appear distracted, depending on the degree of deflection from the natural line of sight to the camera lens, and how long the speaker needs to glance away to glean the next speaking point; speakers who can internalize a full sentence or paragraph in a single short glance timed to natural breaks in the spoken cadence will create only a small or negligible impression of distraction.
The technology has continued to develop, including the following iterations:
TelePrompTer in the US and Autocue in Commonwealth and some European countries were originally trade names but have become genericized trademarks used for any such display device.
The TelePrompTer Corporation was founded in the 1950s by Fred Barton Jr., Hubert Schlafly and Irving Berlin Kahn. Barton was an actor who suggested the concept of the teleprompter as a means of assisting television performers who had to memorize large amounts of material in a short time. Schlafly built the first teleprompter in 1950. It was simply a mechanical device, operated by a hidden technician, located near the camera. The script, in inch-high letters, was printed by a special electric typewriter on a paper scroll, which was advanced as the performer read, and the machines rented for the then-considerable sum of $30 per hour.
The teleprompter was used for the first time on December 4, 1950, in filming the CBS soap The First Hundred Years. It was used by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1953 to read commercials on-camera. Jess Oppenheimer, who created I Love Lucy and served for its first five years as its producer and head writer, developed the first "in-the-lens" prompter and was awarded U.S. patents for its creation. His system uses a mirror to reflect a script onto a piece of glass placed in front of the camera lens, thus allowing the reader to look directly into the camera.
The producers of Dragnet estimated the use of teleprompters cut the show's production time by as much as 50% Arthur Godfrey, Raymond Massey, Cedric Hardwicke, and Helen Hayes were early users of the technology.