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 original TelePrompTer package was leased, not sold. The package consisted of four remote-controlled electronically synchronized script machines that are controlled by an operator from a fixed-position master control unit. Each unit was powered by a self-synchronizing motor which keeps the rollers that hold the script moving together at speeds up to 50 words a minute. The synchronized units allow the actor to refer to any of the teleprompter units and be sure that the arrow pointing to the line of text on each machine is pointing to the same place.
Considerable research went into the development of the first TelePrompTers. The Underwood Typewriter Company built special typewriters to type text 1 inch high, in four copies. The Standard Registry Business Firm Company developed special yellow paper, carbons, and ink that ensured maximum legibility of all four copies. The sprocketed paper could be spliced, allowing for last-minute deletions, corrections, and additions.
The technology has continued to develop, including the following iterations: first mechanical paper roll teleprompters — used by television presenters and speakers at U.S. political conventions in 1952 dual glass teleprompters — used by TV presenters and for U.S. conventions in 1964 computer-based rolls of 1982 and the four-prompter system for U.S. conventions — added a large off-stage confidence monitor and inset lectern monitor in 1996 replacement of glass teleprompters at U.K. political conferences by several large off-stage confidence monitors in 2006.
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.
History
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.Engineers' Device Eased Speechmakers' Minds, Wall Street Journal, April 26, 2011, p. A6 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."TV's Cost-Cutting Gadgets," Sponsor, 22 September 1952, 36. Green Bay-de Pere Telephone Directory Even Our Phone Number Tells Our Story... ADAMS 1 → TV gadgets that save money for sponsors
The teleprompter was used for the first time on December 4, 1950, in filming the CBS soap The First Hundred Years.Stromberg, Joseph, A Brief History of the Teleprompter, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 October 2012 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" prompterLaughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time, by Jess Oppenheimer with Gregg Oppenheimer, pp. 204–205. 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%New Business Tool: the TelePromTer,” Business Screen Magazine, V. 145. No. 1, (February 1954), pp. 122–113 Arthur Godfrey, Raymond Massey, Cedric Hardwicke, and Helen Hayes were early users of the technology.
The technology soon became a staple of television news and is the primary system used by newscasters today.
In 1952 former President Herbert Hoover used a Schlafly-designed speech teleprompter to address the 1952 Republican National Convention in Chicago. U.S. Governor Paul A. Dever spoke at the 1952 Democratic National Convention, also held in Chicago, using a mechanical-roll teleprompter on a long pole held by a TV technician in the convention audience, while the 1952 Republican National Convention used a smaller teleprompter placed in front of the speaker's rostrum. Mechanical prompters were still being used as late as 1992.
In the early years of teleprompter use by politicians, some saw the device as cheating.George E. Condon, Radio and Television Editor, On The Air, Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 13, 1955, p. 14 in 1955, Richard L. Neuberger, a Democratic Senator from Oregon, proposed legislation that if a politician used a teleprompter the use of the device had to be noted in the speech.Political Burlesque Blamed on TV Dubbing, Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 20, 1955, P. 19
The new technology saw quick adoption in the sponsored film industry where cutting production costs made the difference between a film that made money and one that lost money. Cinécraft Productions was the first to advertise the availability of three-camera synchronized filming with a teleprompter when in 1954 they began to advertise their use of the new technology in Business Screen, a magazine dedicated to the sponsored film industry.Cinecraft Productions, Fourth Production Review, Business Screen Magazine, v. 15, no. 1 February 1954, p. 96 https://digital.hagley.org/businessscreen?page=4 Cinécraft used the technique to film the 1953–1960 weekly television series The Ohio Story.Hagley Library has digitized a number of the Ohio Story TV episodes and posted them on their research website. https://digital.hagley.org/2019227 Cinécraft also used the technique for executive desk talks in the 1950s and 1960s.See, for example, the Republic Steel Corporation “Building Economic Understanding series https://digital.hagley.org/islandora/search/%22Building%20economic%20understanding%22?type=edismax&cp=islandora%3A2623872
On January 4, 1954,"Ike Uses Pair of Teleprompters". Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 6, 1954, p. 13. Dwight Eisenhower was the first President to use a teleprompter for a State of the Union address.
The first personal computer-based teleprompter, CompuPrompt, appeared in 1982. It was invented and marketed by Courtney M. Goodin and Laurence B. Abrams in Los Angeles, California. The custom software and specially-redesigned camera hardware ran on the Atari 800 computer, which featured smooth hardware-assisted scrolling. Their company later became ProPrompt, Inc., still in business . Paper-based teleprompting companies Electronic Script Prompting, QTV, and Telescript followed suit and developed their own software several years later when computers powerful enough to scroll text smoothly became available. In January 2010 Compu=Prompt received a Technology and Engineering Emmy Award for "Pioneering Development in Electronic Prompting".
Etymology
The word "TelePrompTer", with internal capitalization, originated as a trade name used by the TelePrompTer Corporation, which first developed the device in the 1950s. The word "teleprompter", with no capitalization, has become a genericized trademark, because it is used to refer to similar systems manufactured by many different companies. Some other common terms for this type of device are: Autocue, the trademark of Autocue Group Ltd, most commonly used in Commonwealth countries Autoscript is used to brand the devices in the United States cueing device electronic speech notes idiot board (slang) prompter
Modern design
Television
Modern teleprompters for news programs consist of a personal computer, connected to video monitors on each professional video camera. In certain systems, the PC connects to a separate display device to offer greater flexibility in setup, distances, and cabling. The monitors are often black-and-white and have the scanning reversed to compensate for the reflection of the mirror. A peripheral device attached has a knob that can be turned to speed up, slow down, or even reverse the scrolling of the text. The text is usually displayed in white letters on a black background for the best readability, while cues are in inverse video (black on white). Difficult words (mainly international names) are spelled out phonetically, as are other particulars like "Nine-eleven" (to specify that the event 9/11 should not be pronounced "nine-one-one", for example).
With the development of teleprompter software applications, many different disciplines are now using teleprompters.
Presidential (or glass) teleprompters
Glass teleprompters were first used at the 1956 Democratic National Convention. The inventor of the teleprompter, Hubert Schlafly, explained that he wanted to create a less obtrusive teleprompting system than the ones used at the time. He said, "We developed a 'one-way mirror' device we called the Speech View system... The prompter, hidden in the base, reflected the text on the glass to the speaker while the audience looked through the glass without being aware of the text. Two such prompters, one on the right and one on the left of the speaker allowed him to switch from one to the other and appear to address the entire audience".Laurie Brown, The Teleprompter Manual (Pleasant Ridge, Michigan: The Difference Press, 2006), pp. 5–6. .
Schlafly's company then created a speaker's lectern that included two synchronized glass teleprompters and a range of technological innovations including air conditioning and an adjustable-height speaker's platform. The success of the system led the company to develop a new model for use on TV cameras, with the glass placed directly in front of the lens. The camera "looked through the glass; the performer looked directly at the TV audience and was able to read the text word for word. This device now has worldwide use".
Typically, a screen on either side of the speaker shows mirrored text from upward-facing floor monitors at the base of a stand supporting a one-way mirror at the top, angled down towards the screen. The speaker sees the text on the screen reflected in the mirror, while the audience sees what looks like a sheet of tinted glass on each side of the speaker.